Basa Village Project Report
In October 2011 our "philanthro-trekking" group of Mike Miller, Joel Meyers, Dennis Mathews, Chris & Jeanne Taylor, Karlin & Ursula Meyers and Jeff Rasley delivered 5 laptop computers, 23 pairs of children's shoes and miscellaneous school supplies to the Basa Village School. Chris' employer, Nimbus, donated the computers. Changing Footprints of Indianapolis donated the shoes and group members donated the school supplies. Chris and Jeanne spent an afternoon instructing the school's faculty and five hand-picked students in basic computer skills on the laptops. One of the teacher's, Assam Rai, with help of this core of students will take the lead in teaching all students how to use the laptops. Chris and Jeanne plan to return in April 2012 to provide advanced instruction.
Mike Miller, Joel Meyers and I hiked with villagers over to the Mauri Khola (river) to inspect the hydroelectric power station, which Mike and I had helped to plan the year before. We were impressed with the workmanship of the villagers in the construction and the operational care taken in running the system by Prakesh Rai. In 2010 The First Friends Basa Village Project and Miller Family Foundation raised $20,000 to purchase and install 2 hydroelectric generators and wiring for electricity for the Basa village area of 62 homes. On February 21, 2011 lights were turned on for the first time in the history of Basa village. It was extraordinarily gratifying for Mike and me to witness the success of the Hydroelectric Project and use of lights in the village. Our group was able to enjoy a dance program performed by the village children in the evening under lights outside the school. Deforestation has been reduced as firewood is no longer needed for lighting.
The First Friends Project also raised sufficient funds in the summer of 2011 to purchase the parts to construct 62 smokeless stoves for the village. Members of our trekking group visited homes throughout the village and were shown the smokeless stoves now in each home in Basa. The villagers were especially proud of their own work in assembling the stoves and building chimneys into their homes.
Smokeless stoves will have great health benefits for the villagers. Currently firewood is the primary fuel for heating and cooking. Villagers inhale carbon smoke every day of their lives. By significantly reducing the reliance on firewood there should be a great reduction in cardio-pulmonary problems and cataracts. Smokeless stoves will also significantly reduce deforestation. Villagers were burning at least 9 sticks each day for cooking and heating. The smokeless stoves have reduce the number of sticks needed to 3 per day.
The electric system and computers will also bring great benefits for the school children. School children have had no access to the outside world, as there is no regular mail delivery, phone service, TV or Internet connection in the village. The 5 grades in the Basa school have very limited resources. Unfortunately, many of the school children will be forced to leave Basa as the small family farms cannot support extended families. So, preparation to cope with living and working in an urban area, like Katmandu, is extremely important for the school children. Providing lighting to the village and computers for the school will thus not only improve the quality of life in the village, it will greatly benefit village children as they will be computer literate when they move to an urban area.
If you want to help:
The next project we are studying (in addition to adding 5 more computers for the school) is to develop latrines and a better water system for the village. Currently, only the School has a charpi ("toilet" in Nepali). Sanitation within the village would be greatly improved if there were toilets available to all the villagers. The School's charpi is a septic-tank system. The Nepal-based Basa Village Foundation (our sister organization) is working on plans for a village-wide system. When plans are finalized and a budget developed, we will be ready to move ahead with fundraising specifically for this project.
Each of the
projects devised by the Basa Village Foundation for the improvement of Basa
village requires the villagers to "own" the project. The local people lack
capital, but they have provided the labor for all work projects, even the
teachers at the school, who are villagers with teaching certificates.
The villagers
built the hydroelectric system and assembled and installed the stoves in their homes.
We also respect cultural traditions of the community. For example, because
of the Rai tradition of having three sacred stones in
the family fire pit, the stoves have either been placed on top of the stones
within the fire pit or beside it.
A group of 20+ supporters of the Basa Project have formed a nonprofit corporation, Basa Village Foundation USA Inc.. We plan to expand the work of the BVF to other villages using Basa as a model of culturally sensitive development. If you are interested in joining our corporate effort, please contact Jeff Rasley (jrasley@juno.com) and/or visit the corporation's website at: Basa Village Foundation USA
When application for tax exempt status is complete, the BVF-USA will take over fundraising for all projects. In the meantime, First Friends of Indianapolis Quaker Meeting is the fiscal agent and sponsor of the Basa Village Project. So, donors may claim a tax deduction for contributions to the project through the Quaker Meeting. Funds donated should be designated to First Friends Basa Project. The church will transfer funds to a trust account in Everest Bank, the licensed bank in Katmandu for the Basa Village Foundation, a registered Nepalese NGO. The account has 3 signatories on it, Niru, Ganesh & Sanga, each of whom is well known to me.
If you would like to contribute financially,
or to me:
Jeff Rasley
6422 Ralston Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46220
You may also donate through Paypal:
Anyone interested in participating in, or commenting on, the planning of the next project for Basa Village should contact me
at jrasley@juno.com or Niru at niru@wlink.com.np.
Basa School Project (completed):
The Basa School Project was successfully completed as to fund raising in 2008. This project was intended to raise funds for the village school in Basa, Nepal in a remote area of the Solu region. Niru Rai is in charge of the distribution of funds, and he reports that, as of March 2009, the following improvements have been made to the School by use of the funds donated:
- Cracked floors have been patched, window frames have been painted and repaired, and additional benches have been built;
- A playground and safety wall has been constructed;
- Teaching materials and workbooks for grades K through 5 were shipped and have been delivered to the school; and
- Sufficient funds were raised (and are being held in the School’s Trust Account) to hire and pay 4th and 5th grade teachers for three years, so the School was able to expand from grades 1 to 3 to 1 through 5.
All of this was accomplished with donations totaling $6,300.00.
La Campagne Ministry, Inc. of Bloomington, IN is the 501(C)(3) charitable organization which sponsored the fund raising campaign and transferred the funds raised to the School’s account, and only charged a 2% administrative fee for its services. Donations ranged in amounts from $50 to $1000 with over 30 donors participating. The study materials were provided at not cost as “discard items” by the Indiana Dept. of Education.
[Rasley delivering a check of the initial funds raised to Niru Rai, supervisor of the Basa School Account, at the Katmandu Guest House.]
Village children often walk many hours on mountain trails to attend school.
Basa kids had to walk two hours to reach the nearest school before the Basa School was built in 2003
by a French-Canadian NGO.
Class rooms in the Basa School.
The School building Sanga Rai, trekking sirdar and husband of
senior teacher at Basa School, reviewing
donated materials with Rasley
A grateful parent after receiving a grant for his child’s educational expenses from the French NGO, Sol Himal
