Welcome to Himanchal Education Foundation. We are a non-profit corporation based in the US. Our goal is to support Himanchal High School in the remote village of Nangi, Nepal, a school that is a prototype for community-based educational development in rural areas.
With help from volunteers all across the world, today our school supports grades K through 12, including a computer lab with Internet connnection. We welcome you to hear the story of our journey and stay connected with it in the future.
We will greatly appreciate hearing from you. Please send an email to contact-at-himanchal-dot-org with your contact information including email. We will send you our quarterly newsletter with all the latest news and updates on all the projects. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed of this site.
By connecting Nangi village in 2002 to the Internet and slowly expanding the wireless network to neighboring villages step by step, now it has been expanded to more than 150 villages in 13 districts of Nepal. Until now HEF has received more than $30,000 through Donate One Dollar a Month Campaign to support the wireless project. Mahabir uses the contribution coming through HEF for the expansion of the wireless network. Currently Nepal Wireless project is providing different services to the people in the rural areas such as e-education, e-medicine, communication, local e-commerce, hotel booking system, credit card transaction system for the tourists through the Internet. In 2010, Nepal Wireless connected four districts in the network such as Gulmi, Baglung, Ramechap and Nuwakot. Now it is working to connect Syangja and Tanahun district to the network. We have attached photo of a relay station in Kagbeni Mustang.
We would like to thank to our volunteers and supporters for donating your time, money and effort to Nepal Wireless Project. You can support this ” One Dollar a Month Program“ by donating money at ”Donate Now” and make sure you designate your donation for “Nepal Wireless Project” as the project where you want your funds to go to. For more information, just email Mahabir at mahabir@himanchal.org or Jiwan at jiwan@himanchal.org.
The villagers and school in Nangi are working hard to establish a Cheese Production Factory and the first step is to build a herd of cross-bred Jhopas.
As many of you may already know, at Khopra Lodge Mahabir has established a Yak Farm. These yaks are primarily for meat, milk and wool. They also work as pack animals in the higher elevation above snowline. But the males serve another function which is to mate with a local female cow to produce a cross breed offspring called a Jhopa. Because one of the parents is a Yak, it allows the cross bred animals to live in Mohare. We have breeding program that has been already successfully done. Now we need to increase the herd. Therefore we need more cows. We have attached the photo of some of the Jhopa and yak we have now in Mohare.
After the herd if built up, the next step will be to build more animal sheds and the actual Cheese Factory. Mohare is in an excellent area, surrounded by uninhabited forest and great grazing. The animals can go up to the Lodge for milking or birthing but then wander peacefully around the hills.
If you have ever had Yak milk in your tea or coffee you know what a treat locally produced milk and cheese products can be. If you are interested in this project, the school plans to purchase local cows from Narchyang and they need 15 cows and the total cost is Rs 22500, or Rs.1500 ($22.00) per cow. You can sponsor a cow (or more) by going to HEF site and click on the “Donate Now” button–and make sure you designate your donation for “Cross Breeding Project” as the project where you want your funds to go to.
Editor’s Note: Kim, a wonderful American living in Singapore, arrived in Nangi in summer 2010 with her 4 children, aged 8 to 16, to install a solar water heater in Nangi. The following is her account of her wonderful trip. Thanks Kim!
In the fall of 2009, my high school daughter, Jessica, and I attended an inspirational and moving assembly at her school, The Singapore American School. The focus of the assembly was that everyone can volunteer and make a difference – either in big ways or small. Later that day, Jessica told me that our family needed to do more to help other people. We started searching on the internet for an organization that would be a good fit for our family.
My husband, Bruce, and I agreed that we wanted all four of our kids, who ranged in age from 8 to 16, involved in whatever endeavour we chose. We were looking for an opportunity to volunteer in a remote area with an organization that was small enough for us to feel like we were able to make a difference but structured enough that I was comfortable taking my four kids and staying there. Also, my husband and I are both engineers, and we were hoping to find a project which would take advantage of our skills and background and would give us an opportunity to get our kids involved in an engineering project. Finally, we were looking for an organization with which we could develop a relationship and could continue to volunteer year after year. After many hours of searching, phone calls, and discussion, we decided that we wanted to work with the Himanchal Education Foundation in Nangi, Nepal. Our main project was the installation of a solar water heater for the campground that is being built.
Initially, we spent a lot of time learning about the different types of solar water heaters and the advantages and disadvantages of each type. We took a family “field trip” to a solar water heater vendor in Singapore so that the kids could see how they work. We worked with Chitra and others at the Himanchal Education Foundation to establish and understand the requirements for the solar water heater. In order to size the solar water heater tank, we developed spreadsheets to calculate water consumption based on the water flowrate and showering time.
Our family also spent time raising money for the project. We sold snow cones and popcorn at school events, and we sent notes to family and friends asking for donations. In the end, we raised enough money to install a shower in both the campground and at the volunteer house. In addition to designing the project and raising money, we spent some time learning about the Nepalese culture and about things we should and shouldn’t do while in Nangi.
When we got to Nangi, we were greeted by lots of people. It is a beautiful village with views of mountains all around. The teachers at the school were very helpful and kind. We always had kids peeking in at us, curious as to what we were doing, but initially shy when we tried to interact with them. After a few days, however, they started to enjoy getting their picture taken and seeing themselves on our camera viewing screens.
Before the solar water heaters could be installed, some initial prep needed to be done at both the campground and at the volunteer house. At the campground, removal of the old, broken solar water heater from the roof of the shower room was the first thing that needed to get done. The shower was also tiled, and the water piping in the area was repaired.
After clearing away the old equipment, some of the men from the village installed a poly tank up on a stone tower. The poly tank is used to hold the water that feeds the solar water heater in the campground. Watching the men install the tank on the top of the tower made us nervous about their safety, but it also left us in awe of their sure-footedness.
After prepping the campground area, we opened the boxes with the solar water equipment and started putting the frame together. Once the frame was assembled, it was lifted up onto the roof of the shower room. The frame was designed to be installed on a flat surface, so we had to improvise a way to raise the front legs of the frame so that it was level while on top of the roof. After some discussions, Chitra, the villagers, Bruce, and I decided that it was best to build concrete feet to rest the front of the frame on. Once the concrete was poured and had time to set, it was time to hook up the water and test it out. Our first shower in over a week – it was amazing!
In the meantime, other people from Nangi were working on installing a platform for the volunteer house’s solar water heater. This solar water heater is installed outside the old volunteer house, which has a thatched roof. Since the thatched roof won’t support the weight of the water tank, it was decided that it was best to build a new platform next to the volunteer house. This part of the project required a lot of labor to dig out the holes for the concrete footers, to pour the concrete for the footers and the posts, and to erect the platform. When we left, the concrete on the platform wasn’t quite set enough to hold the weight of the water tank.
Jessica and I both really enjoy photography. Before we left Singapore, we were able to round up about 15 donated cameras to take with us. While the work was going on with the solar water heater projects, she and I also worked with the 10th grade students at the school to show them a little bit about taking pictures. We went out with them on a few different days, and then we uploaded their pictures from the cameras onto the computer so that the students could see them. We had a great time getting to know the students, taking pictures with them, and seeing the world through their eyes as we watched what was interesting to them!
Our experience in Nangi was one that we will never forget. We made some great friends, many of whom our kids still talk about. The kids enjoyed playing in all of the wide-open spaces, building forts, picking plums, and visiting the woodworking shop. They learned a lot about implementing a project and about being sensitive to another culture. I enjoyed exploring the village, talking with the teachers, and learning a little of the local language. It became something of a joke with my kids, but every day I literally said, “Have you seen the mountains today? Can you believe how beautiful it is here?” I was so impressed with the school and with the teachers there. I have pictures of the people and the village of Nangi all around on the walls of my classroom, and every day I look at those pictures with such fond memories of our experience. We are looking forward to returning again next summer.
November 23rd, 2010 by Jane Sabin Davis · No Comments
This fall TAAN, the Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal, launched three new treks – one of which will benefit the schools in and around Nangi village.
Mahabir Pun has always had the vision of a trekking route close to home. This dream became a reality when the Borderlands Resort’s Director Megh Ale agreed to team with the Himanchal Educational Foundation to create this new route.
New Eco-Trekking Lodge in Nangi Nepal
Coordinated by Nature-Treks, these community eco-lodge treks emphasize communities, conservation, and environmentally sustainable travel. Trekkers will travel for seven days to six villages (see Trek #1 on google map), whose elevations range from 2,700 feet at the starting point in Beni along the Kali Gandaki River to over 9,000 on the Mohare Ridge. On a clear day you can see over 30 snow clad mountains including three mountains over eight thousand meters.
In addition to the grandeur of Nepal, this trek is eco-friendly and the lodges are owned and operated by their local schools: all proceeds after expenses go back to the schools for educational purposes and lodges are run by local villagers.
For more information visit the Borderlands Resort website http://www.borderlandresorts.com/resort.htm or go directly to the information from Nature-Treks, a sister company. http://www.nature-treks.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64&Itemid=68
Cassidy: Mahabir Pun inspires digital revolution in the Himalayas
By Mike Cassidy
Mercury News Columnist
Posted: 06/17/2010 01:11:44 PM PDT
Updated: 06/18/2010 07:28:46 AM PDT
It’s not every day that you get a request to connect on LinkedIn.
OK, it is, but this particular one stopped me cold: Mahabir Pun was looking to reconnect. Mahabir Pun. He’s a guy I’ve written about, a guy who lives at 7,000-plus feet in a Himalayan village of subsistence farmers in Nepal. He is a dreamer and, it turns out, a doer.
Back in 2003 I wrote about how with the help of a San Jose-based family foundation and others the University of Nebraska graduate had returned to Nangi in Nepal to help start a high school and to try to connect his remote village to the Internet.
Crazy, right? Bring the Internet to a village of 800 without telephones or electricity or really much hope. Except it wasn’t crazy. This Mahabir Pun did it. A guy I got to know through the e-mails that he would travel for hours by foot and bus to send from an Internet cafe got it done. He had a lot of help, including from a college kid who recently graduated from Stanford University medical school.
And connecting Nangi to the rest of the world wasn’t the half of it. Or even 1/80 of it.
“Now more than 80 villages in nine districts of Nepal have been connected to the network,” Pun wrote to me. “The approximate population of the area covered by the wireless network is about 60,000. We are adding more villages with time and still are working to connect more villages.”
For those of us in Silicon Valley, the Internet has become like running water. We use it every day, many times a day, without much of a thought. But for the yak herders and farmers in the Himalayas, the ability to suddenly reach around the world, or even to the next village, is transformational. The initiative, called the Nepal Wireless Network, relies on solar power and relay stations to connect the remote villages with an Internet service provider in Pokhara, about 22 miles from Nangi, as the crow flies.
Pun wrote that villagers are using the Web to communicate on online bulletin boards. He and those helping him have introduced telemedicine to the mountains. A big city hospital is connected to nine rural hospitals and clinics. Students at the school in Nangi, which has expanded to K-12, are logging on to the Internet to do research.
“People are using the Internet phone to make international calls to their relatives working abroad. We are providing virtual ATM service for the tourists to pay their bills and get cash in the mountain villages. We are also using the network for a trial to get weather information for a mountain village through the Internet. We are working with a researcher from the University of Maryland to monitor the climate change in the Himalayas for which we will collect real time data through the Internet.”
Imagine. All that in seven years. Pun is the first to point out that he’s gotten a lot of help from an army of volunteers and donors. Some of them learned of Nangi while trekking in the area. Others read about Pun on his site at www.nepalwireless.net or in media reports as his effort became more widely known. Mark Michalski, the former Stanford med student, heard about Pun from his friend Robin Shields. The two traveled to Nepal in 2003, armed with a $10,000 Donald A. Strauss Foundation grant and eventually got an Internet connection running in Nangi.
“The funny thing now, looking back, there was very little doubt in our minds that this thing would actually work,” says Michalski, who also says some thought the idea was nuts. “And I think Mahabir had a ton to do with that. His confidence that this could work, in fact, he was sure that it would work, made us sure that it would work.”
Philine Rallapalli, who oversees a modest family foundation in San Jose with her husband, Kris, says she sensed the same thing about Pun. When the couple met with him in 2002 to talk about his school idea, she saw a man who was determined to better villagers’ lives.
The Huguenin Rallapalli Foundation donated $16,000 to build the school, and it’s contributed thousands more since. Kris Rallapalli says the results, with the school and the network, have been phenomenal.
“He is so committed to the cause,” he says, “without him, the village would not have done what it’s done. And it’s not just the village. It’s all of Nepal. People like him are the future for these countries to get ahead.”
Pun says he’s determined to help his country do just that. The next step, he says, is to open a four-year college in Nangi by 2015. “We don’t know yet how we will do it,” he says, “but we won’t give up.”
I wouldn’t bet against him.
Contact Mike Cassidy at mcassidy@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5536. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mikecassidy.
Happy New Year! Attached is our latest HEF e-Newsletter. This will provide you an update of all the current accomplishments and status on our project activities.
HEF Board would like to THANK each person receiving this e-Newsletter for supporting us.HEF continues to achieve recognized status as a major support base for many project activities helping the people living in rural communities of Nepal.Your support is very important and makes a major difference in lives of people living in Nepal.
Thank you for signing up for this e-Newsletter of the Himanchal Education Foundation! Himanchal Educational Foundation 5610 Avenue N Kearney, Nebraska 68847 Web: www.himanchal.org Email: contact@himanchal.org
Since the time when a few persons in Kearney, Nebraska committed themselves to provide financial support for the teachers at Himanchal High School, it is just amazing how, over a relatively short period of time, that decision has evolved to Himanchal Educational Foundation, with a constantly evolving mission and a nationwide Board of Directors.The scope of our mission is well reported in this issue of the newsletter.
We have also experienced the evolution of a financial support group largely focused in the Kearney area to the current support group that spans USA, Canada, England, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands and probably some others I can’t recall.Also, the “Nepali Community” all over the US has become a major support group.It is amazing how many, mostly small, contributions can add up to a significant support group.The wireless network is a wonderful connection between HEF and the Nepali Community.
As we begin 2010, we look back at the wonderful support that has passed through HEF.We also anticipate, with equal wonder, the existing and potential projects that will strengthen the relationship between HEF and Mahabir’s great leadership in Nepal.HEF is managed by volunteers, permitting us to, literally, direct every dollar to the work in Nepal.
We are currently looking for donations to help us buy a portable solar charging unit to use during the project manager’s visits to the villages in Nepal. This portable charger will make it possible for our project manager to update project information and report on timely manner while he is regularly monitoring different projects taking place at the respective villages.
American Ambassador to Nepal Nancy J Powell honoring Mahabir Pun, the recipient of the prestigious Ramon Magasaysay Award, in a programme felicitating 26 social leaders for their special contribution in the field of social development in Nepal, organised by Antenna Foundation in Kathmandu, Wednesday, Jul 02 09.
Andris Bjornson is a professional photographer who visited Nangi and surrounding areas in Nov-Dec 2008. He took some great shots of the area, and has kindly permitted us to republish here. Check out the mindblowing pictures on our Facebook album (and share yours if you have some good ones from your trips to Nangi!)
Don’t forget to visit Andris’s site for more pictures and commentary – http://www.andrisbjornson.com/
eless connected four districts in the network such as Gulmi, Baglung, Ramechap and Nuwakot. Now it is working to connect Syangja and Tanahun district to the network. We have attached photo of a relay station in Kagbeni Mustang.
We have breeding program that has been already successfully done. Now we need to increase the herd. Therefore we need more cows. We have attached the photo of some of the Jhopa and yak we have now in Mohare.
