The Hundred Nepal

Where we stand · 15 September 2026

The Hundred Nepal is a diaspora-led effort to fund schooling for children displaced by the Bhote Koshi flood. Each supporter pledges annually for as long as it takes the cohort to finish school. This note brings together what we have learned from everyone who has given us their time, and is shared back with them.

Everything here comes from conversations we have had with people working on this, and from reports they have shared with us. It reflects what we understand today, and much of it is still changing. No funds have been collected.

In short

The first counts have arrived, but they are not yet reliable. The National Child Rights Council's rapid assessment gives us numbers for the first time, but flags inconsistent records at shelters and data that still needs verification
What it does show is that there are distinct groups of children with very different needs: those who lost both parents, those separated from families, those moved to monasteries in Kathmandu with no records, children with disabilities, and children still with their families but out of school
Government has committed substantial support, including free education through Grade 12 with accommodation in Bagmati, and a Scholarship Bank pooling contributions from agencies, charities and individuals. How these will work in practice is still unclear
Almost everyone we've spoken to has said the same three things: don't rush; keep children with families rather than institutions; and fund fewer children properly rather than many partially
So for now, we're doing two things: working out which group of children we are best placed to serve, and building one framework to assess every potential partner the same way. We haven't chosen either yet, and no money has been collected or deployed

218 people signed up | $28,000+ committed annually

What we know about the situation

Most schools are gone, sheltering survivors, or unable to reopen

32 schools were affected and 19 completely damaged across Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading, as settlements around them were swept away
9,400 students were enrolled in the completely damaged schools. 3,928 are recorded as directly affected, 488 are still missing, and five have died
Some schools left standing are being used as shelters, so they cannot hold classes either
In at least two villages, people had already been sending their children together to boarding schools near Kathmandu. That group is still enrolled while their families are displaced or lost

The first counts of affected children have arrived, and they are provisional

1,233 children were in 30 holding centres across Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading as of 19 Bhadra (4 September) — the first in-person count we have seen.

Children in holding centres, 4 September	Count
Lost both parents	102
Separated from or living apart from parents	439
Living with one or both parents	692
Children with disabilities	21
Total in holding centres	1,233

These are first counts, not a register. The assessment itself notes that shelters record arrivals and departures inconsistently, that children's family status is often unrecorded, and that numbers change daily as families reunite and relocate
Whole populations also moved without records. In two rural municipalities in Rasuwa, no shelter was set up at all and residents were moved to monasteries in Kathmandu. One reports 67 children sent, with no record of how many lost parents. The other has no count at all
Larger numbers sit outside the shelter count. Around 200 children are reported missing from one rural municipality alone; another reports 24 missing and 18 guardian-less children sent to relatives rather than shelters

Government has committed substantially, and detail is emerging slowly

A Scholarship Bank is being set up as a central education fund pooling contributions from government agencies, educational organisations, charities and individuals. This is the closest thing we have found to a route for diaspora money
Separately, five private school operator associations have pledged Rs 1 billion (roughly US$6.6m) toward scholarships for 1,000 flood-affected students, at the government's request. This is private money rather than public, and is expected to link to the Scholarship Bank
Bagmati Province has taken responsibility for accommodation, schooling and educational management for children who lost guardians, free through Grade 12
A residential protection centre is under construction in Godavari Municipality, Lalitpur, for flood-affected children
Whatever gets funded ultimately runs through local government — municipalities and school administrative committees deploy funds and make enrolment decisions

Displaced children are at their most vulnerable in exactly this window

2015 is direct precedent. UNICEF recorded at least 245 children intercepted from trafficking or illegal placement in care homes within two months of the first earthquake
Shelters have no consistent registration. The assessment found no standardised record of who children arrive with, who they leave with, or whether contact with family exists
Children interviewed did not know how or where to report abuse. No confirmed incidents were found, but the risk is described as high

Aid is outpacing information

Effort is landing where it can reach rather than where it is needed — relief oversupplied at the end of the road in Nuwakot, shelters going up before anyone knows which communities need them
Makeshift tent schools meet the immediate need, but not the multi-year one

What we've heard so far

Across the people we've spoken to — education organisations, child protection specialists, former government and UN staff, academics and people working locally — a few things come up repeatedly.

Keep children with families wherever possible. Residential care should be the last option, after surviving parents, extended family and community. Moving a child to Kathmandu may offer a better school, but it is expensive and separates them from family at exactly the wrong time
Don't rush to fund tuition. Where families will resettle is still unclear, some schools are not functioning, and government support is still taking shape. Until those settle, choosing a school, district or even cost per child is provisional
Fund fewer children properly. Education is more than fees, and the commitment has to survive year two. Several people advised fully funding a smaller cohort and holding back a reserve rather than spreading the money thinly
Verification matters as much as fundraising. We need to know where each child lives, who they live with, whether government or another organisation already supports them, whether they remain enrolled, and what changes over time

There are also two places where views differ.

Large organisation or local NGO. Some argue for established organisations because track record, systems and scale reduce deployment risk. Others argue for registered local NGOs because they are closer to families and internationals ultimately rely on them anyway
Children or schools. Rebuilding schools may ultimately be the larger need, but past builds have cost $100K+, require local government partnership, and solve a different problem from keeping an individual child in education. We have not decided which route is ours

Where we go from here

1.Keep talking to people on the ground, and wait for the counts to firm up

The rapid assessment is a first count, not a register. Protection Cluster and shelter reports are being shared with us, along with material on existing government education funds. Four introductions to child protection and education specialists still need to run.

2.Work out which group we are best placed to serve

Each group implies a different partner, cost per child and length of commitment. We have not picked one. Choosing now would mean designing around numbers that may change next week.

3.Build one partner evaluation framework

What we are weighing so far:

Hard filters: Social Welfare Council registered · approved to receive foreign funds · written child safeguarding policy · staff present in affected districts · credible expectation of existing in three years

Scored: Education track record · how children are identified · household verification · checks against government or NGO support · audited accounts and funder references · admin percentage · willingness to disburse against enrolment and report cards

4.Bring the team together

People have volunteered across content and social, fundraising and finance, and finding local partners. Next: complete outreach to those working on the ground, and agree who is leading each area.

5.Hold three decisions until we know more

Where families end up. School, district and local partner all follow from resettlement
What we fund. Fees, materials, or gaps around government support
Cohort size and commitment length. A Grade 2 child to SEE is eight years; a Grade 10 child to Grade 12 is two. Living situation matters even more — residential care costs many times what it costs to support a child living with relatives and attending locally

The Hundred Nepal · thehundrednepal.org

Appendix A: detail from the rapid assessment

National Child Rights Council, Ministry of Women, Children, Gender and Sexual Minorities and Social Security, with Save the Children, UNICEF, Civin Nepal, Consortium Nepal and Youth Alliance for Environment. Fieldwork 15–19 Bhadra 2083 (31 August – 4 September 2026), report finalised 21 Bhadra (6 September). Covers Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading, Gorkha, Tanahun and Chitwan.

Where the record-keeping breaks down

Holding centres record arrivals and departures in different formats, and rarely separate by age, gender, disability, family status or protection need
In many cases there is no record of who a child arrived with, whose care they are currently in, where they came from, or whether contact with family exists
Two rural municipalities in Rasuwa set up no shelter at all and moved residents to monasteries in Kathmandu. One reports 67 children sent, with no record of how many lost parents, how many went missing, or how many were found. The other has no count
One rural municipality reports roughly 200 children missing from the village. Another reports 24 missing and 18 guardian-less children sent to relatives rather than shelters
One of two holding centres in a Rasuwa rural municipality has no contact with the rural municipality itself
Birth certificates, school records and identity documents were destroyed in most fully-damaged houses, leaving family identity available only as spoken testimony

Conditions in shelters

No structured psychosocial activity, play, recreation or child-friendly space was found at any shelter the team visited
Children at one shelter had been eating only instant noodles for several days
A seven-month-old with a fever at another shelter could not access basic treatment
Widespread shortage of sanitary pads, underwear, spare clothing, private bathing space and separate toilets
At one shelter, more than 120 people stay overnight — including travellers stranded in transit — with no registration system
Children reported not knowing how or where to report abuse if it happened. No confirmed incidents were found, but the risk is assessed as high
The 21 children with disabilities lack wheelchairs and assistive devices; shelter paths and toilets are not accessible

Schools named in the assessment

A secondary school in Uttargaya-5 has over 200 students and 4 teachers missing, though the building itself is largely intact
A school in Gosaikunda is completely destroyed with 6 teachers missing; another in the same rural municipality has 2 teachers missing
A basic school in Nuwakot has over 100 students and 3 teachers missing; a boarding school bus in Bidur is missing along with 2 teachers and over 100 students of unknown status
At one Dhading school serving 415 students, classrooms were filled with more than three feet of sand and mud, uncleared as of 14 Bhadra (30 August)
In one rural municipality, 80 children cannot reach school because the bridge was washed away. No shelter was set up there; families went to relatives
A head teacher in Nuwakot moved roughly 900 students to safety about ten minutes before the flood reached the school

Wider damage figures

1,267 houses fully destroyed and 1,253 partially; satellite mapping identifies 4,689 buildings in the affected zone
41 bridges swept away and 4 damaged
4 health facilities fully damaged, 2 partially, and access blocked to 2 hospitals
4,440 ropani of crops affected, 2,035 livestock killed, 16,500 poultry lost
UNFPA estimates around 4,430 pregnant women across 15 affected local levels, with roughly 492 births expected within a month and 74 likely to need emergency obstetric care

What the assessment recommends, in priority order

Identify and verify at-risk, guardian-less and separated children; family tracing and reunification; safe shelter
Nutrition and health services, safe drinking water, toilets, sanitation, waste management
Child-friendly spaces, temporary learning centres, educational materials and learning continuity
Psychosocial first aid and mental health referral
Protection from violence, abuse, sexual exploitation, child marriage and trafficking
Gender- and disability-inclusive relief and service access
Social protection, cash assistance and livelihood restoration
Child-friendly and disaster-resilient reconstruction of schools, health facilities and other structures

Two points of direct relevance to us

The report asks the private sector specifically for school bags, notebooks, books, writing materials and digital learning materials, and asks that distribution be coordinated with local government so families are not double-counted or missed
Its framing principle is risk- and need-based targeted protection rather than equal relief for all, with child protection as the first priority. Institutional care is to be the last option, after surviving parents, extended family and community

Appendix B: conversations to date

Engage Nepal

US 501(c)(3), working through a network of Nepali partner organisations

Tend to invest in projects with a longer horizon, typically three years, rather than immediate response
Have seen residential placements carry protection risks, and favour keeping children with families where possible
Donors expect to see exactly where money goes, which means running your own verification and reporting

Samaanta Foundation

In its 15th year. Registered as a profit-not-distributing organisation in Nepal and as a 501(c)(3) in the US

Focus is on higher education, and intentionally so. There is considerable emphasis and resource on primary and secondary nationally, but almost nothing on higher education. The approach has always been depth, not breadth
Support is comprehensive, including room and board, and they already have Fellows from some of the affected regions
The founder's advice is to wait for resettlement before designing anything. Until it is clear where families will end up, any plan built around location is provisional — and with government support already tiered by category of loss, the question is how to contribute without duplicating
He also warned that patience has a cost. Some of the people who pledged will drift away, and what is in the public limelight is rarely what people at the margins need

Education Global Senate

Diaspora-run; grants to remote schools in Nepal since 2022

Moving children to places with better schools looks good on paper but is expensive — boarding in Kathmandu runs 13–14k rupees a month
It also separates them from family, which carries its own psychological cost. The question becomes how to keep children closer to home, not how to move them somewhere better
Fund fewer children fully rather than many partially, and hold back a reserve so year two exists
Social Welfare Council registration is a hard requirement for any partner receiving foreign funds

Child protection specialists

Two decades in the sector, with contacts across the national child rights and ministry structures

Taking children away from home should be the last resort. The order is surviving parents, then extended family, then community, and only then residential care
After the earthquake, children were moved toward India or into religious homes, and trafficking became a serious concern
Children with disabilities need a separate model — mobility, rehabilitation, caregivers, sometimes lifelong support rather than annual tuition
Sponsorship needs a named person tracking each child: where they live and with whom, whether they're in school, reported on a schedule

Former government and policy voices

Including a former Education Minister

Rehabilitation precedes fees — tuition support has limited effect where schools aren't functioning
Don't build a programme that depends on one ministry or one official, because transitions slow implementation

Development and UN sector

Former UNICEF and INGO staff

Go direct to registered local NGOs. Internationals channel funds and provide technical oversight while local organisations handle delivery
Four introductions cleared to child protection and education specialists

Academics and educators

A university economist, and a professor whose parents are public school teachers in Nepal

Municipalities are usually the ones that deploy funds, so whatever we do should be built with them
Arrangements outside the public system are hard to sustain once a funder steps back
Scale and track record reduce deployment risk, which argues for larger established organisations — a direct counterpoint to the local-NGO view above

Kids of Kathmandu

Builds schools in partnership with local government

Currently focused on supporting displaced children being sheltered in monasteries around Kathmandu
Equipped to help rebuild schools, as they have done in the past, but emphasise that any rebuilding must be done in partnership with local government
Their past school builds have cost at least $100K, which sets a realistic floor for pursuing the rebuilding route