Kopila Valley School Wins International School Award
Tuesday, January 30, 2024
SURKHET, NEPAL – Kopila Valley School has been honored for its outstanding education and community development work with an International School Award, announced last week. This award recognizes the school’s efforts to provide food access to students and the community, as a means to improve learning outcomes and the quality of life for children.
The International School Awards are distributed to schools that are supporting at least one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), rooting Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice (DEIJ) into their work, and supporting the K-12 schools community.
Kopila Valley focuses its Food and Farming program on SDG 2: Zero Hunger. This initiative is one part of the school’s overall Sustainability Program, which has earned it the term “the greenest school in Nepal.” Sustainability efforts include an environmentally-friendly campus used as a teaching tool, place-based learning and gardening integrated into the school’s curriculum, a daily healthy school lunch for over 500 students and staff, and partnership with a local group of women farmers who are using organic practices.
Sustainability Coordinator Sunita Bhandari, who oversees the school’s sustainability efforts and curriculum, says, “Sustainability is one of our core foundational values, and it’s represented across all of our programs. We’re working to make Kopila Valley School a model for sustainable systems.”
With the recognition of this new award, Kopila Valley School continues to showcase its progress as a full-service community school. The school is also expanding its work by sharing successful practices with other regional schools for the benefit of children across Nepal.
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Organized by ISC Research in January every year, and followed by the international schools community, media and associations, the International School Awards spotlight inspiring initiatives developed and run by international school leaders, educators and students.
Kopila Valley School is a program of the BlinkNow Foundation. BlinkNow provides an education and a loving, caring home for children without homes, impoverished and at-risk children. The foundation also provides community outreach to reduce poverty, empower women, improve health, and encourage sustainability and social justice - it fulfills its mission by providing financial support and management oversight to the Kopila Valley Children's Home and Kopila Valley School in Surkhet, Nepal. In addition to the home and school, Kopila Valley runs a Health & Wellness program, Women's Center, Home for At-Risk Students, Futures Career Readiness Program, and integrated Sustainability Program across all initiatives.