Building of the Margarete-Müller-Bull Training Centre in Badalgaun, the foundation stone of which was laid in October 2014, funded by our foundation, was already in an advanced stage of completion, when Nepal was hit by the devastating earthquake of April 2015. Although it survived this natural catastrophe unscathed thanks to its earthquake-proof design, the building was then understandably used as emergency accommodation for villagers. Further building was delayed by the consequences of a blockade at the Indian-Nepalese border, which stopped the passage of urgently needed building material and fuel.
On 24 March 2016, having overcome all these difficulties, the association chairman Andreas Falk ceremoniously inaugurated the new MMB Training Centre for its future purpose – to train professionals in the MGML (Multi-Grade Multi-Level Learning) method. This teaching and learning method has meanwhile proved to be so successful that more than 70 schools nationwide base use it in learning transfer – hence the urgent necessity of building the teacher training centre. This consistently builds on our education-driven help for self-help, already prefaced in 2012 by the building of a school which uses this methodology. The new MMB Training Centre now offers a large training room, conference room, three bedrooms, a kitchen and other rooms for basic and further teacher training – thus guaranteeing sustainability in educational activities.
Incidentally, the preparation of the building site afforded a special kind of technology transfer: the steep hill on which the building was erected had to be secured against landslides and stabilised first. The picture shows the innovative barbed wire and ‘earth bag construction’ which is now popularly imitated.