Learning in a safe environment

Students at a local secondary and primary school have a new reason to smile. The two buildings have been retrofitted by World Vision.

Kamana, 12, cheerfully explains, “Before the retrofitting was done our classroom walls had several cracks and it appeared unsafe and fragile but now that building has been made safe. Now we get to study without any fear.”

Not only have the retrofitted classrooms directly benefited the school students and teachers but they have also had a positive impact in the local community as many community members’ awareness level about retrofitting and disaster preparedness has significantly increased.

Thaman Bahadur Ranabhat, Principal of Durga Devi Lower Secondary School believes human life and security are of paramount importance. He says, “We are a small school with less than 250 students and just 9 teachers. With our limited financial resources it would have been very hard for us to do the retrofitting on our own. Since the school children spend more than 6 hours a day in the school it is very important that the building has to be retrofitted. Now the guardians feel secure to send their children to our school.”

With our limited financial resources it would have been very hard for us to do the retrofitting on our own.

The retrofitting process was not easy to implement in the beginning as there was a lot of skepticism from members of the local community. Gradually, as the awareness level about retrofitting process increased in the community, local people started understanding and cooperating more.

The importance of retrofitting was most realised by the community after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake of April 25, 2015.

As these two school buildings had been retrofitted before last April there was no damage caused by the earthquake but few other schools in the local community were affected to some extent.

Chaitu, 32, President of Teachers Guardians Committee at Durga Devi Lower Secondary School, says, "Our retrofitted building was completely unaffected by last year’s earthquake which proves that retrofitting is indeed necessary for the school safety.  All schools in Nepal should be retrofitted to promote security of school children as Nepal is an earthquake-prone country."

After the retrofitting process was complete trainings were also provided to school management regarding ways to stay safe during and after a natural disaster.