Environmental Ed in a Kathmandu Ashram

Hello friends!

I made this fundraiser to jumpstart an environmental education program for the Nepali school, permaculture farm and spiritual community I’ve been teaching at for the past two months. All money will go to purchasing essential school supplies, including binoculars and field guides and fund trips to local protected areas, the Himalayas and other important heritage sites. More about this project can be found at auronepal.org, or feel free to contact me or the ashram for more info!

The Sri Aurobindo Yoga Mandir is an ashram supporting Nepal’s next generation of leaders for the past 30 years. The Ashram (Hindu spiritual community) is home to nearly 300 people and has so far supported over 1,000 children from all over Nepal to pursue passions in mathematics, yoga, music, art, mountain guiding and more. It is 100% Nepali owned and operated, and their basic needs (food, electricity, clothing, etc…) are sustained by their organic farm, cowshed and pashmina production; it is extra things necessary for a continued ecological education—binoculars, field guides, outreach to guest educators and trips to enjoy Nepal’s cultural and environmental wealth—that are beyond their means.

The Ashram has three locations in crucial biodiversity hotspots in Nepal. The Kathmandu location rests at the base of one of the valley’s largest pieces of subtropical and temperate forest in the Valley. This ecosystem is home to critically endangered pangolins, leopards, and 17 species of nationally threatened birds. Their location in the south borders Chitwan National Park in a tropical jungle home to globally threatened hornbills, Bengal tigers, Asian elephants and hundreds of tropical birds. And their western location rests in pristine rhododendron forests in Gulmi, a district globally famous for its bird populations. All locations are ecological hotspots, and education is critical to their ongoing stewardship.

Nepal is one of the most biodiverse areas in the world but also a site of rapid human-caused change. Around one-quarter the size of California, it is home to 6,600 plant species and 890 birds–that’s more than the entire continental US at just a fraction of its size. Sadly, urban expansion has degraded or destroyed 60% of its landscape, causing increased landslides, disappearing and fragmenting forests, and some of the most polluted waterways in the world. The kids have told me about the rivers they used to play in and the birds and wildlife they saw in woods that have given way to concrete homes and agricultural fields. The damage this infrastructure causes is often at odds with ancestral lifeways, and even just a little environmental education can mobilize people toward sustainable development.

Our goal with this environmental ed program is to connect Nepali youth to a sense of stewardship through experiential learning. So far, that’s looked like regular outings in the jungle to look for local birds and plants, discuss habitat diversity and land use history, train future teachers in basic field ecology and connect local conservationists to the community. I’ve been blown away by the kids’ passion and insight, and I have been working with the principal for this program to continue after I have to leave. Your financial support will directly go to helping buy Chromebooks, binoculars and guidebooks for the kids and funding excursions to surrounding protected areas, mountains, botanical gardens and other cultural heritage sites! Thank you in advance for your support in creating more opportunities for this incredible community!

This fundraiser is endorsed by the Small Mammals Research and Conservation Foundation and researchers from the Nature Conservation and Study Centre

$15 pays for one bird field-guide

$20 pays for notebooks for all of class 9

$35 pays for one pair of binoculars

$400 pays for one trip to the nearest protected area for classes 9 and 10 in Kathmandu

$900 pays for three Chromebooks to continue virtual learning

$1,250 pays for all the Terai students to go on a safari in Chitwan National Park

a day safari for all the students at the Terai ashram to

$3,000 sponsors one eco-trek to the nearby reservoir for classes 8, 9 and 10

$5,000 sponsors a trip for classes 7-10 into the Himalayas