Opportunity For All

Opportunity For All works with both buildON and Room to Read build schools in Nepal. Opportunity for All has built 29 schools in Nepal to date with 17 of those being funded directly and the remaining 12 being funded through our match program.

Sandwiched between the giants of India and China, the small country of Nepal is home to eight of the ten highest mountains in the world, including the greatest of them all—Mount Everest. Most Nepalese live in the rocky plains and valleys that sit in the shadows of the towering Himalayas or the remote southern flatlands of the Tarai, where transportation infrastructure is scarce and the terrain is challenging, even by foot.

A child growing up in Nepal faces some of the worst living conditions in the world. Roughly 50% of Nepalese live in poverty – on less than US$1 a day. Of every 100 children in Nepal, 84 live in villages, 47 are malnourished, and 40 belong to extremely poor families. While the country's educational system has made a great deal of progress in a very short time, there is still much to be done. Many government schools are in bad physical shape and extremely underfunded, especially in the countryside. Although primary education is free, government schools are often inadequate and overcrowded. Many schools in remote areas are very basic and even sometimes unsafe. Often these schools have no blackboard and very little furniture. Even supplementary materials like libraries, children's books, and computer labs are rare.

During the past 14 years, buildOn has constructed a total of 107 schools including 54 six-classroom units with two-room toilets, and 17 three-classroom schools with two-room toilets. Room to Read works in close partnership with the government in Nepal. Since 1998, it has built or consulted on the building of 1012 schools.