Architect trains Nepalese orphan who grew up in his orphanage

A Nepalese orphan is training as a construction design technician in Grafing under the architect who designed the orphanage where he grew up, BR reports.

Niko Rinkes and his trainee, Ishal Bhandari, are measuring Aßling railway station, which Rinkes’ architecture firm is set to renovate. Bhandari, who hopes to qualify as a construction design technician, is learning to record measurements and add them to building plans.

Rinkes and his wife, Anja Sethi-Rinkes, have supported Nepalhilfe Beilngries, a Bavarian aid organisation, for many years. About 30 years ago, Rinkes planned and designed the orphanage where Bhandari grew up. It was the architect’s first building and his diploma project. The couple met Bhandari during a visit to Kathmandu last year and offered him a training place at their office in Grafing, near Munich.

Bhandari arrived in Bavaria a month ago, his first time in Europe. He says people are friendly and the surroundings are beautiful, though people sometimes speak too quickly. Colleagues help him settle in, while Rinkes’ mother-in-law, Gerda Sethi, studies German with him in the evenings and explains anything he has not understood at school.

Bhandari is one of seven people from Nepal currently training in Bavaria through Nepalhilfe Beilngries. The others are learning skills in care work and hospitality in Beilngries. Like Bhandari, they all come from a children’s home in Kathmandu. If he passes his exam in three years, Bhandari plans to return to Kathmandu and use what he has learned to build houses.