Himalayan Sherpa School, Hile

Project duration: 2009 until 2018
- Hile, Rawadolu VDC, Okhaldunga -

This project was implemented as a special PHASE Austria project and managed by PHASE Nepal.

This project is due to the personal commitment of Senta Vogl (PHASE Austria Deputy Chair), who got to know this remote village through her long-time guide Tendi Sherpa. The school building was built through the autumn and winter of 2009-10, funded by PHASE Austria. The construction site was donated by the local community.

The school functioned as an “alternative” flexible curriculum school, teaching small children who are not yet able to manage the long walk downhill to the government school in Buktel; one focus was Nepali language, as their mother tongue is a Tibetan language, and goverment schools teach in Nepali.

Over the years, the building was improved; individual donors sponsored glass windows and an improved water supply.

Following the earthquakes of 2015, in which the school was seriously damaged, its reconstruction was funded from PHASE Austria emergency funds. In addition, a project focusing on Integration and Empowerment through Sport was implemented in Rawadolu, the VDC Hile lies in. It also aimed to improve the inclusion of Sherpa children and to enhance solidarity among the different ethnic groups of this very diverse community.

In May 2018, the school was finally taken over by the government, with a permanent teacher employed in Hile. This means the existence of the school is guaranteed for the long term – in particular in view of the political restructuring of Nepal, which gives the local level – where people have a real interest to maintain a school in their community – much more decision-making power and funds.

Himalayan Sherpa School - Hile, Rawadolu VDC, Okhaldunga
School in Hile, February 2016