Sixteen-year-old daughter Jessica Foxley and her father, Ian, are making the three-day trek across the steep ranges of the Himalayan foothills, on the final leg of their charity mission. They are heading for Kahlte, in the north west of the country, to deliver laptops, solar charging units and textbooks for the opening of two new classrooms for the village school.

Their visit marks the culmination of a seven-year project by Ian, who is a retired Lieutenant-Colonel with the Royal Signals. He spotted the urgent need for improved classroom provision when he visited Khalte in 2001, a region populated by the Gurung tribe, one of the major sources of Gurkha soldiers for both the British Army and the Indian Army.

On that occasion, he stayed in the schoolhouse, a mudbrick building, and was humbled by the conditions – a hole in the schoolyard for a toilet, a single tap, no electricity, a couple of benches in the rooms to serve classes of 40-45 children, a solitary 1958 map of the world and no textbooks.

Talking to villagers, he identified a desperate need for two “proper” classrooms, a decent toilet facility and educational equipment.

A fundraising effort back in England raised £15,000 and, with the support of the local Gurkha Welfare Service and retired British Army Gurkha servicemen within the Parbat region, the classrooms were built by the local villagers.

Terrington Hall School, which has a long association with forces’ families, has donated equipment and textbooks and plans to develop links with the school in Khalte, sharing news and educational resources via the internet.

It also hopes to send its own students out to Nepal in their gap years to assist in the school out there.