When members of the students-led child club at Shodasha Secondary School in Mangalsen Municipality-5, Achham, met on Monday to discuss the farewell of a retired head teacher, ninth-grader Yunik KC suggested doing something for children affected by the Bhotekoshi flood in Rasuwa.

Although Achham is far from Rasuwa, students had been watching images and videos of destroyed homes, separated families and disrupted schooling. They decided to collect whatever they could for children who had lost homes, relatives or access to education.

“I felt that even if we did not have much money, we could still do something,” said Yunik. “After the club accepted my proposal, we started collecting donations.”

Representatives of the school’s child club, which serves about 1,500 students, visited classrooms and asked for voluntary contributions. Students gave between Rs5 and Rs500, with some cutting money they had received for snacks.

“For some of us, it meant using the money we would normally spend on snacks so that it could help students affected by the flood,” said Laxmi Shahi, a grade 10 student. “Seven friends who have lost their parents also contributed. We wanted to help students like us.”

Dhan Kumar KC, a teacher at Shodasha School, said that students collected Rs8,785 on the first day and Rs5,470 on the second, making a total of Rs14,255. The amount was deposited at the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund through Rastriya Banijya Bank on Wednesday.

“A contribution is not big or small,” said the teacher. “The country is facing a disaster, and the students themselves took the initiative to collect relief. I have only been facilitating them.”

At Pragatisheel Basic School in Mangalsen-1, students donated one day’s snack money. Teacher Himmat Bahadur Rawal said they collected Rs585, which was deposited into a relief fund.

Similar gestures came from schools across the nation. At Rastriya Janahit Secondary School in Dharmanpaniya, Kapilvastu Municipality-7, nine-year-old Grade 5 student Somya Upadhyay asked her parents for Rs20 more than usual for snacks on Wednesday. She then donated Rs50 she received that day.

Seven-year-old Radhika Kohar, a Grade 3 student at the same school, donated Rs30. Both girls skipped their snacks and put the money into a donation box. Students contributed between Rs5 and Rs100 after Wednesday’s morning assembly, raising Rs10,050. The money was deposited into the Prime Minister’s Natural Disaster Relief Fund.

Headmaster Raj Kumar Kohar said the students were eager to contribute because they believed even a small donation mattered. “The students made the collection box themselves and went from classroom to classroom asking their friends to contribute,” he said. “More than 200 of the school’s 350 students donated.”

In Rautahat district, 26 students of Prempur Gonahi Secondary School in Dewahi Gonahi Municipality-7 pooled Rs5 and Rs10 portions of their snack money and deposited Rs470 into the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund.

Rastriya Swatantra Party lawmaker Manish Jha praised the students on social media. “Twenty-six students in Rautahat collected Rs470 and deposited it into the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund,” he wrote. “The amount may be small, but their hearts and feelings are very large. Let us all help in this time of disaster.”

Head teacher Mukesh Yadav said the donation showed that distance did not prevent people from sharing another community’s pain. “When Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading and other districts were hit by disaster, the hearts of students in the Madhesh also got hurt,” he said. “Geography may keep people apart, but suffering is shared.”

Students at Manmaiju Secondary School in Kathmandu joined the effort. Led by students of Grades 11 and 12, children from Grades 6 to 12 contributed by cutting their snack expenses. They collected Rs37,110 and deposited it into the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund.

The donations come as the Bhotekoshi disaster has caused widespread destruction across Rasuwa and downstream districts. The disaster damaged several schools in Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading, with classrooms filled with mud, sand and silt.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Rs7.77 billion has been deposited into the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund. Meanwhile, around $6 million has been deposited into the government’s dollar account so far.