The Nepal School Project provides a free elementary education to Nepalese children in order to promote education as an alternative to child labor. To enable children to attend school regularly, the project also provides one free meal per day to each child.

In Sankhu, a village located about one hour by bus from the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu, more than 50% of the village's 10,000 residents are unemployed.  Because public schools in Nepal require tuition, many parents cannot afford to send their children to school. As a result of the high rate of unemployment and the lack of free education in their village, an estimated 20% of children between age nine and fourteen leave Sankhu and their families to enter into child labor in Kathmandu. 

Run jointly by The Advocates for Human Rights and its Nepali partner, Hoste Hainse, the Sankhu-Palubari Community School opened in September 1999 for all disadvantaged children in the area, including girls. (In

Girls as well as boys have the opportunity to learn at Sankhu-Palubari Community School.

The school began with 50 students the first year and has added additional students each year. Now beginning its tenth year of operation in 2008, the school has approximately 241 enrolled students.  

The school has made a positive impact on the community, as a Sankhu village police inspector noted to The Advocates.  He reported that many of the community members, who are illiterate, used to request his help in reading their letters. Now, however, they no longer need his assistance because their children can read to them. The children can read because they are enrolled in the Sankhu School. 

Without their daily meal at Sankhu-Palubari Community School, many students would not have enough energy to walk to school and concentrate on their studies.