Prince Harry has completed a back-breaking charity project to help rebuild a school in a remote Nepalese village devastated by last year's earthquake.
Trekking deep into the Himalayas, the royal, 31, joined a disaster relief charity for six days to help the stricken community construct classrooms so that children no longer had to take lessons in makeshift structures made from tarpaulin and tin.
He had initially gone on a five-day tour of the country nearly a year after the huge earthquake claimed 9,000 lives, largely in rural areas, and left many tens of thousands of people displaced.
Prince Harry trekked deep into the Himalayas to help rebuild a school destroyed by the 2015 earthquake. He worked with Team Rubicon UK, a charity which uses the skills and experience of military veterans alongside first responders to deploy emergency response teams
It was a back-breaking task as there was no machinery available, so the team had to work with local tools and smash up rocks by hand
As well as helping to construct the school, the team also worked to create a new solar farm and repair a hydro-electric turbine destroyed in the disaster
The village of Lapubesi in the Gorkha region, where the work was carried out, has a population of 3,000 people and 95 per cent of homes were destroyed, while there were 16 fatalities and a further 150 injured
Since then, the 250 students of the local school have been taking their classes in shanty classrooms - which were to provide little defense against the storms of the impending monsoon season.
The task involved laying a concrete base for one of the larger school classrooms. But with no machinery available and using only local tools, rocks had to be broken down to size by hand and cement - carried from the nearest town 2.5 hours away - mixed and applied manually.
Not only did Prince Harry help to construct the school, he also helped to build a new solar farm and repaired a hydro-electric turbine that once provided energy to around 300 homes in the village before it was destroyed.
Working on steep terrain on the edge of a waterfall, the team cleared piles of rocks and boulders from water channels and repaired the pump house containing the control systems.
The royal (pictured here outside Kanti Children's hospital) concluded a hugely successful five-day tour of the country and then announced he would spend a further six days helping to rebuild a school
Harry's six-days of volunteering in Nepal came at the end of his official tour of the country and the work ended last week.
Prince Harry announced in late March that he would stay a further six days in Nepal to work on a charity project with Team Rubicon UK
Of Prince Harry's time on the project, Becky Maynard, Team Rubicon UK's director of development, said: 'It was very much hands on manual labour - sleeping, eating and working out there with the other vets. Getting very much stuck-in as one of the team.'
During his initial tour of the country, Harry saw numerous initiatives that have supported the people of Nepal in returning to normality following the huge destruction almost a year ago.
Commenting on his decision to stay on and help build the school, Harry said: 'The people I have met and the beauty of this country make it very hard to leave.
'Thankfully however, I’m not leaving just yet. I will be spending the next six days in a remote village with a charity called Team Rubicon.
'The team I’m joining will be working with a community to rebuild a school damaged in the earthquake.
'I'm so grateful to have this opportunity at the end of my official tour to do my small bit to help this beautiful country.'
Many of the youngsters Harry visited that being treated at the hospital attained their injuries following the earthquake which caused devastation in Nepal in 2015. Pictured: Harry with a mother and baby in the hospital
Team Rubicon UK was formed in response to the Nepal earthquake almost a year ago. General Sir Nick Parker, former Commander in Chief of the UK Land Forces and now Chairman of Team Rubicon UK, put out a call to action asking UK veterans to volunteer their time and skills to provide aid in the immediate aftermath of the natural disaster.
It is now a registered charity in its own right and has already responded to calls for assistance following the Cumbrian floods in December at home in UK as well as the Philippines.
Following an assessment visit to the school in January, Simon Clarke, Director of Field Operations for Team Rubicon UK, said: 'It is heartrending to see how much work still needs to be done nearly a year after the earthquake.
'By providing a proper school for the children of this remote village, and repairing basic services such as a hydroelectric turbine we will be able to make a real difference. We can restore these essential resources from a practical perspective, but perhaps also provide hope for this resilient community.'
The Queen's grandson (pictured with patients in a hospital) was embedded with a group of Team Rubicon volunteers to help with the reconstruction of a new school destroyed by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in 2015
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