2017The first scholarships
Five students across two schools in remote Tanahun District: Himalaya School and Shree Sahid Krishna School.
Nepal flood, August 2026
The flood took 18 schools. The children are still here.
They went in Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading on 26 August 2026, with 20 more schools damaged. UNICEF counts 17,000+ children affected, around 10,000 of them needing help to carry on learning. Swotah is funding two of those children in full, to the end of +2, out of trip revenue. With help we want that number to be 50 or more.
18
Schools destroyed in Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading
20
Further schools damaged and out of use
17,000+
Children affected, on UNICEF's count of 28 August 2026
10,000
Of them need help to carry on learning at all
August 2026
The Rasuwa flood, and what it did to schools
On 26 August 2026 a surge came down the Bhotekoshi into the Trishuli and hit Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading. Roughly 50,000 people were affected. Casualty counts differ by source and by date: UNICEF reported an estimated 332 dead on 28 August 2026, including at least 14 children, while Nepal Police's confirmed toll, which we keep updated on our Rasuwa flood situation report, is higher and counts differently. This section is only about the schools.
50,000
People affected along the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli corridor
332
Dead on UNICEF's estimate of 28 August 2026; the police count is higher
14
Children among the dead, at least, on the same count
USD 17.2m
UNICEF emergency appeal for health, water, education and child protection
The schools that were hit
Nepal's education ministry put the damage at 20 schools across Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading in its first count. A separate, earlier tally of the Bhotekoshi corridor alone recorded eight schools hit in Rasuwa and Nuwakot, seven of them in Rasuwa. Four of them:
- Timure Community SchoolTimure, RasuwaExtensively damaged. Timure was one of the worst hit villages on the river.
- Uttargaya SchoolUttargaya Rural Municipality, RasuwaDamaged. Students got out of the building on foot as the water came through.
- Tribhuvan Trishul Secondary SchoolBidur Municipality-5, NuwakotFilled with mud and silt. Extensive physical damage to the school premises.
- Trishuli Community Boarding SchoolNuwakotReported three students missing.
What 10,000 children need next
Around 10,000school-aged children need help to carry on learning, on UNICEF's assessment of 28 August 2026. The immediate needs are temporary learning spaces and replacement supplies, which is emergency work for agencies with logistics behind them, and UNICEF has appealed for USD 17.2m to cover it through early recovery.
The slower problem is the one that outlasts the appeal. A child whose school is gone and whose family has lost its house does not usually drop out in September. They drop out two years later, when the fees restart and there is nothing to pay them with. That gap is small enough for a company our size to do something useful about, and it is the gap everything below this point is aimed at.
Figures from UNICEF's flash appeal of 28 August 2026and Nepal's Ministry of Education, reported by the Kathmandu Post and OnlineKhabar. Counts moved daily in the first week; every number above carries the date it was reported on. Route and trip status is on current trip status.
What we are starting
At least two children, fully funded, to the end of +2
Two children is where we are starting, and the commitment runs to the end of their +2, which is grade 12. We are naming a small number deliberately. A pledge to help “as many children as possible” costs nothing to make and cannot be checked. Two children carried the whole way is a number we can fund out of trip revenue in a bad year as well as a good one, and it is a number anyone can hold us to.
Full funding means the total cost of staying in school, not a contribution towards it:
- School and college fees, every year to the end of +2
- Uniform, shoes and a bag
- Books, stationery and exam materials
- Exam and registration fees
- Transport to school where distance is the obstacle
- A household stipend, so the child is not needed as an earner
The school decides, not us
Selection runs through the school and the local ward. We ask them to identify children whose education is at risk for reasons of the flood specifically, and we take their judgement on need.
No child is put on display
We do not publish children's names, photographs or family circumstances, and we do not ask sponsors to correspond with a child. A sponsor gets a yearly account of what was spent.
Two is a floor, not a target
Every additional child is funded the same way, out of trip revenue and from people who pay for a place directly. That is where the number below comes from.
Where we want this to get to
2 funded by Swotah now50+ the aim, with help
Two children is what we can carry on our own in a bad year as well as a good one. Fifty is closer to what the flood actually calls for, and we will not reach it out of trip revenue alone. A place funded by someone else buys exactly what ours does: fees, uniform, books, exams and transport, to the end of +2. Fund one, or part of one, using the first form below.
Why this page exists
What does a trekking company owe the valleys it sells?
A trekking company earns its living from other people's home ground. The valleys that make the itineraries worth buying are the valleys the staff come from.
Swotah Travel and Adventure has run trips out of Kathmandu since 2009, when Ajay Kumar Shrestha started the company from a small office in Golfutar with three guides. Sixty-plus staff work here now, hired locally rather than per trip. The arrangement that follows from that is simple enough to state in one line: a fixed share of every trip goes back into the schools those communities use.
Our responsible travel policy sets out the operating rules and the company history covers how the business got here. This page is about the money, where it lands, and what changed in August.
How it is funded
Where the money goes
Between 5 and 10 per cent of every trip price is committed to schooling before anything else is allocated. It is costed into the itinerary at the point of pricing, which is not the same thing as a donation made at the end of a good year.
Costed in, not left over
Because the share is priced into the trip rather than paid out of profit, the programme ran through 2020, when borders were shut and the company was also holding salaries for 60-plus staff through 18 months of no trips.
Paid to the school
Fees, uniforms, books, stationery and exam costs are paid to the school rather than to families. It keeps the accounting simple and ties the payment to attendance, which is the point of it.
Or paid nowhere near us
The Millennium Homestay Trek works the other way round. Ten Newari communities host the trek and take the accommodation and food revenue directly, so the trip is the transfer rather than a levy on it.
The record
What we have funded since 2017
Nine programmes since 2017, starting with five students at two schools in remote Tanahun District. Each one is written up in full, with names, budgets and photographs, on the corporate social responsibility page.
2017
2018Scholarship 2018
USD 600 divided among seven students. A client, Carole, added bags, notebooks and drawing materials worth a further USD 300.
2019Swotah Scholarship 2019
A USD 500 round, again for students from remote villages.
2022Scholarship 2022
USD 500, as trips restarted after the border closures.
2023Trip for a Trip
With Responsible Travel: community-school children from Shuklagandaki taken to Pokhara, most of them seeing the city for the first time.
2024Humanitarian Aid and Scholarship
Funded by four clients, Dipalie, Jayshree, Punita and Shilpa, who turned a Kailash Mansarovar trip into a giving round.
2025Swotah Scholarship 2025
Two students at Sahid Krishna Madhyamik Bidhyalaya, Suklagandaki-3, Tanahun, on a USD 500 budget.
2025Trip for a Trip (T4T)
On 2 May, 80 students aged 10 to 15 from Shree Diwas Secondary School.
2026Trip for a Trip (T4T)
The latest run with Responsible Travel, taking community-school students to places of historical and natural significance.
How we operate
Responsible tourism, in practice
Responsible tourism is a set of operating rules that costs the operator money, or it is a line in a brochure. Ours are specific enough to be checked, and the volunteering and giving back page covers the one we get asked about most.
01
Local staff, on staff terms
60-plus staff are employed locally rather than hired per trip. Guides and crew come from the valleys the itineraries cross, which is also why the schooling money goes where it goes.
02
Zero single-use plastic, and the Trash Man rule
Treks run without single-use plastic, and the Trash Man programme is a collection routine built into operations rather than an annual clean-up event. Crews carry out what the group carries in.
03
Homestay revenue paid direct
On the Millennium Homestay Trek, ten Newari communities take the accommodation and food revenue themselves. The trip is the transfer rather than a levy collected on top of it.
04
We do not sell volunteer placements
Paid volunteering places tourists in roles that local people need, and orphanage volunteering causes documented harm. We would rather say so and lose the booking.
Two ways to help
Fund a place, or tell us about a child who needs one
Fund a child's schooling
This form is for anyone who wants to pay for a place, in full or in part, and for companies looking at it as CSR. Tell us roughly what you have in mind and we will come back with what a full place costs per year and exactly what it covers.
There is no minimum and no obligation from the enquiry. If you would rather talk it through first, contact us or email info@swotahtravel.com.
What a sponsor gets. A yearly account of what was spent and how the child is doing at school, written by us. No names, no photographs, and no correspondence with the child.
Tell us about a child who needs a place
This form is for people who know a child whose schooling is at risk because of the flood: teachers, school staff, ward officials, community organisations and neighbours. Every nomination is passed to the school named below for verification before anything else happens.
Please do not send the child's name, photograph or family details.Give us your own contact details, the district and the school, and a short description of the situation. We take it from there privately, through the school. A public form is the wrong place for a minor's identifying information, and we would rather ask you twice than hold it.