HUM BAHADUR GURUNG DHANYABAD: Sikles school children greet their benefactor, Howard Green and his wife last week.

Twenty years ago, after seeing the dilapidation and neglect of schools in rural Nepal firsthand, ex-Gurkha officers Tom Langridge and Chandra Bahadur Gurung were resolved to rehabilitate them. They opened their first school in Pokharithok, Lamjung, in 1991. Since then, their organisation Pahar Trust has founded 49 schools and village improvement schemes across Nepal.

"The initial idea was to involve ex-Gurkha officers in the development of villages back home," chairman of Pahar Trust, Howard Green says. But now it has gone beyond that. Green is a native of the Isle of Man, a self-governed British island in the Irish Sea with just over 80,000 inhabitants.

Thanks to private donations made by Isle of Man citizens, schools in remote Nepali villages have been built and renovated, classes enhanced and added, and solar panels and computers purchased. Over a hundred students and their families are sponsored under a scholarship scheme. The Isle of Man government has also directly contributed to 25 projects. Students in the Isle of Man have raised thousands of pounds through concerts, parties and other fundraisers.

Pahar Trust continues to strengthen friendship links between its established schools and schools in the UK, facilitating an exchange of ideas and resources between them. Because a majority of the staff at the schools are volunteers, money raised goes directly to fund activities. "No one in the UK is remunerated for the work they do for Pahar Nepal," Green says.

Four ex-Queen's Gurkha engineers aided in the design and construction of the schools. The local community has participated as well, providing free labour for construction, while carrying building materials to manage the schools and its resources. So a strong sense of ownership exists in the community.

"It is not often just a school that we leave when we go back. These villages are too far and too less a priority for the government to take any notice of. But when the villagers realise they can do something meaningful like building a school, they are encouraged to take up other projects," Green says.

Pahar Trust used to focus on school buildings, but is now shifting to improving the quality of instruction. By moving from hardware to software, Pahar Trust aims to involve students from Nepal itself to help out their less-privileged counterparts.

Green says: "If children from Isle of Man can work for children in Nepal there is no reason why better-placed students at city schools can't do the same."

www.pahar-trust.org

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Self-portrait of Sikles