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A Himalayan Light Journey
ADAM MERRICK'S HIMALAYAN LIGHT FOUNDATION TREK
In 2011 I travelled to the remote village of Bhonje located in the Western Himalayas of Nepal, with one village member Bauda and Yadav, Heera and Deepak from the Himalayan Light Foundation. I found out about the Himalayan Light Foundation through an article in Earth Garden several years ago. Yadav Gurung from the HLF was very helpful in organising my program and as I was travelling alone in Nepal he was a great source of assistance.
A bus took us to the end of a mountain track at Gilung and we stayed overnight at a guesthouse. There I tried Chang for the first time, and concluded it must be an acquired taste! The next day we walked to Bhonje and were greeted with much fanfare from the community and given food, silk scarves and flower garlands. We viewed the village’s medical centre where the HLF could develop a project to install a small solar system.
From there we trekked to Chara Guan where the Banasthali Secondary School is located and were graciously hosted by the school’s head master for the night. The next morning many community members helped us unpack the equipment that had been carried to the school via pack mules. We only carried in tools, as there is only pedestrian access to these remote mountain villages. We assembled the solar panels and mounted them on the classroom roof.
The next day was the start of the school week and the children arrived with much curiosity and excitement to meet us and see the new equipment in their school. Students assisted me with installing the lights and switches into the classrooms. Although they were very shy we celebrated the first switch on of each light in each classroom with photos and applause! Then we installed the schools first computer and trained the only teacher with computer experience to use the new setup, and to facilitate the training of other teachers and students. We also spoke with the staff about the amount of time the lights and computer could run, to fit within the parameters of our system design. The maintenance requirements of the solar system are minimal as we used high quality equipment and installed correctly to avoid premature failure of the components.
Our hosts in each village were very welcoming and generous. Each night we stayed at a community member’s house and shared our meals with the family.
A very successful project to a very grateful school and community, I humbly accepted many thanks (Khata scarves, red tika and flower garlands or Mala) on behalf of all our sponsors and supporters. I spoke at the school assembly about Marian College, the Ararat Community and all the supporters for the project, to relay our compassion for the future of the young villager’s education and prosperity.
Other major sponsors were: Ararat Rotary, Australian Plants Society – Grampians, Ararat Greenhouse Action Group and other local community members all contributed to raise $3250 which all went towards the project.
I urge anyone who can organise funds for a project like this to go ahead and contact the Himalayan Light Foundation (www.hlf.org.np) or make a donation to fund projects via the Earth Garden Foundation.
~ Adam Merrick
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Bonje village
Preparing equipment
Installing panels
Installing panels
Using the lighting for the first time
Firing up the computer
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