Local Rotarian makes a huge difference in Nepal

Members of the Rotary Club of Market Rasen were recently treated to an interesting presentation by Rotarian Alli Cowell, from the Rotary Club of Skegness, who shared her story of a very personal journey to Nepal – and how a passion for volunteering has developed into an ongoing Rotary project supporting children and communities in some of the country’s most remote areas.

This presentation was made all the more pertinent given the tragic flooding that the country has just been hit by.

Alli first travelled to Nepal in 2019. She had heard that while the tourist areas had been rebuilt after the devastating 2015 earthquake, many remote villages in the mountains had been left behind. Schools were unsafe, community buildings had collapsed, and families were still struggling to recover. She went prepared to roll up her sleeves, but what she found has changed her life forever.

She spent eleven days living with a host family in the Mustard Mountains, repairing and painting the village school by day and sharing village life in the evenings — milking cows, fetching water, cooking on an open stove and teaching the family card games. She couldn’t speak the language, and they couldn’t speak hers, yet the children’s faces as they watched the work on their school made every blister worthwhile.

It was that year that she met two remarkable local men, Baloo (Balaram Bista) and Sarki (Samten Sherpa). Both come from remote villages themselves.

In 2024 the Skegness club was looking for an international project to support. Alli reached out to her friends in Nepal to see if they knew of anything they could help with. The result was repairing, priming and painting classrooms at The Shree Patle School. Materials had to be driven 14 hours into the mountains. The work was completed in four days. The club’s donation paid for two classrooms. The project was such a success a private donation from one member funded the painting of the remaining classrooms in the block.

Then in 2025 came the bigger idea. The Skegness Club had already agreed to support Coats 4 Kids in Skegness so they thought why not create a mirror project in Nepal? They use the strap line of making a difference in Skegness and Worldwide, so this was a perfect idea. Baloo and Sarki identified Shree Krishna Basic School in the Godavari valley — a free community school serving five surrounding villages. Some of the children walk nearly two hours each way. Classrooms have no heating or electricity. In winter the cold and inadequate footwear mean many simply cannot attend. Families struggle to buy even basic exercise books; without them a child cannot come to school. The school feeds 74 pupils on roughly £4.50 a day.

The club delivered a brand-new warm, waterproof coat with the school logo for every child (plus a few spares), toothbrushes, toothpaste and soap for every pupil, exercise books so no child would be turned away, a swing and slide for the playground and a safety fence. As a result of Alli’s visit it also sparked the local government to provide a proper sink with running water in the school too. The total cost was just over £2,700, made possible with generous support from Spilsby and Alford & Mablethorpe Rotary Clubs.

As Alli put it so clearly: “Our money does not disappear into administration, it becomes coats, learning materials, opportunity, improvement, legacy.”

And just as importantly: “Our role is not to impose solutions on these communities, but it is to work with them to help them to achieve what they already aspire to be.”

This year the Rotary Club of Skegness wants to return to both schools. At Shree Krishna they plan to repair and paint the interior walls — bringing colour and a sense of warmth into classrooms — fit suspended ceilings in three rooms to stop the rain dripping on the children, and lay soft flooring in the babies’ room. Local villagers will be paid to do the painting work, so the benefit spreads wider still.

At The Patle School they hope to improve the second block of classrooms with better flooring, insulation, suspended ceilings and basic wall repairs — again working hand-in-hand with the school management committee and parents, who have already committed to providing local labour and ongoing maintenance.

These are both practical, cost-effective improvements that keep children in school, improve their health and concentration, and give them a better chance of gaining the school-leavers’ certificate that can open doors out of poverty.

If you are able to help financially, the clubs would love to hear from you.