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Nepal: Response, Relief & Recovery

2015-05-29 03.02.27TRAS Speaker Series is very pleased to present:

A evening with Professor Mark Turin

Date:  March 4, 2016

Time:  Doors open at 7:00 pm – talk at 7:30 pm

Location:  Sutherland Secondary School, 1860 Sutherland Avenue, North Vancouver (free parking)

Cost:  By Donation.  (Handicrafts and baked goods will be on sale) Proceeds to TRAS

SPACE IS LIMITED – REGISTER by email at cbunbury@sd44.ca  or by phoning the TRAS office at 604-224-5133

Event Details:

In this presentation, anthropologist, linguist and broadcaster Mark Turin will share insights from his 25 years living and working in Nepal and the greater Himalayan region. Mark’s richly illustrated talk will position the nation’s response, relief and recovery, following the catastrophic earthquakes of April and May, 2015, in a deeper historical and social context. Reflecting on Nepal’s extraordinary ethnic and linguistic diversity, Mark will speak to the creativity and resilience of the country’s citizens in the face of mounting uncertainty.

Speaker bio:

Mark Turin is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at UBC, where he also serves as Chair of the First Nations and Endangered Languages Program. Prior to moving to Vancouver, Mark was an Associate Research Scientist with the South Asian Studies Council at Yale University, and the Founding Program Director of the Yale Himalaya Initiative. He directs the Digital Himalaya Project, of which he is a co-founder, and the co-editor of the longest running open-access journal of Himalayan studies, entitled HIMALAYA. Follow him on Twitter: @markturin

Mark and his wife Sara were instrumental in bringing to TRAS the ‘Twin your Toilet’ reconstruction project in Dolakha.

This special event is co-hosted by the new Global Perspectives Program at Sutherland Secondary School in North Vancouver.
 

 

Dolakha – Rebuilding in Nepal

Project #323 – 2014-2015

Why TRAS and why toilets?

The Trans-Himalayan Aid Society has a long history of assisting public sanitation in the Himalayan region.  It also has a long association with UBC.  TRAS founders George and Inge Woodcock called upon their UBC colleagues & friends over 50 years ago as they established the NGO.

Now, TRAS is collaborating with UBC Anthropology staff Sara Shneiderman http://anth.ubc.ca/faculty/sara-shneiderman/ and Mark Turin http://anth.ubc.ca/faculty/mark-turin/, to assist in a rebuilding project in Dolakha district, Nepal.

Sara Shneiderman and Mark Turin are advisors to indigenous citizens in this region, and alerted TRAS to the dire need for help to reestablish public sanitation after the May 12 earthquake flattened most existing latrines.  TRAS is partnering with Shree Fashelung Social Service, in Suspa-Kshamawoti VDC, to assist in this vital rebuilding project.toilet project - 3

Through this project, local residents will reconstruct toilets for each household of Suspa-Kshamawoti VDC (S-K), Ward No 5, to ensure a healthy and sanitary environment. The population of Ward 5 is 90% Thangmi/Thami (a highly marginalized indigenous group), with whom Shneiderman & Turin work closely.

Shortly before the earthquakes hit, Dolakha had been declared an “open defecation free zone” by the Government of Nepal, as major progress had been achieved in building toilets across the district in recent years. The earthquake undid much of this work, as it destroyed toilets that people had built with the financial aid of other NGOs who no longer working in this area.  Where they can, local residents are using what is left of their latrines, which are often unsafe and unsanitary, with broken footplates, open exposure to the elements and dangerous cracks.  Without safe or sanitary toilets, some people have gone back to open defecation.

Your dollars to TWIN YOUR TOILET will assist local people to maintain and improve the health of their children and families.  This rebuilding project helps people in Nepal to regain some of the ground they had achieved before the earthquakes, and to pick up their lives for a more promising future.

The cost for construction materials, footplate, water pipes and tap is $210 per latrine.  TRAS has committed to funding 80 latrines from funds already raised for rebuilding and will fund additional toilets from donations received.

Thank you for your generous gift.

January 22, 2016 – Funds received to date will build 188 toilets – only 12 to go!

 

TRAS Scholarship Program Update

2015/11/21

TRAS has embarked on an exciting initiative.  The TRAS Scholarship Fund [TSF] is now in its third year of its pilot program.

Our partners overseas had expressed a need to provide post-secondary education, especially for girls in remote isolated villages in the Himalayas.  In response to this request, TRAS initiated a pilot program with our longstanding partner, Rinchen Zangpo Society for Spiti Development which operates Munsel-ling School in the Spiti Valley, India.  Each year two worthy students have been selected to have their university studies supported by TRAS.  Each student receives $1000CN per year for 3 years.

Tsering Dolker
Tsering Dolker

Currently, we have two female students completing their B.A. degree and four students enrolled in a B.Sc. program.  These six girls are bright, determined students from poor rural homes with no hope of continuing their education without TRAS support.  Not only are they role models for other students in their isolated villages but they wish to return as educators themselves to Spiti.

Tashi Angmo
Tashi Angmo

To quote Tashi Angmo, the most recent candidate selected, ”To be a good teacher and serve my younger brothers and sisters of Spiti Valley would be my life’s greatest achievement.”

Due to the success of the pilot project we have invited 2 trusted TRAS partners from other regions of India to submit applications to the TSF.

The Dekyiling Handicraft Centre is a Tibetan community in Dehradun, India, long supported by TRAS through projects and sponsorship.  In response to the TSF opportunity Kesang Wangdu replied, ”I am extremely grateful to TRAS for supporting children for post-secondary education.  Earlier we have had children needing sponsorship but we failed to get new sponsors after class X.  I therefore have no words to thank TRAS for supporting this genuine problem faced by many students after class XII.”

The Voice of Children project, run by two Indian NGOs in Nainital and Almora, will also be selecting two students.  Raghu, the co-ordinator, writes: “Especially for girls it will be great opportunity to become independent because after 12th standard generally their parents do not allow them to continue their studies and they go to their marriage ceremony. Generally their husbands work in very low paid work and poor working conditions in Metro cities of India and after marriage the girls face more challenges in their life. This Fund can change their life.”

A very generous TRAS donor has offered to match Scholarship fund donations up to $10,000.  Therefore, $500 will be doubled to fund a deserving student for one year [$1000] of university education.  Please donate today!!

Give the gift of education to bright girls like Tashi Angmo and help them to lift their communities out of poverty.

Earthquake in Nepal – update

We are very relieved to report that the staff and children at the Buddha Academy Boarding School are safe.  The school is not in session at the moment so the number of children is reduced.  It is reported that those remaining are living outside in the rain for the next little while in fear of further tremors.  We have also heard from our other partners in the region, Voice of Children and READI Nepal, who advise they have been unaffected.

 

Nepal Earthquake – April 25, 2015

We are deeply saddened to hear of the devastating earthquake in Nepal and are anxiously awaiting word as to how our partners are affected.  We will post updates as we learn more.