PROJECTS
All started in 1993 with three sponsored children at the Morning Star School in Naudanda. Until 2006, all our activities were focused on this school. In 2006, the River Dale School was added as a private school, and in 2007, the public Gyjan Yoti School joined. This pattern continued almost every two years until 2023, the year of our parents Dagmar and Jörg's passing. To accommodate their last wish, we decided to invest the donations collected for their funerals, amounting to nearly €50,000, in the Hillside School. The investment aims to provide to the highly motivated students and the very dedicated school administration there with a strong foundation for the best possible education, similar to what is provided at the other partner schools.
Learn more about our schools below. We look forward to your suggestions and, even better, your involvement!
School projects
We assess carefully each school on-site for its relevance to the area, its suitability for developemnt, and its potential. We personally meet the school principals, teaching staff, and members of the school management before any support is provided.
Below are details about our partner schools in Nepal and information about our earthquake relief project in 2015: "Help for Self-Help – Rebuilding 73 houses destroyed by the Earthquake for underprivileged families at our schools."
The following schools were/are financially supported by the Nepal Children Overlack Foundation:
Our School locations
Earthquake relief project 2015-18
Project: Help for Self-help - Rebuilding of 73 houses destroyed by the earthquake for underprivileged families at our schools
The devastating effects of the 2015 earthquake had severe consequences, particularly in the mountainous regions, many of which have still not been fully addressed. Thousands of Nepalis lost their homes, and the situation in the developing country worsened. Nepal's main source of income – tourism - collapsed in 2015 and 2016, only resuming regularly in the summer of 2017.
This presented us with a new challenge. Jörg Overlack flew immediatelly to Nepal to personally assess the situation at the schools. Fortunately, there were no casualties at the schools, partly because the earthquake occurred on a Nepalese holiday. The structural damage to the schools was minimal. However, the homes of many students' families were destroyed.
Jörg Overlack recalls: “Our fundraising appeal published in several regional German newspapers for earthquake relief received an overwhelming response, allowing us to start a side project to rebuild some homes.”
For the construction of a total of 73 houses, materials and transportation were organized locally. The material costs for the houses were covered by our donations. The cost for one house was approximately €1,800. Our Team developed and provided a standardized building plan with earthquake-resistant reinforced concrete frame construction and masonry walls. The families had to organize the (re)construction of the houses themselves, supervised and supported by a dedicated construction engineer assigned by us. Thanks to the strong communities in the mountain villages, the construction proceeded quickly with a lot of local support. We received documentation for each individual house until the completion of all houses by the end of May 2018.
Students
Numerous outstanding students have been able to make a successful start to their professional lives thanks to our support. As of today, more than 500 children sponsored by us have graduated from school with a secondary school diploma or high school diploma and have started a self-determined life. About 50% of them are girls.
A 2017 survey of Morning Star Higher Secondary School, found that of the 137 students we sponsored up to that point who graduated with a secondary school diploma, 48 went to university, including four in Australia, the U.S., and Japan, while 77 of the students were engaged in other work, nine of them abroad.
Some exceptionally intelligent and dedicated students who have achieved extraordinary degrees have also received financial aid to fund their university education. Ultimately, however, we leave the decision about further support to the individual sponsors themselves.
We would like to share the following stories of our previously sponsored students with you.
Dr. Ramjee Bhandari
Support period: 1990 to 2002
Ramjee Bhandari received support for his academic career after his family could no longer afford the private school. We sponsored him until his graduation in 2002 from our first school, the Morning Star Higher Secondary School. Afterward, he completed his education as a Health Assistant at the College of Health Sciences in Bharatpur, Nepal, by 2005. From 2006 to 2013, he earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s in Public Health at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu. Immediately after, he had the opportunity to pursue a second Master’s degree at Durham University in England, where he also completed his Ph.D. in Public Health by 2018. Today, he is a lecturer in Health and Wellbeing at Chester University in England. He shares updates about his research work on his own blog (dr-ramjee.com).
Shiva Bhandari
Support period: 1990 to 2002
Shiva Bhandari was one of our first students in Nepal in 1993. After graduating from high school, he studied Physics in Kathmandu. Due to his outstanding Bachelor’s degree, he received a scholarship for his Master’s studies in the USA, where he also completed his Ph.D. in Biomedical Physics in 2024. He dedicated his doctorate to Dagmar and Jörg, in gratitude for their support. He mentioned that he would not be where he was today without their assistance, which laid the foundation for his remarkable career.
Bhisma Adhikari
Supportperiod: 1993 to 2005
Bhisma Adhikari is the tenth son of a family of farm workers, the last two of whom received an education through the Overlack project. Bishma completed his secondary school education at our first school, Morning Star Higher Secondary School, then went on to do his A-levels at NASA International College in Nepal and completed his Bachelor's degree in Computer and Electrical Engineering in Kathmandu in 2016, with his tuition fees 100% covered by a scholarship from the Nepalese government. After two years of professional experience, he was accepted to the University of Miami in the USA for his Master's in Computer Science, which he completed with a GPA of 4.0 (the highest achievable grade). Today he works in Florida as a software engineer.
Susma Bhandari
Support period: 1999 to 2011
Susma Bhandari graduated from Morning Star Higher Secondary School in 2011. She then studied at the College of Health Science and Technology, where she completed her first degree in 2015. In 2019, she started a second degree at the Institute for Medical Science and Research. In the meantime, she worked at the Pokhara Cancer Care Centre, the Sahara International Fertility Centre and the Fishtail Hospital and Research Centre. After her studies, she aspires to pursue a further career in the healthcare field.
Prowess Pradhan
Support period: 2001 to 2013
Prowess Pradhan is one of our sponsored students who returned to his former school as a teacher. He was sponsored by us from the 1st grade to his high school diploma, which he completed in 2013. He then completed his bachelor's degree in computer science at the Soch College of IT in Pokhara. After completing his studies, he decided to teach at the first school we sponsored, the Morning Star Higher Secondary School, and taught computer science classes there.
Dakshina Dahal
Support period: 2001 to 2013
Dakshina Dahal has built on our support for her education at Morning Star Higher Secondary School to develop a career that has now taken her to Chicago in the USA as a human resources manager and accountant, where she works for the Shell Global Group of Energy. She was supported by us until she completed her high school diploma in 2013, then studied business administration in Kathmandu, works in various positions in human resources management, accounting and marketing and moved to Chicago in 2016 to continue her career here.
Greta Kc
Support period: 2002 to 2014
Geeta Kc completed her A-levels at Karunanidhi Higher Secondary School. She was only sponsored up to the Intermediate level. She completed her Bachelor of Accounting in Pokhara and is now working on her Bachelor of Professional Accounting at the Holmes Institute in Brisbane, Australia. Alongside her studies, she works as a nurse.
Dev
Support period: 2003 to 2015
Dev Subedi works as a software engineer in the USA. After graduating from high school in Nepal, he went directly to Cypress College in the US for a bachelor's degree in computer science, graduating in 2020. He continues to live and work in California. Dev is the first student from our sponsorship program who, after completing his own education, has taken the initiative to provide scholarships to four children in direct coordination with his former school. We are immensely proud that our work bears such fruit and leads to such awareness among the supported children. Thank you, Dev!
