HIMANCHAL EDUCATION FOUNDATION
JULY 2022 NEWSLETTER

The medical clinic that HEF helped initiate under Dr. Debra Stoner’s guidance in 1998, is a community based clinic and thus not government supported. The clinic was expanded 2 years ago with a $11,000 grant from the Huguenin Rallapalli Foundation in California. It has been extremely difficult to get doctors to stay more than 3-4 months at the clinic. They do not care for the rural setting and seek opportunities that pay more. Current salary is $850/mon. Mahabir suggested if funds could be secured they would be able to hire a general practitioner for $1000-$1500/mon. Currently 2 nurses and a pathology lab technician are employed at the clinic. He mentioned that Dr  Saroj Dhital from the Public Health Concern in Kathmandu, has been helping find staff.

Mahabir’s report from Nangi School
There are 146 students enrolled in Himanchal High School  – 76 boys and 70 girls. The older students in grades 9 and above live in the dorms. Student assembly on school grounds. Two new classrooms has been built during the Covid-19 pandemic. There are two computer labs. The older students use 15 desktop computers and the younger students share 10 laptops.
   

Spanish volunteers meeting with students. Four university students from Spain arrived in January 2022 and volunteered for 21 days in the school and community.  Another group is arriving in September.

Economic Activity

• Tourists began arriving in March for hiking. We added a dining room and 20 beds in the tourist lodge during the Covid-19 lockdown.
• The women in Nangi have started making paper again to sell this year.

HEF Golf  Tournament
The 2022 HEF Golf Tournament was held May 7th at the Tara Hill Gold Club in Papillion, Nebraska. The 21 golfers had a good day and trophies were presented to the golfer with the lowest score and the top finishers. Sponsors included Vas Investment Inc trophy (Ajay Rai) Little King lunches (Ajit Adhikary,) and snacks (Resham Thapa).  Bhim Rai and Ajay Rai were the organizers.Proceeds totaled $1877 thanks to participants, donors and sponsors. Plans are underway to make this an annual event as there was a lot of interest in supporting HEF from the participants.

Congratulations to the winners of our 2022 Himanchal Education Foundation Golf Tournament!
1st place Kashyap Rayamajhi and Gyanendra Bhandari,
2nd Indra Rai
3rd Ajay Rai and Terry Rigg
4th Surendra Acharya and Ramesh KC
5th PJ Basnyat and Gopal Rana