A woman from Watford travelled to Nepal to help build a school for children in a disadvantaged community.

Vera Pankhania, who works at the Santander branch in Watford, formed part of a 40-strong team that travelled to the south Asian country earlier this month to build a school for the disadvantaged Moser community outside the Himalayan city of Pokhara, while also raising funds for charities Age UK and Barnardo’s.

She spent five days helping to build the school, which aims to have a long-lasting impact in the community, providing hundreds of children with a brighter future while also creating jobs and helping unskilled labourers to learn valuable skills during its construction.

Vera said: “The whole trip has been such a positive and rewarding experience. It’s been amazing to be able to come out to Nepal to help directly with this cause and meet some of the members of the community it will directly benefit.

“It’s also great to know that we’ve raised key funds for our UK charity partners, and we thank all those customers, colleagues, friends and relatives who have supported us.”

The team worked alongside The Pahar Nepal Trust, a UK charity which works in Nepal building secure and durable structures, helping to rebuild the lives of the Nepalese who were affected by the 2005 earthquake.

As well as providing the Moser community with a new school, the team raised £215,000 to help Age UK and Barnardo’s provide vital support to transform the lives of some of the UK’s most vulnerable or isolated older and younger people.