Project Summary

Number of purifiers Installed: 33

Types of purifiers Installed: 13 Classic, 10 Aquaflo, 8 Boosters, 2 Pureit

Number of Water Bottles Distributed: 1500

Complete Orientation: 34 schools

Number of Volunteers: 21

Number of Technicians Involved: 3

Areas Covered (See Mapbelow): Okhaldhunga-6, Solukhmbu-7, Kathmandu-7, Bhaktapur-2, Lalitpur-7, Lamjung-3, Tanahun-1

***Numbers indicate the schools covered in each district**

Aama ko Ghar - Home of the Mothers

One day when Dil Shova Shrestha was walking on the street she saw a couple of helpless old ladies. Looking at their condition she decided to bring them home and look after them. At that time she was renting two of her apartments and she thought her income would be sufficient to take care of them. Today 28 elderly women and 47 children reside in "Aama ko Ghar", all of her apartments are occupied and each room has at least 4 beds. All of these people had nowhere to go. some were lying on the streets and had been raped numerous times, some had been asked to move out of their children's home, some were mentally/physically challenged and some just didn't have anywhere else to go. The 47 children had been the victims of 10 year long Maoist insurgency in the country, their parents had been killed during the war. The organization also sponsors their education.

Dil Shova Shrestha has been receiving help from many individuals but she has always had to buy water for drinking purposes. We decided to help her because installing a water purifier in "Aama ko Ghar" would save a lot of money for them that they could otherwise use to maintain the house or to pay their bills. Apart from installing the water purifier we also distributed school bags, copies, pencils and pens to all of the school going children and water bottles to everyone living there. Words can never describe our time there. It was a very heart touching experience and this day will be in our memory forever!

Mini Project Ashirwad

Dil Shova Shrestha inaugurating the machine

A blind lady feeling her bottle

The sign says "Thank you Westminster and Davis Projects for Peace

The Dorms

A day at Jana Udaya School

After completing Project Aashirwad we still had enough stationary left for one more school, so we decided to go to Jana Udaya School in Sainbu village development committee of Kathmandu. There we distribute school bags, copies and pens to 295 students. Our motive was to give these students some kind of inspiration to study and grow up to be a good citizen of the country. Some pictures from the school:

Day 13: End of Journey

We were happy to know that our flight was finally coming today but terrified by the sight of the runway. I had never imagined in my entire life that there would be a runway which isn't even graveled with weeds everywhere!! I took a deep breath of relief after the the aircraft took off.

The runway and the airport tower!

During the 30 minute flight I was thinking how much our entire team has gained from the project and how much we have been able to give to the people there. This entire project would never have been successful without the support of our dear friends Sajala Pandey, Raghabendra KC and Ashish Rana who traveled with us to Okhaldhunga and Solukhumbu districts. We can never forget the kindness of Mrs. Kathryn Davis who funded not just our project but 99 others just like us. Our best wishes to all the fellow project leaders for successful completion of their project and our special thanks to our sister chapter in Rollins College, Florida.

 Wait! We are not done yet, we still have to install a bunch of purifiers here in Kathmandu and the surrounding areas. Stay tuned for updates!

Day 12

We didn't have anything planned for today. We had finished all our installations but still had some posters and pamphlets left so we decided to go to a school nearby and distribute it among the students and teachers there. In the afternoon we were told that "hopefully" our flight will take off tomorrow. The flight cancellations had made us so lazy. All we did was pack our stuff and play UNO the entire day! 

Day 11

Our flight was cancelled and we had nothing to do. We had thought that it would be a good time to take some rest but we got bored and some of us decided to take a walk down to the light house. I chose to stay back because I knew I wouldn't be able to walk but the others went upto the light house, bonded with the people there, went "in" the river and came back with stories to tell me. In the evening we found out that our flight was cancelled once again for Friday and hopefully we would get to fly on Saturday.

Day 10

Our flight was scheduled for tomorrow and we had enough equipment to install another purifier so we decided to go to the school supported by the Canadians. The school was called Everest English School. We had not talked to any of the school representatives before. We were just going to take our chance and talk to the principal and see what he had to say about it. They agreed to install a machine in their school and even though they were not informed and everything was last minute, the school handled everything so beautifully. They brought us everything that we needed and supported us through out the time we were there. We spent time with all of the classes and had lunch with the teachers. By the time we finished the installation, it was 3 already therefore we headed to our hotel. On reaching the hotel we found out that our flight was canceled for tomorrow. We had all our purifiers installed, all our job done and our flight was cancelled. Tomorrow is definitely going to be a long day!