Water Supply for Children's Hostel and Eco-Farm.

Having lived in Nepal for 13 years, I have grown to know the country well since my first visit in 1991. Particularly since the devastating earthquakes of 2015, Nepal, one of the world's most beautiful yet poorest countries, has needed all the help we could give.

Dibya Jyoti Education Trust was founded in 2017 (Reg. No. 179263/074/075). However, its founders, Juliette Cunliffe and Dibya Kumar Baral, had been doing a lot of work to help children and to rebuild schools since the earthquakes hit.

The less formal name of ‘Education Earthquake Nepal’ was used from the outset and this is the name by which we are still best known. But now our scope is more comprehensive, assisting many underprivileged children. Some of them are orphans, others from families where one parent has left home and the other is struggling to raise their family or, in several cases, is disabled.

A permanent new hostel accommodating up to 50 children has now been established at Gajarkot, one of the early Nepali Kingdoms in the district of Tanahun. Here we have been able to purchase sufficient, reasonably priced land enabling us to grow enough crops to feed the children and also poor families in the community. We have also created an eco-farm to become self-sustainable, something we could not achieve in our previous location overlooking Pokhara’s Phewa Lake, where land prices kept soaring beyond our means.

In this new area we selected, families had moved away from Gajarkot Hill as it is a dry hill, so obtaining water was a problem. The government did not install electricity until 2021 and we are now installing wi-fi, fibre cables having arrived at a local village only two months ago.

Currently we are collecting rainwater in tanks, but we urgently need to raise funds to obtain a better supply using a solar pumping mechanism. There is a natural water source near our land and we have built a road to reach it. Our plan from hereon is the following:

1. To install 16 solar panels on stands

2. To install a pump to bring up the water using solar energy

3. A sizeable concrete pond, which we need to construct to retain the water which we have pumped up from the natural source.

We need to progress with the project while it is still the monsoon season, a time when water is available in plenty. But our supply of water from natural rainfall will end in early September, so we need your help to raise funds now.

Only in this way can we reach a level of sustainability. Dibya Jyoti Education Trust can then look to a long term future in which we can assist not only the children in our care, but also the local community, in which the inhabitants who have remained here are extremely poor and mostly elderly.

Children taking extra lessons in our study room, with our in-house teacher.

Subash concentrating on his homework.

Some of the children at leaisure time.

Children helping to care for young plants.

The children chose the largest vegetable they could find to give to one of the local residents.

Many plants have been established on our land to eliminate carbon emissions and to help the environment.

THANK YOU!

Many thanks to those who have donated, helping our water project to get off to a good start. We have raised enough funds so far to purchase 9 solar panels. Let's keep up the impetus! Please share this post with your friends as there might just be other people out there who would like to help this very worthy cause.