Programs

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.

Program - Improve Health Care of the Community

Need – More extensive health care for the village, including preventative therapies.

Response - - Provide medical care for many health needs in the village by expanding the services of the existing Health Clinic and offering proven alternative and culturally appropriate health practices.
- Obtain funding to establish the expanded health clinic. The clinic can’t operate self-sustainably; with substantial services offered, dependably, the clinic will have credibility and thus be highly attractive to small and individual foreign donors.

Current implementation -
- A health clinic has been established – housed at the Community Center – with a doctor coming in one day a week.
- The clinic offers care for basic ailments, with basic medications.
- Yoga – a villager has received rudimentary training and holds small daily classes at KRMEF.

Three year plan / Outcomes -
- Provide a fuller array of health care, such as – bringing in a dentist once a week; having a doctor at the clinic 6 days a week, with a nurse; having diagnostic equipment, such as X-ray and EKG; having a physiotherapist at the clinic once a week; offer more medications; and proven alternative treatments such as yoga and Ayurvedic principles.
- Teach preventative strategies – nutrition, such as providing alternatives to processed foods and promoting brown rice in lieu of white rice. These classes will be taught at the Community Center. The Community Center Cafe will model healthy practices – serve nutritious snack alternatives, sell local organic food, cook w/ bio-briquettes, etc. The cafe will also be open when events are held at the Community Center, such as traditional music or dance, or tour buses stop. And employ two villagers.
- Yoga is an accessible, gentle, and culturally appropriate form of preventative healthcare. Research has shown that specific pranayma techniques (breathing), asanas (postures), and meditation, mitigate the effects of various physical, psychological and emotional disorders. Yoga classes will be offered for villagers, and at the local leporsorium. Teacher trainings will also be offered for villagers; newly trained yoga teachers then offer remote classes.
- Provide running water and septic tanks for all villagers in need – some villagers, without plumbing, defecate out in the fields, which is a significant health issue.
- A Program Manager would oversee operations for each program above, organizing workshops and maintain relationship to support communities where KRMEF has further propagated their work, and teaching about nutrition and health.

Indicators -
- 90% of villagers receive health care, for a broader range of health issues.
- Preventative treatments, such as yoga and better nutrition, are adopted by 80% of villagers. Analysis of this issue will include things such as less trash in the village, as most trash comes from processed foods in plastic containers.
- The Health Clinic expands, in size and services.
- A doctor and nurse are employed full-time at the clinic.
- A dentist and physiotherapist are employed one day a week at the clinic.
- 6 villagers take yoga teacher training a year, and travel to other villages in the Kathmandu Valley, to teach, including at the local leporsorium.
- Village yoga classes will help to create a sense of community, as villagers of all ages can attend, including those with leprosy.
- Lepors practicing yoga will experience less respiratory ailments, less pain from nerve damage and pain eased from structural problems due to deformities.
- Yoga programs for children will help to improve psychomotor skills, attention, and kinesthetic intelligence.
- The adult yoga practicioners will learn preventative techniques, such as: strengthen and stretch the lower back to prepare for daily work, cleansing breathing techniques to mitigate Kathmandu’s dangerous level of pollution, breathing for relaxation, and other restorative postures to support the nervous system and respiratory systems.
- The Community Center Cafe is fully operating, and in 3 years, is making a profit and paying villagers well for food they grow that is served there.

Program – Create Orphanages in the Village

Need – There are thousands of orphan children living in the streets in Nepal. This is actually not a need of the village; rather, it’s a way for the village to respond to a significant Nepali need which will help prepare Nepal for a more stable future.

Response - - Provide a home for displaced children, giving them stability and an education.
- Obtain funding to establish three orphanages (one a year). The orphanages can’t operate self-sustainably; with three orphanages operating, they will have credibility and thus be attractive to small and individual foreign donors.

Current Implementation -
- Renovations are underway on the first house, to open in the summer of 2011.
- The home will also operate as a day care center during the day, to free mothers to be able to work.

Three year plan / Outcomes -
- Continue to build orphanages, one at a time, creating jobs for those operating the homes.
- Each orphanage will house 8 – 10 children, and we will create one orphanage a year.
- Each home will require a full time staff of 2 adults.
- One of the building crews will do construction as needed (renovating an existing house or building a new one), employing 4 villagers for 4 – 8 weeks. Each orphanage will either be built new with the natural building/bottles method, or will renovate a dilapidated old home in the village.
- A Program Manager will be employed to oversee operations, including building crews.

Indicators -
- An additional orphanage is created a year (3 total), serving 8 – 10 children and creating 2 more jobs.
- Each additional orphanage will also provide for more day care, allowing a few more mothers to work a year.

Program Develop the Village in and Teach Farmers Principles of Permaculture

Need - Food production is constrained as erosion limits the amount of viable land to farm, storm water flow destroys crops, and gardens suffer during droughts (as no water is captured or returned to the water table).The village physically shows no consideration regarding storm water issues, retention and irrigation for gardens, vegetation as a means to stop erosion, etc. Moreover, there is no overarching understanding or development of the village’s ecosystem.

Response - Bring principles of permaculture to the village, to give a far-reaching plan for all development in the village.

Current implementation – None.

Three year plan / Outcomes -
- Design the village landscaping following principles of permaculture through a two week workshop in the Fall of 2011. Participants would receive a Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC), as they fully consider the village as a living ecosystem. This event will attract both foreigners and Nepalis (including villagers on scholarship), and be co-taught by a foreigner and Nepali.
- Subsequently, villagers would be employed and volunteers would help to implement the prescribed work. This work would require an initial concentrated effort, with a crew of ten for three months, and then employ two villagers ongoing as landscapes always require maintenance and support.
- Teaching these principles would be a part of a Permaculture Institute, a program of KRMEF, which would be another significant attraction of the village.
- A Nepali permaculturalist will be the co-teacher of the initial workshop and an ongoing advisor to KRMEF.
- A Program Manager would be employed to organize the initial workshop in Kharare, organize workshops at other villages and maintain relationship to support communities where KRMEF has further propagated their work, establish and operate the Institute, including determining subsequent work required in the upkeep of the permaculture plan, planning further educational events, and handling volunteer queries.
- We would take these principles to other parts of Nepal, teaching two week workshops and/or consulting other villages (as requested).

Indicators -
- A comprehensive permaculture plan is created.
- The plan is initially implemented, and continues being developed, as all (temporal) landscapes dictate.
- The implemented plan resolves issues of the village land, such as eliminates storm water erosion, captures the rain and percolates it back into the water table while watering plants. Previous eroded areas are stabilized and planted. A comprehensive irrigation systems is implemented.
- 2 villagers are employed full-time, working on the land.
- Workshops are taught in other parts of Nepal, both in the Kathmandu Valley and in rural villages, 3 – 4 times a year. Other villages adopt these principles and methods.

Program – Bio-Dynamic Farming

Need -More effective farming is needed for higher yield from the village plots.

Response - Introducing Bio-dynamic gardening – an organic method which furthermore regenerates and boosts the soil- throughout the village gardens.

Current implementation -
- The foundation’s gardens are tended with this method.
- Villagers are brought to the foundation and taught the method. There are specific remedies to enhance the soil – soil remedies – which the foundation provides at no cost.
- Krishna holds seminars at the foundation for other Nepali organizations.
- Krishna travels throughout Nepal offering seminars, occasionally with Hans Mulder, an internationally acclaimed teacher of bio-dynamic farming.

Three year plan / Outcomes -
- The foundation will make their own soil remedies, which are now shipped from Switzerland, and distribute them throughout the village. Making these remedies will create a job for a villager.
- The surplus food will be sold to hi-end restaurants in Kathmandu, which Krishna has relationships with, or to the Community Center Cafe.
- Remedies will be sold to other villages as these practices are developed, while teaching bio-dynamic principles to those villages. The sale will transact through a micro-loan – payments will come from subsequent village’s sales of surplus produce.
- Krishna will continue traveling throughout Nepal, sometimes with Hans Mulder, teaching these methods. Krishna will conduct 4 workshops a year, with one a year also including Hans Mulder.
- A Program Manager would be employed to oversee operations, including arranging workshops and maintain relationship to support communities where KRMEF has further propagated their work, and working with the villagers doing the gardening.

Indicators -
- 90% of villagers adopt bio-dynamic farming principles, and realize more abundant farming, bringing in more food and money from sales of surplus crops.
- A villager is employed full-time, making remedies.
- Workshops are taught in other parts of Nepal, 3 – 4 times a year. Other villages adopt these principles and methods.

Program – Build Capacity for Use of Sustainable Building Materials

Need – KRMEF intends to develop the village while building with materials that are locally available. Most of Nepal’s buildings are made from concrete posts and floors with infill brick, all with hi-embodied energy and not earthquake proof.

Response - Build with what is at hand; unfortunately, trash is everywhere. Building with waste bottles and trash is regenerative. The bamboo structure and roof is a flexible structural system, which will sway but not break during an earthquake.

Current implementation -
- A building method has been developed – from October 2010 – April 2011 – with a bamboo structure, thatched roof, and walls from waste glass bottles set in natural plaster (sand and clay with chopped-up straw and waste paper).
- With villagers and volunteers, a small cottage (chappro, or dignified working man’s cottage) was built at the foundation, serving as a model and guest room, at the end of 2010. In the process, we began to form a team of villagers to continue this work.
- An addition was built onto the community center, completed in May 2011. The building team was fully trained to continue this work.

Three year plan / Outcomes -
- A building method is established which absorbs waste – 3 – 4000 bottles and 14 – 18 sacks of shredded paper per home – and doesn’t use building materials being shipped great distances.
- The waste bottles come from the US and German Embassies, and restaurants in Kathmadu; the shredded paper comes from the US Embassy.
- Each home cost $2000 USD.
- This building method is low in skill yet high in labor, creating 8 jobs per project.
- Develop a building for profit business – there are already a few villagers who want to build their home with this natural building method. The team would build those homes and then build a chappro for a person/family in need with the profits. Whoever each chappro is for helps to build their home, and then volunteers on next few for profit projects to pay back, which trains them so they can then become a part of the next building team (and thus be employed).
- There are two other additions onto the Community Center (the center of the village, with hi-visibility) planned – one which will house community toilets (some homes don’t have plumbing) while the second addition will house a cafe.
- Take this building method to other parts of Nepal, training crews just as we have in Kharare. This building method has attracted great interest; we will be running a building workshop in the summer of 2011 to build an orphanage in another part of the Kathmandu Valley. We will continue to travel in Nepal, helping other organizations expand their operations and training work crews to continue this work in their region. There is considerable need; we will work with 3 – 4 such organizations a year. We will offer two forms of this remote workshop – with a foreign leader when the organization in need brings foreign volunteers to help, and with the Nepal building team leading the workshop when only Nepalis helping to build.
- A Program Manager would be employed to oversee operations, including for each building project – one going on the first year, two the second and three by the third, as workers are trained – and arranging workshop sand maintain relationship to support communities where KRMEF has further propagated their work.

Indicators -
- The Community Center is completed, via two more additions.
- Two – three for profit projects are completed each year.
- Two – three homes for those in need are completed each year.
- Three work crews are trained and employed.
- Workshops are taught in other parts of Nepal, 3 – 4 times a year. Other villages adopt these principles and methods.

Program - Alternative Fuel for Cooking
Need - Resource and environmentally beneficial cooking methods, as most villagers cook with wood and deforestation is a significant issue in Nepal, or kerosene which is non-renewable and shipped great distances.
Response - Develop alternative cooking fuels, from local renewable resources.

Current implementation -
- Bio-briquettes – from waste paper, manure and sawdust. Made from a simple hand-operated form and press. Waste paper comes from the US Embassy.
- Bio-gas – from manure and cow urine, made into a slurry which is piped underground and release their gases into a small domed chamber. The pressure building in the chamber moves the gas to stoves. The remaining slurry is then used as fertilizer.
- Both methods are only as yet demonstrated at the foundation.

Three year plan / Outcomes -
- Develop both of these methods so as to provide jobs – for two villagers, making bio-briquettes – and/or provide form/presses for village families or teach how to build the slurry chamber and piping. We will work with each family to determine what serves them.
- Villagers pay from the money they’d otherwise use to purchase kerosene or firewood (staff’s time teaching these methods factored into the product cost).
- Teach these methods in other parts of the Valley and throughout Nepal, as part of the outreach program.
- A Program Manager would be employed to oversee operations, including working with and teaching the villagers, establishing a market to sell bio-briquettes, and arranging workshops and maintain relationship to support communities where KRMEF has further propagated their work

Indicators -
- 80% of villagers adopt fuels which are locally readily available.
- 2 villagers are employed making bio-briquettes.
- A Kathmandu and Kathmandu market to sell bio-briquettes is established.
- Workshops are taught in other parts of Nepal, 3 – 4 times a year. Other villages adopt these principles and methods.

Program – Crafts and Jewelry Making and Sales

Need - - Provide employment for village women.
- Find regenerative ways to use waste products and local plants.

Response - Develop a range of crafts, which can be sold in the tourists parts of Kathmandu and internationally.

Current implementation -
- A group of women meet a few times a week to make crafts and jewelry.
- These products are brought to the US and Europe by Krishna or friends and sold at local fairs and evening fundraising events. And sold to visitors at KRMEF.

Three year plan / Outcomes -
- Develop the designs, to be more appealing to foreign buyers. Do this by bringing in a designer who knows what foreign buyers are looking for. This would involve one designer making one trip a year to the village.

- Develop online shopping, as part of a revamped web site. This will involve a web site designer, and take +/- 100 hours (for the online shopping component).
- Develop relationships with craft stores in the west, to sell products. Foreign supporters of KRMEF will explore their local markets.
- Develop relationships with shops in the tourists parts of Kathmandu. Go door to door with samples.
- Expand production, as demand increases, to employ as many villagers as possible.
- A Program Manager would be employed to oversee operations, including promoting the products locally and internationally, managing the work force, and looking for a different design advisor each year.

Indicators -
- 10 more village women are employed.
- Sales of wares make a profit.
- Web site is up, selling goods.
- Markets for sales are expanded, in Kathmandu and abroad.

Program – Further Establish KRMEF’s Infrastructure and Visibility

Need - KRMEF needs to assemble the necessary staff to do their work effectively, obtain office space in the center of the village, and aggressively promote their work via multi-media.

Response - - Rent office space on the main road passing through the village, near the bus stop, which gives KRMEF a prominent platform for doing their work.
- Create a more extensive and user-interactive web site.
- Promote KRMEF’s work via video, articles, a blog, newsletter, etc.

Current Implementation –
- A web site.
- A brochure that is handed-out.

Three year plan / Outcomes -
- The office space in the village would be a hub of activity, with graphics of programs in development highly visible. And a big sign announcing their presence.
- Operate with an open door policy, engaging in conversations with villagers – asking for their input – regarding the development of their village.
- As their prospective office would be only one hundred feet from the Community Center, all large meetings would take place there.
- Revised web site is up and running.
- Videos are produced, for education and promotion.
- A quarterly newsletter is sent to email database.
- Press releases on program highlights.
- Apply for US non-profit status, to help encourage donations (with “donate now” button on expanded web site).
- Hire a Program Manager for each program, an Office Manager, an accountant (half-time), a writer (half-time), a videographer (half-time), a grant writer (half-time) – all Nepalis.