Support Group

The Friends of Sermathang is a UK based support group which has grown out of volunteers and friends who have either worked in or visited the Yangrima Boarding School and the village of Sermathang in the Helambu region of Nepal. We were initailly started after our chairman's son worked at the school, and the chairman visited him. The original volunteers came from the GAP Activity Projects scheme which places people in their gap year (year off before university) in projects around the world. The Project is managed by Anthony Lunch and Gopal Lama.

Recently the GAP involvement with the school ended, as under Nepali regulations they must rotate the schools to which volunteers are sent. This left a potential hole in the school, as the children would no longer be able to benefit from the experience of being taught by the volunteers. The support group stepped in, and as well as raising funds for the school, they have started a programme for ensuring that volunteers keep coming to help out at Yangrima. You can find out more about this in the volunteer section of the site.

We have provided a message to visitors to the school. This is available for trekkers who visit the school as part of their trek on the Helambu circuit. There are also two short video clips available. They need you to have Real player on your computer to view them.

• View the Introduction to Sermathang Video.
• View a video of Anthony Lunch, the Chairman of the Friends of Sermathang, talking about the project.