School Earthquake Safety Program (SESP)

School Earthquake Safety Program (SESP), one of the NSET signature programs started in 1997 is with the first school being retrofitted to withstand earthquakes in 1999. Since that first school in the Kathmandu Valley, the program has extended to include 50 districts. This program improves the safety of schools in Nepal by working with communities to make school buildings safer, train staff and students in earthquake safety, and train local masons in earthquake resistant building practices. We also work with the Department of Education and also with many partners to create and implement a national strategy to reduce seismic risk in schools and a national school safety curriculum.

SESP works with the whole community to ensure that the program is both successful and sustainable. We include them during each step of the process so that they have ownership of the project, and earthquake safety messages are shared beyond schools.

SESP has been responsible for the retrofitting of about 300 schools, training 3,000 masons and over 200 engineers in earthquake-resistant construction practices, as well as educating communities in five districts on earthquake safety.