TRAS is a long-time supporter of the Munsel-ling School in the Spiti Valley, in northern India, since it opened in 1996.
In 2018 the School constructed 12 dry toilets with urinals for the boys. The toilets were very useful during the winter but during the summer they created a dreadful smell around the school and campus.
Early in 2020 Munsel-ling School approached TRAS for help with building a permanent block of flush toilets for girls and boys. The Indian Government is now very active in working towards the health and sanitation of the students in the schools. So with TRAS promising half the needed funds , Munsel-ling was able to obtain the other half from the government, and construction started when the road to the Valley opened in the early spring. Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic all construction has been stopped, and the project was on hold until at least later in the spring of 2021.
Construction restarted in 2021 and a large block of toilets were built incorporating the flush toilets for use in milder weather and the dry latrine toilets for use in the freeze of winter.
TRAS raised $5,000 to cover the funds sent in 2020 and an additional $3,970 when the building restarted. The project was completed in 2021.
COVID-19 has now struck the Tibetan communities in India in spite of their early precautions and careful plans for keeping safe. Dharamsala and Dehradun/Dekyiling settlements have been particularly hard hit. The Tibetan hospitals in those two communities are looking after the severe casesand desperately need help to supply lifesaving oxygen. Oxygen concentrators will be extremely useful during the pandemic to give a continuous supply of oxygen to the critically ill patients and can be re-used for years.
TRAS had promised to raise $10,000 right away to supply the Tibetan hospitals with lifesaving oxygen supplies and to help the COVID-19 Care Centres with medical supplies and care. They are supporting themselves as much as they can – can we reach out to give them a helping hand?
Eight of the small Tibetan health facilities in India have been designated COVID-19 Care Centres for the mild and moderate cases. Funds are urgently needed to help these health facilities to procure essential medicines, food for patients in isolation, testing kits, PPE kits, additional emergency staff.
For more than 20 years, TRAS has supported the 500 students and staff at Munsel-ling School, located in the Spiti Valley region of northern India. Residents of Spiti Valley experience harsh winter conditions — with temperatures often plunging to -30°C and below — which results in annual road closures between neighboring towns for up to eight months of the year. The remoteness of Munsel-ling School means that self-sufficiency is of the utmost importance.
This year, TRAS is fundraising to support the purchase and installation of 68 rocket stoves, which will replace all of the iron stoves at Munsel-ling School. These rocket stoves are made locally in Himachel Pradesh and installed by a merchant from the nearby town of Kaza. The iron stoves that are currently installed will be sold for recycling.
The need to fund these rocket stoves is twofold. First, the rocket stoves will decrease the amount of smoke within the school, which will have a positive influence on the respiratory health of students, staff, and volunteers. Second, the rocket stoves are more efficient than their iron counterparts, which means that fewer resources, like wood and cow dung, need to be expended in order to heat the classrooms, dormitories, and staff quarters at Munsel-ling School.
Health
Woodsmoke pollution has been shown to increase the risk of respiratory disorders and genetic defects in children. In mountain deserts like the Spiti Valley, communities often burn cow dung because wood is a scarce resource. This also affects lung health, as up to 25% of the arsenic found within cow dung can be absorbed into human respiratory tracks when it is burned. All of this may increase susceptibility to serious respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19.
The rocket stoves that TRAS is fundraising for are 90% smokeless. As it uses 50% less materials to produce the same amount of heat, less cow dung can be used to fuel Munsel-ling School during the frigid winter months. This means healthier lungs and happier kids.
Sustainability
Spiti Valley is located in a mountain desert with little forest cover and sparse vegetation. As a result, the region is not conducive to lumber production or cattle raising, meaning that firewood is expensive and cow dung is hard to come by.
The rocket stoves TRAS is fundraising for consume 50% less materials than the iron stoves currently installed at Munsel-ling School, while producing the same amount of heat. Because the stoves contain a secondary combustion chamber, less energy and heat are lost, making it a far more efficient alternative. The replacement of these stoves therefore promotes both environmental sustainability and economic efficiency.
A shocking statistic: Although there has been great improvement in recent years, Nepal continues to have one of the highest maternal death rates in the Asia Pacific region, with 279 women dying per 100,000 live births, according to recent UN data.
For more than 20 years, the Innovative Development Education Academy (IDEA) in Pokhara, Nepal, has been running an 18 month midwifery education/training course for girls and women from remote areas of Nepal which will help to save lives of mothers and children in those areas.
Midwife showing her kit to village women
The Academy is well established and well regarded. Many young women from cities like Kathmandu and Pokhara receive training there, paying their own way – but inevitably they look for work in urban settings. So IDEA looks for international support to help pay for the young women from rural areas to receive this vital training. Most of these graduates return to their own villages and do sterling work in helping to save the lives of mothers and babies.
In 2019, TRAS partnered with IDEA assisting 4 underprivileged students in paying for their 18 month Midwifery course.
Early 2020 all students were sent home due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with kits to help people in their home villages, while studying as much as possible online. This raised a question: how would they be able to study online? The cost per student, to purchase an iPad or smart phone, internet service and data plans has been about $600; so TRAS has offered to pay $2,400 for the four students we are sponsoring.
Voice of Children (VOC) is run by AMAN and Vimarsh, two NGOs in Almora and Nainital Districts of northern India, and supported by TRAS for many years.
Both NGOs, through the Voice of Children project, are involved in providing educational and health programs for the children of the remote villages in this mountainous region. With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the subsequent lockdowns, the NGOs turned their attention to relief support for the poor and stranded residents in the VOC field area.
The pandemic significantly impacted the life of the locals, particularly those dependent on daily labour. Government support of a maximum of 5kg of rice per month to families identified as living below the poverty line was not enough. Also, the financial support of $9 per family per month barely helped.
The villagers were facing a shortage of food, cash, and hygiene products. The small energetic VOC team was given permission to travel in spite of the lockdown and reinvented itself to help provide the most destitute villagers with emergency food and hygiene supplies, which our donors swiftly paid for in early May ($5,000). Then, as the villages were overwhelmed by the returning migrant workers later that month, the VOC team supplied makeshift quarantine centres with vital supplies of food and hygiene products, again paid for by TRAS ($5,000).
As soon as they were able, the VOC teams restarted informal educational programs under strict safety guidelines. Classes were held for the high students to keep up their English, math and science studies, while the younger children were encouraged to learn to read and write. All classes were held outdoors, with the children distanced and masked. The benefits of being there for the children, of making life more normal, of calming their fears were huge.
The VOC team could see firsthand which children were hungry, which families were struggling, who needed help buying batteries so that students could access online learning. They saw young mothers desperate for advice and supplies for their newborns. They have asked for one more emergency fund to be used where needed most. A third payment of $5,000 was sent in September for this purpose.
