Andrew Raible

Kids of Kathmandu believe deeply in the importance of great design. We understand that a uniquely designed and sustainably well-built school conveys the importance of education and gives inspiration and dignity to the students, teachers, and the entire community.

Kids of Kathmandu has been incredibly fortunate to work with world-class architects, engineers, education technology providers, and construction professionals to construct ten fully equipped schools in some of the most remote areas of the world. The last three, and all subsequent schools will use sustainable (rammed earth or earth brick) materials. Our international team led by Nepali partners, has provided classrooms for over 4,000 students, water purification systems with health and hygiene training, libraries, computer labs, and new furniture for the schools and their communities.

We partner with an architect for each school to uniquely design a school building to meet the community’s present and future educational needs. One of our greatest adds to a school building project is vetting potential communities for partnerships to ensure the long-term costs are covered, and the effectiveness of the new school programs and facilities are maximized for all students.

In parallel with our reconstruction efforts, Kids of Kathmandu has led efforts to produce a manual on “How to Build a School in a Developing Country.” This manual will ultimately serve as a free PDF resource and create a baseline for best practices in community engagement, engineering, building, and support for constructing effective and safe schools in developing countries.

In addition to Kids of Kathmandu, Andrew has been a furniture designer and fabricator for over 25 years.