The Himalayan Community Development Society​
PROJECT 6: Health
​Indigenous people have taken care of themselves for thousands of years. They hold important knowledge on health, preventative medicien and tantric practices. However, the government education system does not offer a way to to transfer and advance such knowledge to the next generation. As the older generation passes away, the knowledge is lost. This project aims to preserve and advance education system that is truly in the interest of humanity as a whole.
PROJECTS
PROJECT 1: Poverty and Housing
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​Nanimaya Tamang is a widow who lives with her orphan son, Madan, in the remote Himalayan village of Rhisyango. They lived in a small hut made up of rudimentary materials-- mud floor, stonewall and tin roof (please see the picture). About five years ago, her husband died at young age (45 years old) due to Tuberculosis-- a common disease in rural villages of Nepal caused by malnutrition and lack of healthcare services. The funeral of her husband cost her much of her land and other properties. About one year later, she lost one of her eyes while collecting fodder for the cattle. This summer, due to heavy monsoon rain, the landslide crumbled the small hut in which they lived-- making the widow and her orphan son homeless. Tragedy never seems to come alone. Please click on the image to read full story.
PROJECT 2: Clean Water
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​Every year, especially during the summer time, many children get sick due to untreated water. In this village, there is not a singel household in which children have not died. In some households, as many as five children have died before the age of 10. The main cause is waterborn diseases-- desentria, diahrhea etc.
The peopel in this village do not have sewer system. They use open toilet. During the monsoon season, the water downstream gets polluted as it carries fecal matters and other dirts flowing downstream. Since there is no water treatment plant, and the poor families can not afford to buy individual water treatment system, people have no choice but drink the untreated water.
Coupled with lack of access to medical services and malnutrion, many people die of these unnatural causes.
PROJECT 3: Indigenous Wisdom
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Indigigenous peoples hold deep wisdom on "living wel". My uncle passed away very recently at age 92. He was a Bonpo-- spiritual healer, a master in Tantra and Mantra. During his lifetime, he never experienced physical ailments. His mind was crystal clear and his body was rock solid until the day he died. Just the day before he died, he went to plough his land and planted millet. He died after falling off a ladder and broke his neck.
Indigenous teachers like my uncle hold vast widom on health and wellbeing. However, usuch indigenous wisdom is not vallued by the current short-sighted and narrowly focused education system. As a result, the traditional wisdom is being rapidly extinct. If there is no system of preserving the time-tested wisdom, they will soon be extinct.
PROJECT 4: Electric Mill
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​The villagers, epecially elderly women, have to travel for hours on a rugged mountain to get to a water mill. Just recently, in Nubri village, a woman fell off a cliff as she was walking a narrow path to the water mill. She died instantly leaving behind a 6-month old baby girl orphon. She was a widow herself.
In Hrisyango, elderly women have no one to look after them, there is no government saftey net for their food, housing and medical needs. For their daily food need, they have to travel to a river down hill to grind their crops. There are fears of wild animal attacks as they have to walk through thick jungle alone. They are asking for your help to build an electric mill in the community so they can reduce their hardship in life.
PROJECT 5: Livelihood
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​People still use mideaval tools as a means of production. Life is hard as they have to toil all day using brute manual force. Some people work as many as 18 hours a day just to be able to produce enough food to feed their families. This project aims to develop new agricultural technology appropriate to the terrain of the Himalayas.