Chris gave a very interesting talk on Life in Rural Nepal and the Pahar Trust. Nepal is the size of England and Wales and lies north of India. Although it has the highest mountain it also has flat land in the south.

In 1990 two friends, both Warrant Officers in the Queen’s Gurkha Engineers, had come to the end of their service in the army.  They were Tom Langridge and Chandra Bahadur Gurung.  Tom asked Chandra what he could do to repay the wonderful friendship and hospitality that he had received from the Nepalese people and Chandra told him that his village had no school.  What education Chandra had received had taken place under the tree in the middle of the village.  In 1991 they built a school in Chandra’s village after Tom had raised the necessary funds. Realising that this was a really good idea as so many villages lacked schools, they set up the Pahar Trust Nepal as a registered charity in 1993.

Today the Trust continues its work and builds new schools, refurbishes old school buildings – especially earthquake damaged schools – changes old classrooms into modern nursery and library facilities, provides modern science and IT facilities, builds health posts and it is estimated that the Trust has impacted on the life of over 250,000 children.

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Article by Carol Hitchmough with thanks.