Project Snapshot and Objectives:

The Kevin Rohan Memorial Eco Foundation’s (KRMEF) central agenda is to bring sustainable practices into Kharare step by step, establishing programs that are deeply rooted, serving the needs of the village. KRMEF is pursuing a broad array of social services which address issues of the environment and climate change, food security and health – an expanded community center, housing a health clinic, cultural events, yoga, and a cafe offering nutritious food from the village gardens; building orphanages; natural building with waste bottles and paper; a permaculture plan considering the ecosystem of the village and resident’s needs; further developing a craft and jewelry program so as to employ more village women; providing environmentally regenerative cooking fuels; and more effective farming practices working working with and rectifying storm water issues and depleted soil. All of these programs will create more jobs, and further unify the village community.

As Kharare becomes a model village, the sustainable practices implemented there will be offered to other villages in the Kathmandu Valley (all small villages, distinct from Kathmandu). As the valley holds a great proportion of Nepal’s population, the work of KRMEF will have a significant impact in Nepal. Within three years, the programs described below can be fully operating.

Traction has been gained in the programs described below; with grant seed monies, we will be able to fill a larger part of the overwhelming need. Most programs can be self-sustaining, once seed money helps them become firmly established, and the health clinic and orphanages can be, w/ seed money, fully operating and thus more attractive to foreign donors.

All projects respond to the specific needs of Kharare, and will also support local development in the form of native consultants, equipment, and research reports. Additionally, the project will have a rigorous evaluation by domestic and foreign consultants. All such reports on the project will be made public.

Project Background:

KRMEF is a Nepali NGO set in a typical small village – Kharare – in the Kathmandu Valley, seven miles or so below the Kathmandu ring road. Kharare has about thirty homes with 3 – 5 people per home. A busy Kathmandu artery road passes through the village, with many buses, including tourists buses going to Pharfing and Dachsinkhali. This road is lined with around fifteen shops and a bus stop.

KRMEF has been in operation for less than two years and has already drawn the financial and creative support of many foreigners as well as appealed to a wide spectrum of Nepalis.

To date, significant contributions of time and effort have and are being made. Countless volunteers have stayed at the foundation and worked, some many times, helping to – develop a building method using waste bottles and paper; build a model home for those in need, and build an addition onto the community center (and will help build an orphanage for another organization this summer), all the while training villagers so they can continue this work as employment; establish a half-acre of vibrant, highly productive gardens (at KRMEF) following bio-dynamic gardening practices; renovate a dilapidated village house into an orphanage; and, amongst additional programs, creatively augmenting education at local government schools. And foreigners with great expertise have given their time to help establish KRMEF, including Hans Mulder, an internationally renowned teacher and practitioner of Bio-Dynamic Farming, and Daniel Kirkland, an international sustainability development consultant who is helping implement these programs. Two American organizations have and are serving the work of KRMEF – Helicon Works Architects, who has helped develop the natural building methods as well as the holistic vision of Kharare, and The Green Pillar, which operates with a creative team of practitioners to support foundations such as KRMEF. The Green Pillar recently brought such a team, who initiated the yoga work (which is also supported by the Give Back Yoga Foundation, a US-based non-profit organization dedicated to bringing yoga to underserved and unserved communities), supported the natural building, brought fresh creative ideas to the jewelry and craft work, and a documentarian who is producing a film on the work of the foundation. All these supporters are engaged with KRMEF in an ongoing relationship, at no charge. Finally, the United States Embassy in Kathmandu has supported KRMEF’s work by providing many of its waste bottles and paper, as well as provide many contacts to help expand the foundation’s network.