By Upama Tamla (Rai) | Media Associate
Herbal gardening in school premises is one of the major activities of nature clubs in Southern Lalitpur, Nepal. After herbal gardens grown by clubs got destroyed, along with other school infrastructures, during the April earthquake of 2015, it has been very difficult to motivate students into re-establishing them. Herbal garden became a secondarily prioritized subject while the students were struggling to find a safe place to study. Now that the normal life is slowly recovering, ECCA held a meeting with nature club teachers and school representatives last month and thereby planned to organize Herbal Garden Competition this year among 9 of its project schools in Southern Lalitpur so as to encourage them to get involved into its re-establishment.
Ever since the concept of the competition was circulated, the nature clubs are relentlessly trying to re-establish herbal gardens in their open school premises. “It is difficult to find a place again mainly because many schools were compelled to build Temporary Learning Centres across the compound during emergency period”, says one of the nature club teachers. Some nature clubs are also facing another problem - lack of water. In the present context, many villages have water access in homes but direct supply to the schools is absent. At some places, people have to fetch water from far even for the purpose of drinking. This absence of proper accessibility to water has brought difficulties in gardening the plants.
“Despite all these difficulties, I believe we can re-establish the garden”, says one of the nature club members. “It’s all about teamwork and effort, isn’t it?” His words have encouraged all to contribute for herbal garden restoration.
The timeline for the best herbal garden judgement and announcement of the winner is scheduled in the month of Sep-Oct, so students can have plenty of time to nourish herbal plants. ECCA hopes that this competition will once again bring nature clubs closer to the environment.
Herbal Gardens provided both refreshment and greenery before the earthquake
Condition after the earthquake 
School Compounds being used to make Temporary Learning Centre to replace destroyed classrooms
Plant growth is hindered without water
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