.png){kind=logo}
Projects
1
Stove Project
The current practice of open fire cooking creates several serious issues:
1. Number 1 health risk in South Asia as it causes severe lung and heart disease.
2. High levels of CO2, methane and black carbon emission and accelerated deforestation.
3. Significant time spent collecting wood and cooks slowly.
Issue
ln the Himalayan Mountains this issue is magnified because:
1. Cutting of trees for cooking means less roots to hold the soil and more landslides and floods.
2. Restricted access to healthcare facilities means a sustainable preventive solution to lung and heart disease in the region is imperative.
3. 10 major rivers flowing through the world’s most densely populated regions originate in Himalayan glaciers and the climate stability of this range is directly responsible for the fresh water supply and food security of over 600 million people
Magnified Issue
1. Clean biomass cook stoves reduce the harmful emissions released by traditional cooking methods by up to 80% while cooking time and wood requirements are reduced by up to 65%. This means significantly lower contributions to climate change, cleaner air, fewer trees being cut and a lower risk of diseases.
2. Rural mountain dwellers are also comfortable using the stove, as it’s easy to transition to from their current cooking method. A clean stove saves an average of 5.6 trees from being cut and 1.5 million tons of CO2 equivalent emissions from entering the atmosphere every year!
THE SOLUTION
The project will provide clean stoves at a subsidized rate and educate the villagers on the importance and benefits of using them. lt aims to supply highly remote villages in the Western Garhwal region of Uttarakhand with clean stoves and subsequently spread across the Himalayan region.
THE IMPLEMENTATION
2
Smart Farming Products
Farmers have access to highly fertile land but limited information on modern farming techniques, high revenue produce, preserving and packaging techniques.
1. Farmers grow perishable food and grain that’s sold within their community or region with limited accessibility to metropolitan cities.
2. Don’t leverage their fertile land and abundance of water to the best use as they’re unaware of irrigation techniques and farming cycles
3. Don’t have access and skills and material to package their produce and a market it in cities
Issue
1. Farming is a way of life in the Himalayas, villagers sustain on small patches of land though which they sustain their own personal requirements and sell their remaining produce to the wholesale hub close to their village. Leaving them with little or no money to sustain their basic needs.
2. Cash flow issues for villagers, Loans and financial destress along with No alternative revenue sources for villagers that leads to poor living conditions, healthcare, sanitation, and an increased illiterate population
Magnified Issue
Targeting a cluster of 10 villages where we introduce villagers to new high revenue produce like, rare herbs, organic grains, jams, sun dried, preservation techniques and an annual farming plan though the aid of local resources and volunteers
THE SOLUTION
The project will be collection, distribution of farming material, knowledge transfer sessions though video modules, village visits and a comprehensive annual farming plan – per family – per village though regional collectives.
THE IMPLEMENTATION
3
Little Himalayan Library
We found that only 13.9% women in remote Himalayan villages have completed their primary education. Citing issues of accessibility to schools and educational institutes. This further results in creating a problem of stagnation in Job options as rural and Limited awareness of their fundamental rights to live a life with equality, liberty and a sense of fraternity.
Issue
Rural Himalayan children, at times; travel for hours by road to access their classrooms, carrying heavy books back home along with the burden of daily chores and inability to access books creates a challenge of nurturing reading as a habit, one that could take them a log way.
Magnified Issue
HET – has worked with early childhood specialists, district educational institutes and government agencies to create a collection of books in both English and Hindi. These books are labeled and categorized to factor in proficiency level of children from the ages of 5 to 16 years.
THE SOLUTION
The collection of books is the responsibility of a local village administrator, initially working on creating awareness, distributing, and tracking of these books. HET works on procuring funds, creating the library, transporting it to remote Himalayan villages and educating village administrators on the importance or nurturing the habit of reading.