10K Run for Nepal Earthquake Relief

Sri Bhawani Vidyapeeth Higher Secondary School is the oldest school in the district of Parbat and the second oldest in Dhaulagiri Zone. Then in 1953, it started as a Pathashala providing education in the primary level and was elevated to the secondary level in 1964, the year its first batch of students appeared at the SLC final examination. It was upgraded to higher secondary level almost a decade earlier, in which faculties of education, management and science are running. Science program is the latest in operation, whose second batch of students sat for the HSEB Final Examination of Grade XII in June 2015.

A premier educational institution was set up in Phalewash, a village that lies at the distance of approximately 70 kilometers to the south-west of Pokhara. It is about 10 kilometers farther to the south of district headquarters, Kusma.  About 3000 students have so far graduated from the school and a significant number of talented students from the rural areas in the districts of Parbat and Baglung are still flocking to this school because of science program at the +2 level.

Based on performance in the SLC Examination in 2013 the school was awarded a cash prize of five hundred thousand rupees ($5000) by the government of Nepal and its science results in the last three examinations have been worthy of mention obtaining as high as 95% success rate.

The school management, the local community leaders, teachers are effortful to ensure that the school maintains its good teaching standards and in this vein they have envisioned to hire young energetic dedicated teachers to start English medium instruction from the primary level this year.

Being a public school of the rural area the school is faced with enormous challenges running science program because of mainly the lack of qualified teachers who are not available locally. The former students of the school have donated generously for the school to help conduct science classes.

Despite the above the school has been struggling to mobilize resources from wherever possible and such endeavors have worryingly been dealt a severe blow by the April 25 earthquake that has damaged the primary bloc building forcing students to attend classes in the open field.

Considering the onset of rainy season the children of the primary classes have been deprived of their right to education and hence the school management board has appealed to all of us to make contributions to assist in rebuilding of the school.

In response to this genuine appeal and realizing my own moral responsibility as one of the former students, I have decided to participate in the 10K run being organized by the City of O’Fallon on September 13 2015 to raise funds that will be utilized for the reconstruction of the cracked school building.