The Korphe school sits on donated land above the Braldu River
mud as the heavy rains and jeep tires churn
the dirt. In the winter, the road is buried in
snow and ice making it all but impassable.
More than two decades ago, Greg
Mortenson traversed the rough terrain and
fell in love with the Shangri-La-esque town
nestled precariously between the craggy
peaks.
At the time Mortenson was simply a nurse
with a fully developed sense of adventure.
But his encounter with the town’s 82 children
“kneeling on the frosty ground, in the open,”
scratching their lessons in the dirt would
change the course of his life forever. He decided to build a school.
Although he faced many challenges, several
years later Mortenson completed the project.
For the first time ever, Korphe’s children had
a school.
CentralAsiaInstitute.org
THE NEXT PHASE IN KORPHE
EDUCATION
Over the next few years the community
flourished and enrollment at the new school
grew by leaps and bounds. The student
body eventually became so large that village
elders asked for additional classrooms. The
school had reached capacity, with close to
200 students from Korphe and the surrounding towns of Munjong, Teste, Askole, Sino,
Tsurungo, and Tongol packed into the small
structure. Even taking class in shifts, boys in
the morning and girls in the afternoon, was
not enough.
Consequently, last spring CAI set out
to raise funds for an expansion. Thanks to
your generous contributions we were able
to build an extension – four new classrooms,
an office for teachers, a boundary wall, and a
playground.
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