Organisation doing work in the Himalayan region
While many international donors search oul exotic locales such as the Khombu or Thak Khola to conduct their
aid activity, others shun the limelight and persevere in remote areas. One such group is the Canadian supported
Nepal Schools Project (NSP), which works in a forsaken and "unglamorous" corner of the country — the
Mahabharat region of Kabhre District east of Kathmandu. The project is small but effective in trying to meet
the needs of the Tamangs who inhabit these dry and rugged mountains.
When the Project staff began work here in 1984, they found that the region occupied a blind spot in the eyes
of planners and donors. It received virtually no development aid, perhaps due to difficult access and the
minimal political clout of the Tamangs. The few schoois Chat existed were among the worst anywhere and modem
health care was nonexistent. The economy consisted entirely of subsistence farming.
The NSP did not prorjitse to move mountains, and it did not make extravagant claims as if it were after the
next lucrative CIDA, USAID or World Bank project. Indeed, NSP´s workers seem to be in no hurry to hand in the
final report: Development cannot be hurried in a region which has so much catching up to do, and even years of
work might still leave the Tamangs only fractionally better off.
At the very beginning, the Project decided: to base its priorities on the expressed needs of (he community. By
common consent, if began installing safe water pipelines, constructing primary schools, arid starting primary
health centres. Overhead costs arc minimised so that the maximum benefit goes to the people of Kabhre,
According to NSP´s Director Michael Rojik, 100 per cent of all donations received by NSP from its Canadian
supporters are used in the field. The Project has no salaried staff; all administrative work is done by
volunteers.
NEPAL SCHOOL PROJECTS
To meet the demand, more than 50 per cent of NSP´s .annual budgtet has been allocated to safe water projects.
During the past year, it brought piped water to nine villages: Ahaiebanspur, Thuio Pokhara, Sirhle Gaon, Ratay
Malay, Bhusule Danda, Raje Danda, Goltar, Lapche and Patle Khoia Danda. It also built five primary schools in
Dandagaon, Jagathaii, Lapche Ghartichap and Ahaiebanspur.
The NSP is. presently running its eighth vocational training course to Tamang boys. Instead of importing
skilled labour from Kathmandu, NSP now uses its own "graduates". Although without formal education, the
trainees have proved exceptional students, says Director Rojfk. Chakra Dhoj Tamang is field supervisor,
Surje Man Tamang is the chief carpenter, Gunji Man Tamang the assistant carpenter, Narayan Tamang the youngest
master carpenter. Chamar Singh: Lama makes blackboards for schools, Chitra Tamang is the master mason who
constructs reservoirs and water tanks, and Kancha Man Lama is the chief plumber, responsible for: installing
pipelines.
The project has now established primary health care centres in five panchayats. Training of health workers was
done with the hdp of Dr. Ramesh Adhikari of Kathmandy, using for reference the Nepali version of the health
care manual Where There Is No Doctor.
No trekkers pass through southern Kabhre´s stark hill flanks; there are no snows to attract the mountaineer;
no lobbying ciout to attract the politician. Jus! rugged mountains.. What Edmund Hillary did for the better off
Sherpas of Solu KhumbU, the Nepal School Projects is doing for the Taniangs of KabhreJA
(NSP, G.p;0 Box 4479, Kathmandu, or 63 Perivate Crescent, Scarbofough^ Ontario M1J 2C4, Canada.)