Schoolchildren donate pocket money for Nepal flood victims

Even as international and domestic assistance continues to pour in, for some schoolchildren in Nepal, helping victims of the devastating floods has meant giving up a snack, emptying a small savings box or parting with a few rupees from their pocket money.

As images of homes swept away, families separated, and schools damaged by the Bhotekoshi flood in Rasuwa continue to appear on television round the clock, children far from the disaster zone have found their own way to respond -- by sharing whatever little they have.

At Shodasha Secondary School in Mangalsen Municipality-5 of Achham, the idea came from ninth-grader Yunik KC, The Kathmandu Post news portal reported.

When members of the student-led child club, which represents around 1,500 students, met on Monday to discuss the farewell of a retired head teacher, Yunik suggested that they do something for children affected by the floods.

They decided to collect donations for children who had lost their homes, relatives or access to education.

"I felt that even if we did not have much money, we could still do something," Yunik was quoted as saying by the news portal.

Yunik said that they went to all the classrooms in the school asking for voluntary contributions. The donations they received ranged between NPR 5 and NPR 500, with some giving up money they would normally spend on snacks.

"For some of us, it meant using the money we would normally spend on snacks so that it could help students affected by the flood," the report quoted a Grade 10 student, Laxmi Shahi, as saying.

Those who lost their loved ones in the disaster also contributed.

"Seven friends who have lost their parents also contributed. We wanted to help students like us," Shahi said.

  The child club collected NPR  8,785 on the first day and NPR 5,470 on the second, taking the total to NPR 14,255. The money was deposited into the Prime Minister's Relief Fund through Rastriya Banijya Bank on Wednesday, teacher Dhan Kumar KC said.

"A contribution is not big or small," KC said, adding that the students themselves took the initiative to collect relief.

"I have only been facilitating them," he added. 

The gesture was repeated at Pragatisheel Basic School in Mangalsen-1, where students donated money meant for one day's snacks. Teacher Himmat Bahadur Rawal said they collected NPR 585, which was deposited into a relief fund.

In Kapilvastu, nine-year-old Somya Upadhyay, a Grade 5 student at Rastriya Janahit Secondary School in Dharmanpaniya, asked her parents for NPR 20 more than usual for snacks on Wednesday. She then donated NPR 50 she received that day.

Seven-year-old Radhika Kohar, a Grade 3 student at the same school, donated NPR 30. Both girls skipped their snacks and put the money into a donation box.

Their gesture was followed by classmates, who contributed between NPR 5 and NPR 100 after the morning assembly, raising NPR 10,050, which was later deposited into the Prime Minister's Natural Disaster Relief Fund.

Headmaster Raj Kumar Kohar said more than 200 of the school's 350 students contributed.

"The students made the collection box themselves and went from classroom to classroom asking their friends to contribute," The Kathmandu Post reported Kohar as saying. 

In Rautahat district, 26 students of Prempur Gonahi Secondary School in Dewahi Gonahi Municipality-7 pooled NPR 5 and NPR 10 portions of their snack money and deposited NPR 470 into the Prime Minister's Relief Fund.

Head teacher Mukesh Yadav said the students' gesture showed that distance could not prevent people from sharing another community's pain.

"Geography may keep people apart, but suffering is shared," Yadav said. -- PTI