Grant helps rebuild earthquake-hit Nepalese school

A school badly damaged after an earthquake in Nepal's Himalayan mountains has been rebuild thanks to the efforts of a charity and a Manx government grant.

Reopened in October 2025, Shree Jaya Devi school teaches 119 students in the remote district of Lamjung, 6,070ft (1,850m) above sea level.

The work was part-funded by the Isle of Man's International Development Small Grant Scheme, along with Pahar Trust Nepal (PTN), a Manx-registered charity that has supported educational facilities in remote Nepalese communities since 1993.

Honorary president Howard Green said the work showed "a small autonomous island can work on an international stage very successfully".

Founded in 1993, the trust has overseen over 260 projects in Nepal, including restoring and constructing schools, health centres and refurbishments of libraries.

"We set off with this crazy idea to fund a school from the Isle of Man and I think in the very near future we're going to open the fortieth exclusively Manx-funded school in Nepal," Mr Green said.

"We're very proud to have forty Manx flags flying in the Himalayas."

Those who had been through PTN's schools built with the help of Manx grants had gone on to a variety of paths in life, raging from PHD students to plumbers, he said.

The Isle of Man's International Development Small Grant Scheme gives monetary support to Manx-registered charities operating in what the United Nations class as "low development" countries.

Funding of £100,00 in grants is provided spread across two years.

The total cost of rebuilding Shree Jaya Devi was £74,732.

The area in which the school is located was badly impacted by earthquakes in 2015 and again more recently in 2021.

Its headteacher, Shyam Prasa Sapkota said there would be "a lot of uncertainties regarding the future of these children" had the school not been rebuilt.

"We'd be forced to continue classes undertaking huge risks, without knowing what the future holds," he added.

There were reservations from parents about sending their children up the mountain to the school following the earthquakes, leading to potential school dropouts which, according to the trust, could lead to early marriages or leaving the village entirely.

Mr Green, who was previously head teacher at Michael School in Kirk Michael on the Isle of Man, said: "People make schools, buildings only help."

"The way a developing country can flourish is through educating its people, not least of all young ladies who are often deprived of higher education due to cultural reasons."

The Nepalese village of Ghamrang was officially twinned with Kirk Michael village after the ongoing work of Howard Green and the PTN.

During his time as head teacher, he helped fundraise to build a school in the Nepalese village.

He said his ties between his adopted Isle of Man - where he moved to in 1977 to start his teaching career - and Nepal were based both in ancestry and charitability.

"My dad served alongside Gurkha soldiers in the Second World War," he said, "Nepal and Gurkha's have been loyal to Britain since 1815."

PTN itself was formed by Tom Langridge and Chandra Bahadur Gurung, two former engineers in the Queen's Gurkha's.

Green said the president of the National Campaign for Education in Nepal had visited the island "several times".

"He's worked in Manx schools over here, the joined-up [nature] is quite incredible," he said.

"A number of people in Nepal say they dream about the Isle of Man."

The reopening of the rebuilt mountaintop school wasn't complete without new uniforms for the children, and friends of Mr Green from Peel had "provided new sweatshirts with the Isle of Man flag on for every student".

"They're all walking around with the three-legged emblem on," he added.

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