The Lions Women Skill Training Centre (LWSTC) is located in the village of Odari, which in turn belongs to the Kapilvastu district near the border with India. The population mainly makes a living from agriculture. The rice fields are numerous and in one of them is the school that was ready for inauguration at the end of March 2007. This area is about 200 meters above sea level, unlike Kathmandu which is about 1500 meters above sea level. In the far north are most of the world's 10 highest peaks, including Mount Everest.
There was already a school in the village of Odari that had been built with Swedish support, called Skylark International School. It was therefore natural that the vocational school planned by Lions would end up right next to Skylark. District Governor Åke Björkman, Lions District 101SV, coordinated the efforts with great support from, above all, Claes Löfstedt, Anette Axelsson and Jan Gustafsson. Temba Lama led the project on site in Nepal with a tight rein. Finally, it was there, the Lions Women Skill Training Centre, ready to be inaugurated.
17 Swedes traveled with Claes Löfstedt as tour guide to Nepal. We saw the majestic school from afar, even before we reached Odari. They had erected tents for us to live in outside the school. Our presence created curiosity, not least among the children who gathered in our little tent city.
On March 18, 2007, the inauguration took place. The guests came from near and far and in large numbers. The splendor of color was enormous. The schoolchildren from Skylark wore school uniforms and especially the women spread the inauguration splendor in their beautiful dresses. The speeches were long and solemn. We had been given a place in the middle of the hot and sunlit grandstand.
It is traditional to build portals like this at parties or other celebrations such as inaugurations.
We Swedes were therefore seated in a place of honor and were allowed to participate in the opening ceremony. I don't think anyone in our traveling party could have anticipated the enormous excitement surrounding the opening. Each of us was given the honor of presenting gifts to the admitted students.
The students from the neighboring school were very curious about the 20 guests who were living in tents outside the school.
That the Nepalese thought the school's inauguration was solemn is evident in their colorful clothing.
We got to know the Nepalese who built and administered the school until it was completed. They had fought hard in wind and rain to build the tall school building.
After many long, and partly translated, speeches, it was time for Åke Björkman to unveil the memorial plaque in shiny, polished brass. When the cover fell, not a single Swedish eye was dry. We felt great pride and a real sense of belonging to the Nepalese.
Åke Björkman, district governor from Lions, unveils the memorial plaque.
During the fall semester of 2007, the education began on a broad front.
Nepal is about a third of the area of Sweden. At the very top of the north are the Himalayas with 8 of the world's 10 highest mountain peaks. At the very south (above the name "India" in the picture), between Lumbini and Butwal, lies LWSTC. In the middle of the fertile farmland we find the school, built like a "U". You can see the school on the Google image below this text.
