Author: Ron Konecny (Ron Konecny)

We will be starting new pages dedicated to the teachers and students. While the pages are under construction I would like to start introducing the staff of Himanchal Higher Secondary School. The school is divided into segments which include: Grades 1-5 Primary; Grades 6-8 Lower Secondary Level; Grades 9-12 Higher Secondary Level. Raman Pun is the school Principle. He earned his degree in Commerce and Education from Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal and has been teaching since 1998. He teaches Grades 9 & 10 Accounting and Grades 11 & 12 Business Study and Marketing. His administrative duties as Principle  include assuring curriculum...

Annapurna Dhaulagiri Community Eco: This new community trail in the Annapurna region is a beautiful trail that our family trekked in April 2012 with our good friend Mahabir Pun. We hope this short documentary encourages other families to travel with their kids and explore this part of the world. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYAKHq8MZOE Our recent trip to Nangi village was particularly special as we were able to share our experiences with our 5 and 7 year old daughters. Tips that we would encourage other parents to consider when planning a trip to Nepal include:  Seek out good paediatric travel advice regarding vaccines and associated...

Nepal is a beautiful country, famous for its stunning Himalaya, rich culture and generous hospitality.  In a country that is only 65% the size of Victoria, its population is greater than all of Australia!  Yet, there are less than twenty neurologists in the whole country.   A significant percentage of people live in poverty, and most people are dependent on agriculture for a living.  For those living with epilepsy, access to specialist support, medication and community understanding of this highly stigmatized condition, life can be very isolating and overwhelming. A partnership between the Epilepsy Foundation of Victoria (EFV) and the Nepal...

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...

  Himanchal Education Foundation would like to introduce our newest Board of Directors member, Dr. Patrick Gray. Patrick joined HEF two months ago after graduating from Yale University last year with a Ph. D. in English and Renaissance Studies. He is a former HEF volunteer first going to Nangi twelve years ago, after graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He taught English at Himanchal High School for an academic year, from the fall of 2000 to the spring of 2001. Patrick continued his studies but always coveted a desire to return to Nangi or find a way to...

My name is Kim and, along with my husband and four children, I’m a returning volunteer with Himanchal Education Foundation. Each spring we travel from our home in Singapore to Nangi and work on an engineering project designed to meet the energy needs of the village. These projects include solar hot water heaters, solar energy collection systems and solar light bulbs. Last summer we trekked up to the Community Lodge at Mohare to assess the possibility of installing a solar hot water heater for a shower. What we discovered was a trekking destination of unsurpassed beauty and magnificence but with...

How can I volunteer if I’m not an English, Math or Science teacher? If you’ve wanted to volunteer in Nangi and asked yourself that question then I would like to introduce Jason, a volunteer from Australia. Jason is not a math, computer or English teacher but he is a skilled electrician who traveled to Nangi in May 2012 and put his electrician skills to work. He worked on two projects including upgrades to existing lighting and wiring for the hostel buildings and renovations on the roundhouse kitchens. More on the roundhouse renovations will come later but here is what he...

Have you seen the newer videos about Nangi village projects on YouTube? If not click on over and take a look. Former volunteer Michael, a photographer and videographer, created shorts on papermaking, yak breeding and the new school library. Paper making video: Yak breeding video: Nangi library video: Janita, from Australia, just returned from Nangi with her husband and two children. A longtime supporter of Mahabir and HEF she created a book about Mahabir Pun’s earlier years as he set about creating the school in Nangi and followed his passion to connect remote Nepali villages to the world via a...

Mahabir’s plane touched down on tarmac with a view of mountains similar to his native Nepal. The cold dry air mimicked Nepal’s dry season in the high mountains but Mahabir was thousands of miles from home during a visit to Denver, Colorado. On February 22, 2012 he gave a presentation to the medical students of the University of Colorado (UC) School of Medicine’s Center for Global Health. The 90 minute talk titled “Bridging Medical and Educational Gap in Nepal’s Isolated Villages via Wireless Internet” introduced students to the challenges of providing health care in austere environments. That same evening he...

I put down the phone after the BOD meeting in December and laid my head on the table. Three board members; Jane Sabin-Davis, Jiwan Giri and Sandeep Giri had just resigned…board members who brought clear insights, experienced guidance and passion to HEF . This was a large bitter pill to swallow along with the fear that we were partially crippled by the loss of these dedicated and talented individuals. Why did they resign? Each had their own reasons. Change was on the horizon and HEF could either keep it’s head down or embrace new opportunity. All organizations go through change…it...