 "Photo: Subhash Ghimire/Courtesy photo")
Last year, Subhash Ghimire ’10 came up with a project that would help kids in his hometown in Nepal, and ended up creating a non-profit organization.
He applied for and received the Davis Projects for Peace grant, a $10,000 grant given to someone who develops a grassroots problem that address social issues and
promotes peace. Ghimire also won the $3,000 Kloeck-Jenson Scholarship for Peace and
Justice Internships, which is awarded to students “pursuing an academic internship that
addresses the causes and impact of economic, political, and social injustice.”
“Here’s somebody who had a passion, tremendous skills and gifts. He just needed financial support to turn his dreams into reality,” said Nate Jacobi, Associate Director for Civic Engagement in the Center for Experiential Learning, by way of formally introducing Ghimire at his presentation Oct.14.
In his presentation, Ghimire told the story of his experiences this past summer. With the help of a 16-member volunteer team, Ghimire created and managed a six-week camp for 42 children, ages five to 14, in his home village of Arupokhari, Nepal. In a mountainous region, Arupokhari has no electricity or roads, and 60 percent of the village’s 7,600 people are farmers. Held at the Darbar School, Ghimire’s old elementary school, the camp focused on helping the children feel comfortable eating, playing and learning together.
Ghimire explained that the children were traumatized by Nepal’s decade-long Civil War and separated by caste.
“[These children] saw their parents slaughtered before their eyes. We had a hard time dealing with the kids in the first weeks. They couldn’t express their emotions and sufferings,” Ghimire said.
At the suggestion of a psychologist who was a member of Ghimire’s volunteer team, the children were encouraged to draw pictures.
“When we first asked the kids to draw, [they drew] land mines, bombs, pistols. Towards the end, [they drew] flowers, people, fruit. To be able to see how they have changed during this period of the summer camp, from drawing guns to flowers, is great,”Ghimire said.
Besides providing computer training for teachers and students, Ghimire’s fundraising allowed all the children to receive t-shirts, backpacks, school supplies and books. Ghimire explained that the camp was divided by age into two groups, in which the children played games, learned music, danced and acted. The children were also able to explore the idea of self-expression. Some learned how to read or use a computer. They were given access
to healing and therapy sessions, as well.
At the end of the six weeks, every child was presented with a certificate and a gold medal by the camp’s chief guest who came for the last few days: the CEO of Microsoft Nepal. Ghimire says Microsoft Nepal has pledged to build a computer lab in the school when the village has electricity, and the village is currently undergoing an electrification process.
Ghimire and his volunteer team also built a library in Arupokhari, the floor of which the team slept on during their stay. The library was “the first of its kind,” Ghimire said. It is named the “Sarswati Memorial Library” after Ghimire’s mother, who shares her name
with Sarswati, the Hindu goddess of wisdom, knowledge and luck. The library was supplied
with 1,600 donated books and two computers powered by a generator. Ghimire said the computers, donated by Microsoft Nepal were one of the most exciting parts of the project.
He said that most people in Arupokhari had never even seen a computer before.
After the camp was over, Ghimire founded the Sarswati Foundation, whose mission is to
actively catalyze youth energy to create positive social change in our communities.
Now registered as a non-profit organization, the Sarswati Foundation is currently raising money for its scholarship program to send 20 Nepalese children to school next year, as well as provide night classes for men an women. The foundation will soon begin work on the Sarswati Peace School, which will be a consortium of school, library and learning
resource center. The library will be available not only to the students, but also to the villagers.
Long-term goals of the foundation include the construction of a rehabilitation and reconciliation center for war affected people by 2010, the construction of a “Sarswati Liberal Arts College” by 2015 and a “National Ideas Festival” by 2010. The festival would involve inviting young people from different parts of Nepal to the capital city, Kathmandu, where the best ideas from the youth concerning health and education would be selected for financial support so that they can be put into action.
Ghimire is the first person to come to the United States from his village, and says this experience has really impacted him.
“I live in two worlds, two very different worlds. Here you are provided with everything, but when you go there it is completely different: there is nothing there. There is so much suffering in villages like [Arupokhari.] When I go back [to the U.S.] they haunt me. Those images don’t go away from my heart. I have experienced war first-hand. When I am here I am reminded of that fact, and what my responsibility is.”
Ghimire says his future plans are to “graduate this year, return to Nepal and keep working
in this field, and run for office someday [in Nepal.]”
At the end of November, Ghimire will make the same presentation, at the European Summit for Global Transformation in Rotterdam, Netherlands. To learn more about
Ghimire’s work, visit http://www.sarswatifoundation.org.
casale@stolaf.edu
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