On May 18th 2008 John Cook, Chairperson of the South Asia Children’s Fund, flew by helicopter to the village of Sotang in the remote Solukhumbu District of  Eastern Nepal to participate in the opening of a new school that he has funded for the community.
John travelled to Sotang with Ben Ayers, the Nepal Country Director for the dZi Foundation, Dawa Sherpa, a Nepali student and a director of the South Asia Children’s Fund, and by Dawa’s father. They were greeted on arrival with a tumultuous welcome, and were festooned with hundreds of garlands and Buddhist prayer scarves. Many people had walked for miles to celebrate the opening of their new school. This was only the second time people in that village had seen a helicopter, the previous occasion being when Sir Edmund Hillary visited twenty years ago.

John Cook funded the total reconstruction of Sotang Secondary School, including eight new classrooms. The local community members contributed all the labour and local materials for the project. The school will transform the lives of thousands of families, and is an important step in improving the quality of education in Solukhumbu District.  Even with the donation of this new school building, a year's tuition for one student is $60, equal to one third of the average family annual income.