“We have no option but to keep aside our studies to queue up for hours to receive relief materials and manage other essentials,” said tenth grader Smriti Pun, who is preparing for the SLC examinations scheduled to begin from March 19 next year.

She said she cannot concentrate on her studies and is losing her hope to get through the examinations as she is deprived of even basic means of sustenance.

“Though I recently moved out to a rented room from the Chhinchu camp for flood victims, where I was taking shelter after being displaced from my permanent home at Tharmase in Lekhparajul-3 in order to concentrate on the studies, it has proved to be a futile exercise,” she said, adding that scarcity of food is not the only problem faced by females at the camp.

Female students have become victim to myriad problems such as having difficulty in changing clothes in the tent shared with others, frequent power outages and lack of educational materials, she said.

Over 2,900 students in 18 VDCs in the district are yet acquire books which were swept away during the floods. According to District Education Officer Dipa Hamal, her office demanded funds to procure 2,891 sets of books for flood-hit students. “Though various NGOs have provided some relief and educational materials to the victims, the state has failed to do the same,” Hamal said.

According to the District Education Office, the mid-August floods and landslides swept away 10 schools and eight child development centres, while 47 schools were partially damaged. Property worth Rs 125 million belonging to the academic institutions was damaged in the disaster.

NRNs provide clothes

Meanwhile, Nepalis living in Australia have provided Rs 300,000 to procure warm clothing and other essentials for flood victims to ward off cold during winter. Sameer Bhandari, Yogendra Malla, Bikram Yogi and Sanjay Puri collected the amount to procure materials, including blankets, sweaters, mufflers, trousers, socks and school bags and notebooks for students.

The relief materials were distributed by Sarad Bhandari, elder brother of Sameer Bhandari, to the victims taking shelter at Chhinchu health post building.