Undergraduate students from Deakin and RMIT travelled to Nepal in November for a post-disaster* development study tour led by Deakin School of Architecture and Built Environment Senior Lecturer Dr Beau Beza. The rebuilding program revolved around assisting villagers in the Junbesi Valley with the reconstruction and rebuilding works of a school building at the Junbesi High School (a school originally built by Sir Edmund Hillary) and helping with the reconstruction and rebuilding works at the Phungmoche Monastery and Sherpa Language Buddhist School.
As part of the study tour students trekked 5hrs into the village area, engaged with Monks and Head Lamas at two Monasteries in the village area, engaged with the community of Junbesi, trekked to a lookout to view Mt. Everest and participated in a number of local cultural activities and sites.
*On April 25 Nepal was hit by 7.8-magnitude earthquake and a major aftershock with a magnitude 7.3 on May 12. The results have been heartbreaking, with 8,500 people killed and more than 19,000 injured. With respect to property, nearly 500,000 houses and about 6,000 schools were destroyed, with a further 250,000 houses damaged. In total, 8million people have been affected and almost one million children can’t return to school.
