First Friends Basa Village Nepal Project

The Basa Village Foundation USA ("BVF") was incorporated Jan. 1, 2012. A group of 30+ supporters of the Basa Project have formed a nonprofit corporation. We plan to expand the work of the Basa Project, which has been supported by Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting 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

First Friends has acted as 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 direct to the BVF should also be tax deductible, but the IRS application for tax exemption is pending. Donations through First Friends or to BVF should be designated for "Basa Project". The church will transfer funds to the BVF when the next project is ready for funding. Then, the BVF transfers funds to a trust account in Everest Bank, the licensed bank in Katmandu for the Basa Village Foundation, a registered Nepalese NGO, which is our sister organization in Nepal. The account has 3 signatories on it, Niru, Ganesh & Sanga, all of whom are well known and trusted by me and other members of BVF-USA.

The BVF-USA successfully completed its fundraising campaign for a water delivery system for Basa village in November 2012. The Foundation's members approved transfer of $29,000 to our sister organization, the BVF-Nepal, at our annual meeting on Dec. 11, 2012.

During the monsoon season, water is typically plentiful in the Solukhumbu region, cascading from the hillsides and filling terraced rice paddies. Throughout the rest of the year, the people of Basa have to walk long distances over very steep terrain to bring buckets of water to their homes. The BVF-Nepal retained a local engineer, Bharu man Rai, to design a system which will divert water from a nearby spring and pipe it to taps outside the homes in the village. BVF member and engineer, Ben Snyder, trekked to Basa in September 2012 to review Bharu's plan and to plot out the planned system by GPS. Ben approved the design and budget for all materials and transportation in the amount of $29,000. The villagers will provide all labor for construction at no cost. The system will be maintained and owned by the village. It will be managed by a committee of supervisors chosen by the villagers. Construction is planned for the winter of 2013.

BVF-USA members in conjunction with Marian University students plan to trek to Basa village in May 2013 to review the water project and to celebrate with the villagers the completion of the water system. Other trekkers are welcome to join the trekking group to experience Basa village and the Nepal Himalayas. [Anyone interested in joining the trek should contact Jeff Rasley at jrasley@juno.com]

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.

The next project we are studying (in addition to adding more computers for the school) is to develop latrines for the village. Currently, only the School has a charpi ("toilet" in Nepali). Sanitation within the village will be greatly improved with a water system and toilets available to all the villagers. 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.

please make checks payable to: "Basa Village Foundation USA" or to "First Friends Basa Project."

You can mail a check to:

Indianapolis First Friends

Indianapolis, IN 46220

or to:

Basa Village Foundation USA Inc. C/O Jeff Rasley
6422 Ralston Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46220

Anyone interested in participating in, or commenting on, the planning of the next project for Basa Village should contact me

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;

- 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 4^th and 5^th grade teachers for three years, so the School was able to expand from grades 1 to 3 to 1 through 5.

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.]

Basa kids had to walk two hours to reach the nearest school before the Basa School was built in 2003

A grateful parent after receiving a grant for his child’s educational expenses from the French NGO, Sol Himal