The new Usthi education project in Nepal should start in spring 2020. Usthi was already looking forward to cooperating with the local partner organisation. After the successful renovation of the school infrastructure, Covid-19 has unfortunately delayed the further development of the project.

Both at the end of 2019 and during the visit at the beginning of 2020, the project setup of a new educational project in Nepal was planned with our partner organisation Unnati and the framework conditions were agreed upon. The first steps were taken at the beginning of the year with the renovation of school infrastructure. Subsequently, the next phase was to start, during which the target group and the schools to be supported in the future were to be selected.

But already during the project visit by Kurt Bürki in March 2020 it was clear that the project would not start as planned. Shortly afterwards, Covid-19 became a global issue and Nepal also imposed a lockdown despite a relatively low number of cases. This also meant a forced pause for the start-up phase of the education project.

According to our local partner, there is currently no prospect of a complete easing of the lockdown. In addition, the number of cases is currently rising sharply, which also diminishes hopes of a soon return to normality. Travel to the project region is currently only possible to a limited extent. The state has now imposed new conditions on the education sector, which must be integrated into the project.

The exact start of the project can currently only be speculated. A delay until the end of the year is unfortunately not unlikely. Usthi hopes to be able to continue the project shortly and thus support young people in Nepal in their schooling and education as soon as possible.