Sarsyu, Nepal

In 2015, Nepal got hit with a devastating earthquake that destroyed much of their homes and infrastructure. The town of Sarsyu is still working to rebuild, and was especially affected by damages to the local school. Currently, students are walking hours to go to school in overcrowded facilities. We are working with an NGO called Elevate Nepal, which is rebuilding the school, on a project to provide electricity and/or water, depending on the needs. We are aiming to give the 700 students that will attend it a safe place where they can focus on learning.

In January 2019, the Nepal project sent a travel team of 4 student members and 2 faculty advisors to Sarsyu for an assessment and the first trip of the program. The team met with Dan Maurer, the NGO contact for Elevate Nepal, who traveled with them while they spent five days in the community gathering information to make an informed decision about how the program would be moving forward. Time in the village was spent interviewing residents about their needs, mapping out current infrastructure and home locations to find water demand, doing water testing, collecting elevation data, and meeting with community stakeholders. While there, the team learned about a potential government project which would potentially meet the same needs the planned project was hoping to address. The Nepal program is currently on hold as we communicate with the community, NGO, and EWB-USA to determine the best course of action.