Manisha UK - Supporting Schools In Nepal Since 2010

We support 10 schools, 120 teachers and 2000 children in poor, rural communities of western Nepal:

• We fund and project manage school building and facilities improvement projects.

• We deliver teacher training programmes .

• We twin the schools with UK schools for ongoing educational and cultural exchange.

• We assist with basic healthcare at all schools:

  • Provide first aid kits to all schools and sanitary towels to secondary schools,

  • Provide basic healthcare assessments on pupils,

  • Provide assistance if parents can't afford or access essential treatment.

Supporting and encouraging education for all

• Supporting and encouraging education for all in poor, rural communities in Nepal is vital to Manisha UK.

• As well as having to be situated in poor rural communities, it is a condition of support that schools offer open access by being non-fee paying, and also offer equal opportunities to boys and girls.

• With our Infrastructure and Education programmes well established, we are looking for volunteers and partners to help accelerate the delivery of our Healthcare and Sustainability objectives.

• If you can assist us in any way with these programmes, please get in touch via the Contact Us button below.

• The simplest way to help is to make a donation via the Donate Now button below.

2022/23 Update

Sometimes we have to look back to 2010, when we founded Manisha UK, to understand the embedded improvements at some of our supported schools and communities. Back then, every school required our direct help to source, buy and maintain all aspects of school life, from buildings and meals to stationery and uniforms.

Mahachaap, Okhuldunga and Ghorkha schools are great examples of the huge progress made since then.

• At Okhaldunga: the school now works directly with third parties we have previously introduced to our schools. Recent improvements here include the addition of a science lab (funded by the local district council), enabling some of our science teacher training to be better put to use. Additionally, the school now has a 4,000 book library, building on our original investment and funded by Room to Read.

Poverty in the local community appears to be diminishing and as part of our annual inspections, we identified only a few of its 250 pupils requiring uniform and stationery assistance this year.

• At Mahachaap: Again, poverty in the local community appears to be diminishing and as part of our annual inspections, we identified only a few of its 200 pupils requiring uniform and stationery assistance this year.

• In all, we assisted 65 of the 450 pupils at these schools with uniform and stationery.

• At Ghorkha: After 12 years, devastation from the 2015 earthquake and a huge input from ourselves, local community and national government. Ghorkha school has achieved the goal we've set for all of our schools: to be independent of us in their ability to provide education for all in their community.

We are immensely proud to have been involved in their journey to sustainable education for their community and wish them well for the future as we bring our support for their school to a close.

Delivering Major Projects:

2021/22 - LRC Handover

• Our 5-year plan for the LRC was to identify which organisation in the community would be best able to maintain and run the LRC in the long-term.

• After much discussion and careful selection, we identified a long established Pokhara based non-profit organisation, called Children Nepal, as the organisation most in line with the ethos of the LRC and the most likely to secure its long-term future.

• In June 2021, we completed the move of facilities and staff training to enable the good work to carry on in support of street children and vulnerable adults of Pokhara. Giving them much needed education and life-skills to enable them to gain employment.

2019/20 - Toilet Facilities

• In 2019 we identified several schools in need of toilet refurbishment. With the outbreak of Covid-19, the need for proper handwashing facilities gave this project greater urgency.

• Delivery of this project was delayed due to Covid-19 restrictions on movement and resources. However, in early 2021 we were able to complete:

  • A new boys' toilet block at Bhalebas school.

  • A new staff and children's toilet block at Amrit (Anghakola) school.

2018/19 - Learning Resource Centre (LRC)

• • With the financial support of the Steve Sinnott Foundation, we built, equipped and staffed the Tansen Learning Resource Centre (LRC).

  • The LRC provides a permanent home for our teacher training programme, our IT training programme and a community literacy facility.

  • Our 5-year plan is to identify a community organisation capable and willing to take on and run the LRC to give it a long-term future beyond our 5-year support commitment

2017/18 - Libraries for all

• • Few schools had libraries and even fewer had age or subject appropriate books in the Nepali language. Children were not encouraged to loan the books and take them home to practice reading.

  • Working with Australian charity, Room to Read, we established well-stocked, working libraries at each school.

  • The libraries were stocked with Nepali language, age appropriate books. In several schools, the pupils, rather than the staff, were trained how to classify books and how to run the loan process.

2015/17 - Earthquake Recovery

• • In March 2015, earthquakes devastated our schools. Of the 10 we support, 5 were destroyed, 4 damaged and 1 (Pipal Danda) was unscathed, having been rebuilt to be earthquake proof.

  • Huge fundraising efforts by Manisha UK supporters and our subsequent rebuild projects saw all schools back functional by early 2017.

2010/15 - Adequate schools for basic education

• • Our early years achievements were mainly improving the basic infrastructure of our supported schools. this meant ensuring a safe environment with basic toilets, hand washing facilities and running water.

  • Working with the Steve Sinnott Foundation, we also delivered the complete rebuild of the 8-classroom Pipal Danda school, which also had provision for up to 6 community shops to help fund the school sustainably.