Our footprint begins to grow

Dr. Jill Pritcher and Camielle Bently led a group of physicians and students from the Rocky Vista University who spent a week in the Kumari seeing patients / Then Jagat went to Portland to meet with Les Zollbrecht from the Mountain Leadership Institute. (MLI) and a wonderful group of people traveled to Nepal and helped build the first lavatory in the Kumari.

In 2013 The Freesolo Collective and The Mountain Leadership Institute are sponsoring a film: KUMARI, The Jagat Lama Story. The film will focus on the inspiring story of Jagat Lama

“The objective has always been and will remain a voice and a vehicle for the people of Kumari. It is a community produced film designed to share a highly impactful story and work to see the Kumari projects prosper in their gifts to the community there. All donated funds to the film will be stretched to the maximum potential in seeing this film through and the objective of serving the people of Kumari through Jagat's story.” – Sean O’Connor, Freesolo Collective.

Sean is an Emmy Awarded visual storyteller, Internationally published photographer and creative talent dedicated to the progression on non-profit and caused based missions as well as the Outdoor Industry's socially responsible companies

Students from the University of Utah chapter of the Engineers Without Boarders have won a grant to introduce a vented fireplace construction to the Kumari. Our doctors from the 2009 health camp said that the large number of respiratory problems they saw was a result of the open fireplaces in the homes. The group went to the Kumari to test their stove design. In most cases testing with existing stoves or 3-stone fires, they measured CO concentrations in the home above 100 ppm, and in some cases as high as 500-600 ppm (OSHA permissible exposure limit is 50 ppm for an 8 hr period). This compares to the Kumari 1.1 stove in which we could achieve ~20 ppm room CO if operated properly.

And the progress continues

To help improve the plight of the Tamang girls, H&E4N is supporting two young women in a “bridge” program to prepare students to become nurses and midwives. In the photo to the left, the young lady circled in red and the girl wearing the yellow scarf are two Tamang students sponsored by H&E4N in this program.

The girl on the left recently

moved to Kathmandu with her husband so that she could attend this school. When we asked why she looked so sad, we learned that her husband earns about a dollar a day when he can get work as a laborer. Their rent is about $30 a month. To eat, they bring rice from their home in the Kumari.

/ The Health Assistant (HA) and Pharmacist have graduated
and are working in the Kumari.

A sewing cooperative was opened to provide income for the women of the community that donates part of their profit to support the hospital. In addition, the women of the Kumari are training groups of women from neighboring communities. Over 350 local women have been trained in the Women’s Center. /
Bob Nielsen teaches a computer class to school teachers and advanced students. At the end of the day we allowed the students to “play” with the computers. In less than an hour, they were surfing the internet and listening to their favorite music. /
The new transformer will bring electricity to the Kumari / The new library in the Kumari has hundreds of books and a dozen laptops
Bob and Diane McKeag purchase books and with the help of a delightful Nepali girl, open the new library