September 2018

Project #326 – 2018

TRAS is a long-time supporter of the Munsel-ling School in the Spiti Valley, in northern India, since it opened in 1996. This has included desks for classrooms and greenhouses for growing food during the long winters, as well as sponsorships to support the education of individual children, and more recently supporting post-secondary students through the TRAS Scholarship Fund.

Munsel-ling wrote to ask for TRAS’s support in building laundry facilities.

TRAS board member Dr. Videsh Kapoor visits Spiti regularly as part of her work with the UBC Global Health Initiative, and she was able to get a more detailed understanding of what the needs are. The key problem is water availability.

The population of the town of Spiti is only 200 people, while the school has up to 600 students. This leads to possible conflict over water usage.

Currently, the students have been using a gray-water pond to wash their clothes. This pond is also used by the villagers for irrigation. When the students use it to do laundry, the soap and grime often flow into the villagers’ fields, causing conflicts with the school.

Moreover, when the students are unable to clean their clothes, they can develop worrisome health issues including scabies.

The Munsel-ling school has four sources of water, including two surface springs and two wells. One of the wells supplies the hostels and the kitchen, the other is shared with the villagers.

Of the two surface sources, the “north source” is a government source, shared with the entire village, including farmers, and governed by traditional norms (more for old people, less for new people).

Finally, the “south source” is the target for the laundry project. It’s also a government source, but the villagers don’t use it. It connects to solar water heaters. Currently, there is no reservoir, so the water is wasted.

One question we had was where the water would come from in the winter. The two surface sources are not available in the winter, but the population of the school is also much smaller. (From mid-January to March, senior students continue studying in Dharamsala, and Munsel-ling has started sending teachers to villages to continue running mini-schools.)

TRAS agreed to fund the building of a large water storage tank to collect clean water from a surface spring which is not used by the villagers, two outdoor laundry stations and a soak pit to strain the soap and grime out of the water before it reaches the farmers fields. Construction in the Spiti Valley is limited to the few summer months, so Munsel-ling School forged ahead, and by the end of August the children were washing their clothes in the almost-completed facilities. They are simple but effective, and large enough to cope with the school population of over 400 children.

$17,695 has been sent for this project. Thank you to all of our donors that have made the completion of this project possible.

Project #300 – 2017-2021

READI Nepal

Rural Empowerment and Development Initiatives (READI) Nepal is a local NGO in the Humla district of Nepal. One of the poorest districts in the country, Humla struggles due to its remote location, lack of infrastructure, and the historical disregard for its population made up largely of the Dalit (untouchable) caste. There has been little government support throughout the years.

In 2011 TRAS and READI partnered  to create the READI hostel in Simikot. There, 20 underprivileged children from all castes have been brought together to be supported with the necessities required to be able to attend a well-regarded government school. The hostel also has its own teachers to support the children in their education, and READI’s workers help to meet the students’ healthcare needs. An additional ten children have returned home and attend local village schools now that their families can afford to do this. READI continues to monitor them.

In 2016, 10 children returned to live with their parents and are regularly monitored to ensure that they continue their education and are enjoying their successes. These children now attend a local public school and are still supported with the clothes and stationery that they need.

To show their gratitude, many families have begun donating firewood and cereals to help the hostel. Together, this creates a greater sense of community and reciprocity that empowers the families as well as their children. In addition to this, READI has also provided apple and apricot saplings to the families. These trees are now beginning to bear fruit, and the harvests are shared between the families and the hostel. This not only directly aids the hostel by reducing its reliance on food imports, but it has also empowered the families and created a new source of income. For instance, five families were able to start their own tea houses and apple processing businesses.

READI Nepal has extended its philosophy of cooperation to many other agencies, both government and private. This includes cooperation with the district health officer, to create the “Little Doctor” program, teaching basic first aid knowledge to the children. Similarly, the recent mayor of Simikot has expressed a great interest in the READI hostel, and plans to continue supporting their goals. READI has achieved more and more each year. We’ve included the major highlights of the 2017/18 annual report in our Spring 2018 Newsletter here.

We are proud to have witnessed READI Nepal’s flourishing that has brought education and agency to many of the most underprivileged in Humla. Furthermore, we look forward to their next promising steps with excitement, and wish them the best!

Read about their April 2020 to March 2021 challenges and achievements

Read their  half yearly progress report for Nov 2020