In 2011 Jiwan Giri, a former BOD member, wrote this about the yak breeding program:

“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 bred animals to live in Mohare. We have breeding program that has been already successfully done. Now we need to increase the herd. Therefore we need more cows.”

Although the program is successful they still need to increase the herd. Marg and Danny from Australia volunteered in Nangi this past spring renovating the volunteer roundhouse and teaching English at the school. After hearing about the yak breeding project and visiting the site, they decided to make a donation to the yak breeding program. Marg explains their decision in her email to me:

Yak donated by Marj, Danny and family, former HEF volunteers from Australia. July 2012.

“Given our good fortune to live in a first world country we wanted to assist the people of Nangi in some small way.  It was important that our donation would help generate further income, allow village ownership whilst maintaining their pride. As our 10 and 8 year old daughters also contributed with some of their pocket money we wanted our gift to be tangible and something we could see the benefits of in the future.   This would enable our daughters to have a greater connection to Nepal and see the positive benefits of their actions. 

Buying a yak for the Cross-Breeding Program ticked all the boxes.  Having only 2 yak bulls at Mohare a new (virulent) bull would extend the breeding program and reduce interbreeding. We are very happy with the two year old yak purchased and hope to see many offspring in the years to come!!” 
HEF extends it’s gratitude to Marj, Danny and family for their donation which characterizes vision and an understanding of HEF’s goals.

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