People Behind the Project

Who had the idea to build the Learning Centre? 

I met Sam and Joe, who are shown in the photos, on my trip to Nepal in 2019. They have been involved in the building of a number of previous learning centres. I understand that there have been eight constructed so far. Initially Sam was the main person involved but in recent years Joe has been heavily involved. The earlier learning centres were of quite weak construction. By contrast, the Nagarjun learning centre has been built on a deep solid concrete foundation, is heavily reinforced with steel and concret, and is brick built with a plastic roof. It has a separate toilet block with two Nepalese and one Western toilets. Saldum village is where his family came from and his grandmother still lives in the village. He is well placed to identify local needs and interact with the local people to understand their needs.

They quickly gained my respect and trust as I watched them interact with children in Nepal. They were my tour guides during my trip. During this visit I took videos. In these videos they talked passionately about their lives and their determination to make a difference and improve the lives and prospects of young people in Nepal. I have extracted extracts from some of these videos to help people understand what Sam and Joe are trying to achieve and present them elsewhere on this website.

Joe’s father Ganesh Simkhada is well known in the tourist industry in Nepal and his mother Bimala is the Principal of a secondary school. Both have been very supportive of their charitable work.

I have put together some little clips of conversations I had with Sam and Joe about Nepal, the needs of the young people, and about their own education and viewpoint. They also talked about the impact of the 2015 earthquake.

In this video we visit Sam’s home city of Bhaktapur.

Her and Joe give me a tour of the old city.

We see her in the cafe which she and a friend set up to raise money for charitable projects.

Her and her friend describe the day of the 2015 earthquake and the amount of damage and loss of life.

Shreejan Simkhada (Joe) in Bhaktapur

Samjhana Basulala in Bhaktapur