February 2006 

On February 4th, 2006, Nepali Students and alumni at Minnesota State University, Moorhead organized a cultural event with a specific purpose, which was to raise enough funds required to bring solar-powered lights to 50 houses in Chuga village, a Damain settlement in the Karnali region of far-Western Nepal. The cost of bringing solar electricity to the village was estimated to be around U.S. $3000 (50 households * 60 dollars per household ~= US $ 3000).

With a lot of enthusiasm, active participation and selfless efforts by the Nepali students of MSU Moorhead, the event turned out to be a grand success. As a result, we were able to raise an amount of 3,800 US dollars. An on-campus organization – Support International was very helpful to us in organizing the event.

The money was then handed over to LaserSun Energy (the company which did the installation). LaserSun was unable to make any progress for more than a year while Nepal was in the middle of an armed Maoist rebellion. When peace was restored and the installation of the sets was possible again, the cost of the most-affordable sets had gone up. The money was enough to buy only 35 sets instead of 50, but they were of higher quality. Additionally, to make the project sustainable, LaserSun brought a local person from Mugu and trained him to install and maintain these sets at the CTEVT institute in Kathmandu. This person received certification on installing and maintaining those solar units. He will also maintain a showroom in Mugu (not in Chuga), where he will keep a working unit for display. All the funds raised were used the purchase and installation of the sets only – the rest coming from the installing company.

Despite harsh weather and snow acting as obstacles in getting the project completed, the project was successfully accomplished on May 2007. 35 of the 50 houses in Chuga village now have solar electricity that powers their lights.  

We all thank Mr. Bhashwat Risal for the initiation. +photos

2007
Provided donations to a non-profit organization Future Funds for street childern in Nepal.

More info coming soon.....

2008
We have received an email addressing the recieve of payment of Rs US $1489 (NRS 101400.90 @ Rs 68.10/US$) on 25/05/2008. We will be updating their future plans as we recieve.
Also, Help Samikshya confirmed that Samikshya is getting better. The website also announced that Samikshya recovered from cancer. More info on this can be found under http://swarnim.com/samikshya/