Nepal Wireless Project Update

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...

Cross Breeding Project

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...

Family Solar Water Heater Project

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...

San Jose Mercury News Covers Mahabir Pun

Mike Cassidy of San Jose Mercury News has written a nice piece on Mahabir Pun’s work – http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_15318738?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com&nclick_check=1 (Mike – we hope it’s okay to publish it here as well) 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...

HEF e-Newsletter: December 2009

Dear Friends and Colleagues: 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...

US Ambassador to Nepal Honors Mahabir Pun

Courtesey of Nepalnews.com: 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.

Himanchal School as seen by Andris Bjornson

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/

Robin Shields, Former Volunteer, is Walking Across Nepal

Robin Shields is one of the earliest volunteers to visit Nangi (we need to get your profile page up Robin 🙂 .. and now, this fall, he will walk all the way across Nepal, east to west, all 900-odd kilometers through the mountains and the valleys on foot. Here is a link where you can find more information, and send Robin encouragement and also tips on some of the routes where he doesn’t have much information.

Dr Debra Stoner in Nepal March 2009

Namaskar from Dolakha (east of Kathmandu) and Happy St. Patrick’s Day….what a crazy combination! Despite it being the day of the green leprechauns there’s ‘nar a bit of green in these hills as the last of the arid season pelts us with dry, blowing winds. The land is parched and a far cry from the green flowing terraced fields of my last fall visit. But I am getting ahead of myself…… The team of Pediatricians from Geisinger Medical Center spent the first week at Kathmandu Model Hospital teaching Pediatric Advanced Life Support and Neonatal Advanced Life Support to the nursing...

Paper Making Project — We need your help

The women started producing paper again this January. So far they have produced 1,454 sheets of 20 grm paper and 91 sheets of 40 gm colored paper.  97 kg of lokta bark has been harvested from Nangi and 194 kg lokta has been harvested from Ramche village in February. We purchased lokta @ Rs.50 per kg. The weather is good and sunny for lokta paper making, so the women are doing a great job. Chitra Pun You can help us sell paper products in the US and Canada.  The Himanchal Educational Foundation has a supply of handmade paper writing journals...