Build Kirauti Tent House to help Nepali Community

Namaste (the traditional greeting in Nepal for hello)

Namaste, my name is Raj and I was born in a remote village located not far from Mt. Everest in the Solukhumbu District of Nepal. I learned early on in life that life would be full of challenges when I lost both of my parents and was left to raise my younger brother. Through this tragedy I also discovered the importance of strength and selflessness, and the importance of family, community. I have continued to form through serving in a civil war, a pandemic and othe obstacles throughout my life. This formed the foundation for my idea of the Kirauti Tent House. It’s not just another guest house for tourists, but a place that improves and supports the community it’s in and gives visitors a view into typical farm life in Nepal not found in Kathmandu or anywhere else in the world.

In Nepal, there aren’t many opportunities for a parentless, poorly educated teenager from a remote village. After the death of my parents, higher education and university was out of the question. So in order to support my brother, I enlisted as a private in the Nepalese Army. I served in the military for 8 years, serving during the Nepalese Civil War and earning a very low income. Life was pretty hard living paycheck to paycheck and doing what I could to survive for myself and my brother.

In 2013, I decided to leave the service and went to Malaysia in hopes of making more money and saving for the future to improve my family and community chances. But after 2 years abroad, plans did not go as I had hoped. With my brother grown up and an independent man, I decided to come back home to Nepal.

Having grown up in Solukhumbu, many of my friends were working in the tourism industry and I thought I’d give it a go. I joined my friends and started working at the bottom as a porter. I had to learn as much as I could, in the shortest possible time, but I had grown accustomed to challenges. Carrying enough gear for multiple people up difficult mountain trails was hard physical labor, but I enjoyed nature and trekking through remote villages, like the one I grew up in. I wanted to make the jump to Trekking guide to share the beautiful Nepal I grew up in with travelers, however this would require me learning english, a foreign language I was never taught in school. Determined, I began teaching myself English, holding conversations with clients I porting gear for. Slowly, but steadily, I not only learned English, but learned about the cultures, places and routes of some of the most famous destinations in Nepal (and the entire World) and reached my goal as a licensed Trekking guide.

I climbed mountains over 6000 meters tall, made travelers' dreams come through and finally had a good income not only to survive for my wife and 2 children and to think towards the future financial security and how I could not only be a good brother, husband and father but also support the Nepali Community.

And then 2020 hit the world with a pandemic and covid impacted everything. Everything stopped and once once again my life and plans were halted. For 2 years, as the world locked down and quarrentied, the tourism I had relied on disappeared. I did what I could to make a living including construction to quail farming, surviving off less than $3 a day for a family of 4.

Luckily I had saved some money during the period of my time in tourism in Nepal because I knew I wanted to do something good for my family and community. With these funds, I rented a small piece of land near my home in Kathmandu and bought some animals including cows, chickens and goats. Again this brought me back to my remote village and I wanted to share the experience and culture of Nepal. To do this, I first put up some tents for locals to stay in as we shared songs and food around the fire.

Now that the world has begun emerging from covid, that idea has grown a bit bigger and I want to share the Nepali culture with the world. A traditional farm, with traditional nepali houses to stay, in a village outside of kathmandu. But up to this point in my life I have been able to overcome challenges but now I have the idea, everything is planned again but I don't have funds to complete the kirauti Tent House. I need money to build a road as the current one washed away in the monsoons. This will give all of the villagers easy access to a from the markets. I would like to add bathroom facilities to improve sanitation along with traditional Nepali structures for sleeping, cooking and relaxing.

The Kirauti Tent house and farm will not only support me, my wife and 2 children, but will improve the lives of the surrounding villages and leave a lasting impression on travelers of what life is really like for most of the Nepalese people. But I can’t do this alone and am asking for your donation and support to make the Kiauti Tent House a reality.

To the Nepali people, namaste is more than a greeting. It means, “I bow to the good in you”. I appreciate your support to make my dream a reality of sharing Nepal with the world and supporting the community I love.

Namaste