Our Projects

A few Recent Projects

Helping Redesign Refugee Camps

Sustainable Resources Conference

HELPO Foundation in Pune, Maharashtra State, India

1) Alternative agro practices: in our last report we mentioned a training program for farmers in watershed management, rainwater harvest and alternative agro practices which has resulted in our parched facilities turning into a practical lab for the farmers - a lovely marigold farm;

2) Budding farming families: the marigold experiment has brought golden smiles along with a few Rupees to the farmers;

3) Chicken sheds: these have been updated and two vets run the farm giving employment to several poor families;

4) Watershed Management: A great victory in terms of having a part of the village benefiting from a percolation lake (notice the raised walls in the background) helping the water table of the artisan wells go up considerably. We will figure out a way to pump the water to the school so that the students do not have to haul it on their shoulders.

Will keep you updated on some exciting forthcoming activities.
Vinod

Solar Technician Report from Chenang Village, Tibet 

Greetings, 

I am writing to report success of our solar lighting installation and maintenance training program that you have funded in early this year. My name is Kunchok and I am one of the two solar technician students of your program and now project coordinator for Dhargay village.

Under the direction of Tibetan Village Project, Gyalpo and I have participated in solar lighting installation and maintenance training program that was organized by Mr. Wang Lu for from December 2001 to March 2002. 

Training was designed for ordinary villagers who want to have both hands on and in class training on how to install, maintain or upgrade small PV systems. Because of a language barrier reading Chinese technical manuals, Kunchok and I both learned more from hands on training. We had the opportunity to participate in installing over fifty PV systems in Dhagay village in a couple of weeks. Dhargay village has received foreign aid to install about two hundred small PV systems. Most of the technicians came from Mainland China and there were six of us from several different villages in Drikung valley.
Two weeks before completing our training program, we made request to Mr. Wang to teach us how to do basic tractor repairs. With little hesitation, he extended our training for two more weeks. Dhargay village has over ten tractors and no one them knows how to do minor repair works that are so essential to functionality of the tractors. Tractors are not cheap but we use them for many different activities including delivering construction materials, farming, and pressing oils. 

Upon completion of our program, we returned to our villages and performed our first repair work on a PV system of our monastery. We thought this would be a great way to begin our work and get some blessings. The monks were so happy that we were treated like Rinpoche – incarnated lamas. As of today, Gyalpo and I installed five small PV systems, repaired or upgraded twelve medium size systems in two villages, and repaired three tractors. Most of repair works are minor such as replacing batteries or fixing broken wires. People in our village did not have money to buy parts or pay for our labor in form of cash so they paid us through labor and let us use tractor for pressing oils. (Attached is itemized expenditure)

Once again, we would like to thank you for your generous funding. I would appreciate if you could keep our village in mind as we have several students who would like to participate in this type of trainings. 

Sincerely,
Kunchok,