PUPILS and staff who have visited Nepal are fundraising to help Himalayan friends caught up in the 7.8 magnitude earthquake which struck the region.

Members of Bishop Barrington School, in Bishop Auckland, have forged close links with members of Mount Harmoun Secondary School, in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Staff and youngsters at the County Durham school acted after Mount Harmoun and large parts of remote Nepal were left devastated and thousands left dead.

Anne Henderson, 32, Bishop Barrington’s head of geography, said: “We’ve had a partnership between the schools for four years.

“Mount Harmoun has 380 pupils and it has been damaged, but we don’t how badly.

“We’ve received a message saying that the headteacher Sharad Shrestha and his wife Sahashi are okay. They are living with relatives in a tent on a sports field due to the disaster.

“Our students have managed to find out via Facebook that many of the pupils in Nepal are okay but we don’t know about some of them.

“We knew that we had to do something to help. The staff and kids in Nepal have become life-long friends.

“They had very little to start with and now they’ve got even less.

“Pupils have paid £1 to take part in a non-uniform day and we plan to do other events during the year to hopefully raise £1,000.”

The British Council helped set up the link between the schools.

During exchange trips Bishop Barrington staff have taught in Nepal and the visitors have flown over Mount Everest.

To donate to the school’s appeal contact 01388-603307 or call into reception.

Housing provider livin is raising funds for the earthquake victims. Livin will match fund the donations.

To donate text LINE98 plus an amount to 70070 with details at justgiving.com/nepal-2015