The kingdom of Nepal, home to eight of the highest mountains on earth, is one of the poorest countries in the world, but it's a land rich in ancient history, rich in cultural treasures, rich in natural beauty and rich in breathtaking sceneries. It's a country of ethnic and religious diversity, colourful cultures and incredible friendly and hospitable people. No wonder this country has been named the Shangri-La for many many centuries....

See the BBC World Documentary for "The World Challenge 2007"

But this beautiful country is suffering. There are big problems....

Unfortunately, due to grinding poverty, low literacy rate, lack of infrastructure and inadequate management of resources, Nepal is experiencing many environmental and socio-economic problems.

Due to the political insecurity in the rural areas of Nepal for many years, Kathmandu has experienced a massive increase in population. This increase has resulted in a high rate of unemployment, unregulated building and tremendous stress on the environment.

Being situated in a valley, (the Kathmandu Valley) there is no escape from the air pollution that blankets the city. Making it sometimes impossible to breath while walking in the streets.

Air pollution is caused mainly by vehicles with old engines running on low grade fuel, as well as industries, in particular illegal brick factories which are opened randomly in the urban areas of the Kathmandu Valley.

Waste creates another pollution problem in Kathmandu. Although there are policies regarding the management of household, industrial and institutional waste, there is no overall city management plan, so even if waste is separated at source, it is often dumped into the same garbage truck and delivered to the river banks or left in open land in and around the city.

Last time I came to Nepal was in 1995. And now I was shocked to see the overwhelming pollution and poverty. Everywhere is garbage and the holy river, the “Vishnumati” and the Bagmati River running through Kathmandu are both looking like a sewer. The waste from the slaughterhouses is dumped on the riverbanks in the middle of residential areas. Extremely unhealthy and dangerous. Imagine the stench, it’s a birthplace for many diseases. Water supply and water quality is another critical issue in Kathmandu.

Also I was shocked to see how bare the hillsides were looking and how rapid the deforestation has been over the last 11 years.  Only 29% of forest-cover remains. The main reasons for deforestation have been land clearings, the demand for timber and, especially, the demand for firewood.

Because people can't afford the high fuel cost rural communities are obliged to cut down trees and the wood is used for cooking and, during winter, also for heating. About 87% of domestic energy in Nepal is produced by firewood. The need for firewood is not only a burden for nature, but also for women. In true Nepalese tradition, women are responsible for fetching firewood and carrying it home.

As the forests disappear, these women need to spend more and more time in finding enough wood, an activity that may take several hours each day. Very time-consuming and it can be extremely dangerous.

Not to forget that there are a lot more problems associated with deforestation such as global warming, decreased biodiversity, soil erosion, desertification, immense landslides, floods and stone avalanches which sometimes cover up whole villages and killing many people.

The Nepalese people I have spoken to know this problem and they do not want to destroy their forests, but they are too poor to change their way of living....

But thank God there are people like Sanu Kaji Shrestha....  Sanu Kaji is the founder of FoST, a Nepali non-governmental and non-profit organization.

The organization FoST is providing low-cost, low-tech, easily adaptable and locally built sustainable technologies to improve the life of the poor people living in the rural areas of Nepal and to protect the very fragile environment of Nepal.

They have been providing wide selection of products for cooking, drying, heat retaining and water purification using both solar and other environment-friendly sustainable technologies.

They are also working to further empower Nepali, especially women, by providing training and employment opportunities through projects designed to create micro-enterprises in sustainable technology.

With very limited resources they are doing research and they are constantly evaluating existing sustainable technologies and adapting them to the specific resources and needs of Nepal.

FoST is also offering education to improve the life of the poor people living in the rural areas of Nepal. They regularly organize interactive training workshops and seminars for community members and schools to educate the public on the need for sustainable technologies and to protect the very fragile environment.

Believe me, it's a great organization and I have a lot of respect for Mr. Sanu Kaji Shrestha's work, ideas, dedication and most important perseverance, because it is not always easy and they must constantly seek new sources of funding to survive.

Through our donation, FoST invited women from the Tikathali village to come to the office of FoST, paying for their bus fares.  Tikathali is a small village in the Kathmandu Valley, about an hour from Kathmandu city.  About 22 women / men wanted to participate with this program.

On the information day Sanu Kaji Shrestha explained all the important issues to the women such as:

1. How to control water-born and smoke-borne diseases in the community?
2. How to reduce environmental pollution in the locality?
3. How to efficiently use available energy at the household level
   without using costly devices?
4. How to use solar energy in daily life?
5. How to reduce dependence on forest and fossil fuels?
6. How to solve sanitation problem in the villages?
7. How to bring a change in cooking behaviors for improving quality of
   life?
8. How to empower women and girls in the villages?

The people of Tikathali were given several demonstrations of the different sustainable technologies and they were offered food and tea boiled by solar energy.

Than these community members were allowed to choose products that best fit their needs and match with their economy. Thanks to donations, like ours, it is possible to subsidize the products and devices. Otherwise these people would never be able to afford these devices.

Through our program, 6 women of the Tikathali village not only wanted to buy different devices from FoST, but they also wanted to participate at a course for fuel briquette making from household waste.  The briquette making training takes 3 days, and also here, all expenses like bus fares, food, drinks etc... are payed by FoST.  During their training they learn what type of waste they can use... such as waste paper, saw dust, rice husk, bagasse, grass, leaves, agri- and forest residues...

They are also taught how to process the waste... first shredding, cutting, soaking, hammering, pulping, pressing and than drying the material.

The training costs 2500 rupees per person, which is about $35, but thanks to donations the cost can be subsidized for about 70 to 80% of the cost. The courses are not free, because from experiences it has shown that if participants pay a contribution, even if it's 15 - 20% of the cost, they are more motivated to put what they have learned into use.

 On the final day the women receive an easy briquette business explanation, they get lessons in basic marketing, simple bookkeeping and possible business plan making.  They are taught for example how to calculate break-even point, they get basic information on calculating cost and prizing and if they want to start a co-operation they are getting guidance and financial advice.

There is definitely a market for briquettes because normal Nepalese can’t afford the high fuel costs, so by cooking and heating with briquettes they could save a lot of money.

Imagine, if people cook on kerosene, it costs them 38 Nepali Rupees a day, which is about $ 0,41.  If a normal Nepali family lives on 1 to 2 dollar a day, that means that they are spending more than 20% of their daily expenses just on fuel. That means that 1/5 of their total cost is for fuel to cook and to boil water!!

FoST has several other skill development workshops such as a solardrying course. This is a course educating women how to dry fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and herbs in the best and most hygienic way.

They also have:

- solar cooking and solar cooker workshop

- solar water pasteurization / disinfection course

- workshop on energy efficiency technologies

Most of these skill development workshops take 3 full days.

TIKATHALI

During our stay we were invited to the Tikathali village to hand over the different devices and products and also to give the women their briquette training certificate. It was a very special day for us. The community bought 2 solar parabolic cookers, 2 heavy duty gassifier stoves, 7 heat retention boxes and 22 Annapurna stoves! All devices subsidized by our donation and by FoST.

The whole village was waiting for us and all the women were dressed in their traditional Newari dresses, all looking beautiful. They sang and played music for us. We were overwhelmed by their hospitality!
The Tikathali village is a poor village. Even though this community lives in brick houses, you should remember that these people live on 1,5 dollar a day, they do not have the luxury of clean save water, good sanitation, and most of them have to cook on straw. The most common fuel used in the Kathmandu valley.

Cooking and boiling water with straw has a lot of disadvantages. First you need a lot of straw to create very little energy, 2nd it creates a lot of smoke, polluting the houses and causing serious air-borne diseases, 3rd, it is very dangerous as the straw sticks out of the traditional mud stoves and many accidents can happen, and 4th, it doesn't create enough warmth to heat up the houses in the winter.  Imagine... now this community can make briquettes out of straw.... they will save costs, not have any problems with smoke, so fighting the main cause for long and eye diseases, they will be able to heat their houses in the winter and cook their meals and pasteurize their water more efficiently. Now that is what I call intelligent solutions!

We have seen ourselves how Sanu, his family and the other volunteers at FoST work. We have seen their dedication.

We saw what our personal donation was used for and we met the people who benefited from our donation. We met every one of them personally. Now how satisfying is that! We only had 3 weeks to film and in our video we could only show you our program with FoST and the activities and products subsidized by our personal donation, but FoST is doing so much more and we really would like to recommend this organization.

Like most non-profit organizations, FoST must constantly seek new sources of funding to survive. Established and managed by this dedicated group in one of the poorest countries in the world, international donations are greatly appreciated and even small donations can go a long way. So if you would like to get involved with FoST, also help a whole community or if you want to subsidize some of FoST's programs please look for more information at their website: www.fost-nepal.org.

Also materials such as reflective aluminium metal sheets or stickers (aluminium polyester) for the making of solar parabolic cookers are not available in Nepal and are desperately needed.

If you have any ideas how to help FoST in any kind of way or if you want to support their great work please do not hesitate to go to their website www.fost-nepal.org  or send an email to Sanu Kaji Shrestha at fost@ntc.net.np

Documentary on BBC World, FoST participating in "The World Challenge 2007", sponsored BBC World, Shell and Newsweek.