I would like to share some updates of the activities from Nangi village, Nepal. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic we have not been able to do as much as we wanted to do.

1. Nearly all the schools in the cities and mountains of Nepal were closed by the government March 24, 2020. However, we opened the Himanchal High School from July 1 and started teaching because there were no Covid cases in the whole region. One teacher did get infected with Covid because he travelled out of town for some work but has totally recovered.
2. Nangi received support from the district education department to add a four classroom building to the school. The size of the new building is 16 yards x 11 yards. There will be two rooms on each of the ground and second floors. We will have 16 classrooms in total.

3. With partial support from the local government, we have added two new rooms to the existing Nangi Clinic. The size of the new clinic building is 16 yards x 8 yards. One room will be used for checking patients and the other room will have four beds for the patients who need to stay in the clinic for treatment. There are currently three health workers working at the clinic. Prior to the Covid lockdown a medical doctor was also on staff but unfortunately, he has left and we have not found a replacement. The clinic has an x-ray machine, ultrasound machine, and ECG machine and has a mini surgical room for minor surgeries. The clinic is connected to five clinics in other villages through a video link for tele-medicine conferencing. Finding ways to keep the clinic running to provide health services to the people of Nangi and surrounding villages has been an urgent need.

4. Because of the Covid pandemic and travel restrictions, Nepal (including Nangi) did not have any tourists this year so the trekking lodges are not in operation. This created an opportunity to do renovations in the lodges in Nangi and Mohare. It appears it will be another year before tourism resumes and the villages see an economic impact.

5. We were surprised and saddened by the news of the death of the founder of Himanchal Education Foundation, Dr. Leonard Skov on November 15, 2020. He played an integral role in bringing Nepalese students to the University of Nebraska at Kearney’s College of Education. We are eternally indebted to him.

Thank you very much.
Mahabir Pun

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