Transforming Education through Art

Shree Bhimsen Elementary School, a small school with a deep commitment to education, is situated in Indrawati VDC Mule, about 20 minutes by vehicle from our Conscious Impact Camp in Takure. Last month, our team had the privilege of working with the school to paint beautiful and educational designs on the classroom walls. The goal is not only to beautify the classroom, but also to enrich the learning environment for its students. 

Wheeling2Help volunteers from Greece unlocking their inner artist :)

Shree Bhimsen Elementary School was built in 1988, but was destroyed in the 2015 earthquake and then rebuilt by the Asian Development Bank. This public school serves as a beacon of hope for the seventy-six students and six dedicated teachers. The painting project took us three days, and over the course of the three days our volunteer team devoted themselves to the task of transforming a blank wall into a vibrant masterpiece. 

Preeti Maharjan, the painting project lead

The project was led by Preeti Maharjan, an incredible Nepali artist who has been working on this project with us for the past two years overseeing our painting program. To make things simpler for everyone, she provided the guidelines and directions and made the initial sketch. Her vision was to create a classroom where children not only learn but also feel inspired to explore their own creativity and imagination.

While painting the classroom, our volunteers had fun with one another by painting each other's faces and playing with the local students. Engaging with the students through games and painting sessions brought so much joy. The laughter and friendship shared during these moments reinforced our belief in the transformative power of art to bring communities together. The kids were so excited to see the transformation of their classroom and so were the volunteers to see the impact they had made on the local school. 

The volunteers celebrating after completing the painting

After completing the project, we stepped back to admire our work. We all remember our classrooms growing up, and now these students will remember a beautiful and colorful place. Our hope is that the colorful walls left behind will serve as a constant source of inspiration and joy for generations to come. We look forward to more new painting projects to come, and we invite you to join!

Training Farmers in Coffee Tree Management

Last week, 20 farmers joined our Coffee Tree Pruning Training to learn how to properly take care of their coffee trees. The training was led by Mr. Birdosh Lama, who lives in Jaisithok, Kavre and has been working in this field for 25 years and has over 2000 coffee trees in his farm. He facilitates coffee based training all over Nepal. He is an inspiration to all of the farmers who are striving to grow their coffee production and make a living as farmers in rural Nepal. 

This training is part of our Expanding Sustainable Agriculture Program, a 3-year vision to grow our agricultural support to more than 500 farmers across the region. In addition to these trainings, we also provide on-site technical support as well as coffee processing support, including the creation of 3 new coffee processing centers.

A group of women coffee farmers participating in the Coffee Pruning and Management Training

Our training focused on the techniques of Coffee Pruning and Management, including how to cut unnecessary branches of the trees in order to cultivate healthier and more productive trees. We also shared best practices for pest management, frost prevention and . The training was divided into 2 days – one theoretical and one practical.

On the first day, shortly after the participants introduced themselves, our theoretical training session began with a lot of enthusiasm and positive energy. Mr. Birdosh Lama shared his experience with the farmers on how coffee pruning can increase the life expectancy of the tree. Coffee pruning can be mistaken as just cutting the branches of a plant, but without proper knowledge, pruning can actually cause great damage to the plant. He further explained about the types of branches and how branches need to be cut selectively. As plants grow, they can become too crowded and suffer loss of production. He further explained about pest management, including how to identify pests and diseases and how to handle and treat them in an organic way to create healthy trees. Proper pruning and pest management increases the health of the tree and ultimately leads to greater harvests.

Farmers participate in the 2nd day of the training with practical lessons in pruning and tree management

On the second day, the training focused on practical knowledge. We went to Golma Kafle’s coffee farm, one of the most active coffee farms in Takure. Less than a 10 minute walk from our camp, it was easily accessible and a perfect place for Birdosh to show us the ways that a coffee tree can be pruned. Coffee pruning requires you to understand and listen to what your tree is trying to say. You need to communicate with your plant and see what your coffee needs. Instead of just blindly cutting your plant you need to understand and ask yourself how and why you are pruning the plant. 

Farmers meeting with trainer Birdosh Lama at the end of the 2-day training

At the end of the day, upon completing the training, farmers shared their gratitude for the new knowledge and for the information that Birdosh had shared with them. In addition to the knowledge, each participant also received one set of pruning tools, including clippers and a small saw. We hope that these tools will support them to better manage their coffee trees and increase their coffee harvest every year. We look forward to hosting more trainings like this in Takure and communities across the region.

The Bimire Water Project

PROVIDE 400+ PEOPLE WITH WATER.

The village of Bimire sits at 1200 meters elevation overlooking the town of Melamchi and the Indrawati River valley. To the north sits the majestic Langtang Mountain Range, with snow-capped mountains at over 7,000 meters. Our first ever community project, the Siddhartha Primary School, was constructed in Bimire in 2016 with more than 16,000 earth bricks. Far from any main roads, Bimire families often have a harder time getting supplies and selling their produce to the bigger market towns. Despite that, they are a very active and strong community consisting of Magar, Dahal, Acharya, and other ethnic groups, and we have always been close with this community of friendly, hard working, and diverse people.

This nearly 100 household village is known for producing organic vegetables and some of the hardest workers around. The village of Bimire is where our first community project was completed and now we will partner with Bimire again to provide 400+ people safe and secure drinking water.

one water project complete & now 30 more households need water..actually wait, 80+ households!

Last year when we completed our first ever drinking water distribution project in Takure, we hoped for many things to happen: (1) increased access to water, (2) increased equity in water access, (3) community relationship building, (4) community capacity building and (5) for the government and other NGOs to learn alongside us how to effectively and efficiently provide clean water to this region. The Takure Water Project was a huge feat, taking 8 informal community access points and building a system that would support 96 households to simultaneously have access to water in their own homes. After the completion of this project, the local government, Indrawati Gaunpalika and Ward 4 officials were so impressed by the project that they asked us to support a drinking water project for a small community in Bimire of 30 households. The best part: they would partner with us and have an available budget for the project!

We quickly called on our water engineer and project manager, Krishna Adhikari, to start with a community wide meeting and needs assessment. In doing so, we discovered that the 30 homes initially requested were only a portion of the homes needing a new water distribution system. After speaking with the local government, we expanded the project to include 82 households (also expanding the budget) and conducted a feasibility study and community meeting to set an implementation plan for the project.

Community-wide meeting to establish an implementation plan and create community committees to manage the project.

THE CURRENT WATER SITUATION IN BIMIRE.

For the 400+ people that reside in Bimire, water challenges are constant. There are three sections of the community, an upper 25 household neighborhood and two lower neighborhoods consisting of around 27 households each. The upper community has one water source (natural spring) established, however it is downhill from the community, meaning that each day families walk to fetch water in plastic and metal jugs, taking up to 2 hours of work every day. Fetching water is typically done only for domestic use, and does not provide anything for agriculture.

The lower neighborhoods have access to around 4 water sources (natural springs) with community access points (or taps), however the system is disorganized and inequitable. Furthermore, the community taps are a long distance from some households, thus families still need to spend time daily to fetch water.

Community leader, Shiva Rana Magar, sits in front of the 1 established reservoir tank that stores around 10,000 liters of water. This tank, plus another that will be constructed during the project, will store water from the source to enable the community increased access to water.

A community access point (or tap) located below the upper neighborhood of Bimire where families fetch water every day or do laundry and dish washing, as pictured here.

Imagine for a moment, every bit of water you use in 1 single day.

If you are a rural Nepali farmer your list would look something like this: water to drink, water to cook (local families cook rice and lentils for 2 meals each day, both of which require water to cook), water to wash dishes, water to clean, water for showering and hand washing, clothes washing, and not to mention watering your garden that provides food for your family or giving water to your cow that produces milk daily (thus income for your family). Our assessments show that a family in Bimire on average uses 165 liters of water per day. If your house was a 10 minute walk downhill from the spring source, and you could on average carry 20 liters of water per trip (20 kgs or 40 lbs of weight), you would spend around 3 hours per day to fetch water.

Now imagine you are kid that could be studying for those 3 hours instead of fetching water and you can see the disparity caused by water limitations.

Our assessment also shows that on average each family in Bimire needs more water than the 165 liters per day, that they actual need 250 liters of water per day to accomplish their household and agricultural tasks. We are partnering with this community to make their water challenges something of the past.

This new distribution system will also allow the community to purchase access to a new spring that is about 1 km above their community. This will allow the system to be gravity fed to each home, making for easier design and longevity.

A young boy in Bimire fetches water in a metal jug that he will then take home for his family to use.

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

In order to make this project a reality, we are fundraising $18,000 USD which combined with the $5,300 USD government contribution and $1,500 community contribution will be able to supply 400+ people with drinking water for years and years to come. It will enable 82 households to have increased water access and more secure water supply allowing them to produce more agricultural products leading to better income. This is a life changing project for the community of Bimire and we need your help to make it happen.

We are looking for fundraisers and donors for this project. Do you think your friends and family would be supportive of supplying water to 400+ people in rural Nepal? Become a fundraiser today! If you don’t have the time to fundraise with us, consider being a donor. Any amount helps us reach our goal and puts us closer to making Bimire’s water challenges a reality of the past.

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Each donation supports Nepali families to access water

$50 brings clean water to 1 person

$200 buys one truckload of sand

$300 brings clean water to 1 family

$1500 brings clean water to 5 homes

$3000 brings clean water to 50 people

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PROJECT BUDGET BREAKDOWN

TOTAL BUDGET $24,800 USD

OUR COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURE PROGRAM SERVEs COMMUNITIES’ NEEDS AND DESIRES while building capacity and resilience.

When we first began our rebuilding work in 2015, we were not always sure what our work would look like, but we knew we wanted to be in support of community resilience and capacity building in addition to supporting the reconstruction of physical buildings. Our Community Infrastructure program allows communities to request the support they need to make change in their own communities, on their own terms. These projects are community-led and participatory which is a really inspiring process to watch and be a part of. Each household is required to fulfill volunteer work days or contribute to the project in some way. Community members volunteer to take on leadership roles for the project implementation and oversight and to ensure community participation and longevity of the project.

Krishna Adhikari, head engineer, and community leaders creating a resource map for the community of Bimire.

These projects are a beautiful and inspiring process, and we are grateful to have the support from so many people around the world to watch this process unfold, evolve, and impact communities positively.

thank you for all the support!

22 Moments from 2022

Take a look at our 22 best moments from 2022!

2022 was a big year for us — we completed our biggest community project and reopened volunteer programs! We are so grateful to all of the donors, volunteers, and community partners that made this amazing list of 22 moments possible. After 7 years of doing this work in Takure, we are still so inspired and committed to our mission — to connect people to themselves, to one another and to the Earth through conscious, effective and positive service work in rural Sindhupalchok. Thank you for helping to make this happen!

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1. a complete, new water system for takure

2022 was a big year for us as we completed the Takure Water Project! After nearly 5 years of discussion, 2 full years of community mobilization and government coordination, and 1 year of fundraising, it is amazing to see the 96 household taps bring water directly to every community household. We are so grateful to everyone who made this water project possible.

2. 800 kgs of coffee picked and processed

Local farmers in Takure and the surrounding villages harvested more than 800 kilograms (or 1760 pounds) of red coffee cherry this year. After 5 years of planting coffee alongside these farmers, what a joy it was to see them happy with their harvests. We hope these harvests continue to grow year after year and that local livelihoods are supported by this additional income.

There is still time to get Takure Coffee in your own home!

We would love to have you try this delicious, specialty coffee that was grown, harvested and processed by farmers in Takure. Become a monthly donor before 2023, and we will send you a 250 gram bag of freshly roasted coffee this January!

3. The school mushroom project

Recently, we partnered with the Simpalkavre Secondary School, about 1.5 hours away, to teach class 8 students how to cultivate oyster mushrooms. The students were taught the theory of mushroom cultivation and then we worked with them to pasteurize straw and prepare bags of oyster mushrooms. Each student will take home and care for this bag of mushrooms for 4-6 weeks until their family eats or sells the oyster mushrooms.

4. we built a 2nd dome!

And hosted our 2nd ever Earthbag Construction Training Courses led by Mariana Jimenez. The 12 day course taught the 8 participants how to build a dome from foundation to roof plus some plastering too. As a result, we have a beautiful dome that is 4.2 meter in diameter and will happily house our long term staff and volunteers at camp.

5. twelve (12) classrooms painted

We are still brightening up rural classrooms in Nepal, supporting students to have more inspiring and engaging learning spaces. In just 4 days a team of 8 volunteers works to make 2 school classrooms for young kids beautiful, colorful and fun for learning. It is a transformative experience for all and all of our volunteers leave the projects feeling tired, but proud to see the immediate impact of their work.

6. women weaving chakatis

Sanu Kanchi Rana Magar (top left photo) is a weaver among weavers. Her hands never stop and her smile never fades. Over the past two years she along with a handful of other local women have woven hundreds of products now featured all of over the world by her customers (donors and volunteers). Recently the women’s small coaster sized “chakatis” were used in a wedding in Greece (pictured bottom left with Dolma Tamang). This was also the first year we worked with our local artisans to offer traditional weaving workshops. Sanu Kanchi Rana Magar and Dolma Tamang along with our community liaison, Narayan Mama, taught more than 65 volunteers how to weave rice straw into a coaster sized “chakati”.

7. we dug 12,000 meters of trench

To complete the water project in Takure, we dug more than 12 kilometers of trench to lay the pipe underground, that is nearly 7.5 miles. Basically a lot of work, that was only made possible by our donors like Drew Marshall, Shane McKenna, Wheeling 2 Help’s MyQuest volunteer teams, and of course the community of Takure.

8. our chinese cabbage grew bigger than kumari

Our garden spaces have really began to flourish over the past couple of years thanks to all the organic compost our Agriculture team produces via humanure, vermicompost and traditional forms. This year’s chinese cabbage grew so big, nearly as big as our Agriculture Program Coordinator, Kumari Bomjan. As a result of having such a plentiful harvest, we chopped up batches of kimchi to eat. Deliciously fermented!

9. robotic engineers in training

Our youth program partnered with Bikash Deshar for a program on “Designing and Building Simple Robots”. More than 40 high school students from Nawalpur and Aiselu Kharka schools participated in the challenges and by the end of the workshop could build simple robots from scratch using cardboard, recycled paper, super glue, some handy gadgets and batteries. The robots could jump, dance, draw and one was a hopping frog.

10. we canned sita miaju’s tasty achars

We love traditional Nepali food, the diversity, flavors, spices and local ingredients. One of our favorite aspects is the achar or pickle or fermented chutney famous in Thakali cuisine. Sita Miaju, our very own Narayan Mama’s wife, is one of the best makers of achar in Takure. She heats the oil and spices on her fire stove and uses a traditional slate stone to hand grind the ingredients. And now visiting volunteers can take Sita’s achar home with them.

11. breathtaking sunsets & himalayan views

After 7 years of being in Takure, the mountain sunsets and walks through these mid hills of the Himalayas never get old. The orange fiery sunsets and morning sunrise glows as well as the endless rice terraces make us grateful day after day.

12. school field trips to our conscious “camp”

We led 3 different site visits of local high school students to our Camp to teach about sustainability, organic agriculture and environmental science. The students were toured around our site learning from each of our program teams and doing activities like planting mushrooms, visiting the earthbag Dome and discussing ways to be environmentally aware and more sustainable.

13. More, MORE MUSHROOMS!

For the past 2 years, we have been partnering with local farmers to successfully cultivate both shiitake and oyster mushrooms for added income generating activities. We have trained more than 70 farmers and provided both technical and labor support to 25 farmers. As a result, we have also gotten pretty good at growing mushrooms at camp, such that we’ve been eating oyster mushrooms everyday!

14. white water rafting!

Every year we try and take a staff trip to a place new and full of new experiences. This year was one for the books as we went to Sekute Beach in Sindhupalchok, about 2.5 hours away from Takure and went white water rafting for Holi festival. It was hilarious and really pushed the adventure limits of our staff as many of them do not know how to swim or have ever been in a boat before. Fun times were had and we are grateful to these team bonding experiences with our one of a kind local staff.

15. local hikes to Gupha

The winter days are full of clear mountain views and sunny skies. One of our favorite local hikes is to Gupha Dada, or the Hill of Caves where rolling grassy fields meet the Langtang Mountain Range. It is about a 3 hour hike up to Gupha Danda and a 2 hour hike down, so a planned picnic and siesta at the top is a must. 

16. orphanage visits with lots of love!

The local Mother Sister Everest Children’s Home was established in 2015 after the earthquake to support children who’s families had members pass away in the devastating earthquake. We partnered with the Vita Association in 2018 to build a 12 room orphanage with kitchen and play room. The children’s home has 37 children living and staying in a safe and healthy environment. Our youth program leads activities at the orphanage to encourage play and also engage students in creative and academic subjects.

17. Shitake mushroom farming

This year we are partnered with 3 local farmers to build out full size mushroom farms with 100+ producing shiitake logs each. We are utilizing local bamboo and treating it to make a mushroom structure for each farm, supporting the farmer to cut trees appropriate for mushroom cultivation and providing 50% subsidy on the cost of mushroom spores. Additional to this, we are providing technical and labor support. It is an exciting time in the program and our Agriculture Program Coordinator, Kumari Bomjan is excited for local farmers to see the full income generating potential of these delicious and vitamin D rich mushrooms. 

18. farmer field trip to a coffee farm in kavre

Over the past 5 years of planting coffee trees with local farmers, we have learned a lot. Mostly we have learned the importance of showing a good example and allowing farmers to meet other successful farmers like Birdos Lama, a farmer in Kavre that has been growing coffee, macadamia, avocado and other fruits for the past 20 years. Birdos’s farm is full of inspiration and the 42 farmers left feeling ready to plant more trees and continue cultivating new crops for future generations of Sindhuplachok.

19. LEARNING ABOUT LOCAL herbs & AYURVEDA!

Orion Haas, co-Founder and Director of Conscious Impact, began studying Ayurvedic medicine during COVID-19. Ayurveda is the traditional medicine practice from India and Nepal that dates back thousands of years. Thanks to his passion for holistic medicine and Narayan Mama’s connection to elders in the community, they have started collecting local herbs and making medicines, like these “dry cough” herbal packed medicine balls.

20. The afterschool program expanded

Our model afterschool program at Takure Primary School is still in session and creating spaces for students to have creative and extracurricular activities. This year, our program expanded to a new primary school about 30 minutes away, Bhimsen Primary School. Last year we completed a painting project with Bhimsen and then the school principal requested more support. We showed our afterschool implementation plan and offered a training in how to implement an afterschool program on their own. After this training, the school conducted a series of sessions on their own, Conscious Impact disbursed our first ever Afterschool Program Grant to Bhimsen School. The grant has stages and implementation requirements, but we are happy to report the school has completed the first stage of implementation, and as a result have received sets of materials to continue running successful afterschool sessions.

21. we made a ton of compost!

Our agroforestry and reforestation program continued working with farmers to plant high market value fruit and coffee trees and we discovered a shortage of quality, local compost. Thus, we began producing compost with farmers right in their fields where they’ve planted trees. Our compost program worked with more than 15 farmers and trained more than 30 in techniques for improved compost production. This organic fertilizer will make the land and the trees happy.

22. we celebrated all the holidays!

After 2 years of COVID, we were excited to finally celebrate the festival season in October with the local community and also host them to celebrate our festivals too. Our lead engineer, Mariana Jimenez, always makes a traditional pinata for the local kids on Christmas morning, this year they came ready for the candy and fun!

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thank you for your continued support and love. OUR STAFF, volunteers and community partners are so grateful.

Our work is for the long term, and we are looking for donors to support our vision for multi-generational positive impact. If you would like to continue to support our work and see updates like this, please consider joining our monthly donor team, the Sustainers.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to you and your loved ones from our team in takure!

A Fall Season Update

Happy Fall, happy thanksgiving!

Today, and every day, we are grateful for you for your support of our work here at Conscious Impact.

As winter approaches, we are keeping warm around the fire at night, enjoying the beautiful mountain views in the morning and working hard throughout the day. Our team has been busy this fall, and we have been so grateful to finally have our volunteer programs back!

You can read updates from all of our work (and celebrations!) below. If you would like to come join the work yourself, or know someone who does, we invite you to visit! You can also support our ongoing work by becoming a monthly donor. We are actively looking for more monthly donors to support our programs, and as a bonus, if you sign up this year, we will send you a bag of our delicious Takure coffee. We are so grateful for all the support from around the globe that makes our work possible.

THE WATER PROJECT IS COMPLETE!

After more than one year of work, the new water system delivers clean water to 95 homes 24 hours per day!

This system upgrade was a huge effort: 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) of trench dug and pipe laid, collective community action towards a common goal, and $25,000 (USD) of support from our donors. The best part is that each family now has equal and equitable access to sufficient water, relieving years of tension caused by scarce water resources.

Every time we visit a community household for dinner and wash our hands at their newly built tap, we are inspired by how community projects like this one make the lives of rural communities stronger and more resilient.

This project was such a success that the neighboring community has asked for support to build another water system. Look for more updates to come…

volunteers are back!

Our volunteer programs are running again and our community partners are so grateful! There is nothing quite like the cultural exchange and happiness our volunteer programs bring.

This month, our camp hosted 30 volunteers for our Tihar and Dome Workshop programs. We look forward to running a holiday program in December, a Natural Building course in January, and volunteer programs in February - July 2023.

Learn more and sign up at www.consciousimpact.org/volunteer and https://www.consciousimpact.org/intro-to-natural-building

dome #2

Our 2nd earthbag dome course is underway!

Did you know that more than 33% of carbon emissions worldwide are due to the construction industry? We are excited to share this sustainable construction technique to local, national, and international builders, learners, masons, engineers and architects.

This dome course will result in our 2nd dome at camp to host long term staff and team members. It also allows us to showcase how beautiful sustainable construction can be and inspire the next generation to build better for the environment.

rice harvest

We joined farmers to harvest literally tons of rice!

We love this tradition. We are grateful to local farmers for helping us connect to this land and to our food source.

This annual tradition of manually harvesting rice takes whole villages working together for a common goal. It is a beautiful process that has been done for generations in a stunning stage of golden terraces surrounded by the Himalayan mountains.

school painting project

We recently completed our 14th school painting project! This program is very popular among local schools seeking to beautify their otherwise dark classrooms with colorful visual learning aids.

Our volunteers and youth program staff travel across the district to stay 3-4 nights in a home stay and support the local school to have brighter, more educational classrooms.

It is amazing to watch the classrooms transform in just a few days, and the local students love participating and laughing throughout the project. At the end, students gather to read the letters and numbers off the wall, putting the work to immediate use.

farmers’ 1st avocado harvest!

The guacamole game this fall has been spectacular!

For years, we have worked hard with local farmers to increase access to fruit, nut and coffee trees to support more sustainable and diverse income for their families. Since 2015, we have collaborated with more than 200 local farmers to plant 3850 fruit, nut, medicine, or forest trees. Similarly to the experience with coffee trees, farmers are getting to finally taste the fruit of their labor.

In the photo on the right, a local farmer, Buddha Tamang, and his grandson, Sonam, show off their delicious avocado harvest, the 1st harvest of 17 kilograms since planting avocados trees with us 4 years ago.

school mushroom project

Recently we partnered with the Simpalkavre Secondary School, about 1.5 hours away, to teach class 8 students how to cultivate oyster mushrooms.

The students were taught the theory of mushroom cultivation and then we worked with them to pasteurize straw and prepare bags of oyster mushrooms. Each student will take home and care for this bag of mushrooms for 4-6 weeks until their family eats or sells the oyster mushrooms.

our earthbag pond

Remember when we began treating bamboo? Well we have been treating bamboo using a submersion technique with boron for 2.5 years and finally we now have a permanent pond. The best part? It’s made from earthbags, our lead engineer, Mariana Jimenez’s favorite sustainable building material.

The pond has since been plastered with cement and waterproofing agent, filled with the boron solution and more than 40 pieces of bamboo to be treated over 2 weeks. These bamboo pieces will be used to support mushroom farmers, but we are equally excited to have bamboo treatment available for other projects.

Fun for the festivals

We celebrated another season of Nepal’s festivals, Dashain and Tihar, with lots of dancing, singing, lights and colors. And of course with eating plates and plates of dal bhat with local families.

The festivals of Nepal are a unique and special time for us to connect with the local community and cherish the traditions of these communities.

“see you later” to

bishal Khaiju

After nearly 3 years of dedicated and inspiring work leading our Youth Program, Bishal Khaiju is moving on to his next adventure. Bishal has impacted and influenced the lives of hundreds of local students, inspiring their minds to be big and their hearts to be bigger. He is a one-of-a-kind educator, and it is leaders like him will take education and Nepal’s future to limitless heights.

See you later to our favorite educator, teacher, friend, mentor and brother. We wish you so much health, happiness and success in all of your future endeavors.

our work continues

As we enter our 8th year of work in Takure, we are more inspired than ever by the impact that our programs have on the local communities, volunteers, and environment. We are excited to watch the evolution and progress of our work over time and so grateful to the staff, volunteers and donors that lead this work. Our commitment is for the long-term, and while our vision is steady, our programs continue to adapt to local needs. We believe that positive change takes time, and that with consistent support more equitable and equal opportunities will arise, especially for rural communities like those in Nepal. The world’s rural communities are strong and beautiful - they are the land stewards and the food producers - and their lives deserve to be healthy, fulfilling, free and happy. We work to see them thrive.

Our 2022-2023 Volunteer Programs are Open!

Our Volunteer Programs are officially open!

Conscious Impact is so excited to officially announce the volunteer programs for 2022-2023, our 8th year of operation! After 2 years of global uncertainty and challenges that restricted international travel, Nepal has officially re-opened it’s boarders to all visitors, and we would love for you to join us in the Himalayas.

Support the community of Takure to build a sustainable, empowered and resilient future.

In 2015, Conscious Impact formed in immediate response to the devastating earthquake that struck Nepal destroying hundreds of thousands of homes and taking thousands of lives. More than 7 years later, we remain committed to supporting the families of Takure to build infrastructure, create sustainable livelihoods and empower their youth to create the future vision for the region. As a volunteer, this means you will work right alongside local Nepalis to support organic agriculture, sustainable construction and youth empowerment programs. You will stay in our volunteer Camp where we cook food together, clean together and enjoy morning and evening activities. In addition to the work, there will be time to dive deeply into the local culture, share meals with Nepali families, go for walks in the mountains and take time for yourself to practice yoga, meditate, play music, create art or do whatever it is you love.

We absolutely love the work that we do, and invite you to join us in Nepal!

Why volunteer with Conscious Impact?

Conscious Impact Nepal is one of the world’s most intimate, effective and sustainable volunteer opportunities abroad. We initially partnered with the community of Takure immediately following the 2015 earthquake to support the reconstruction of schools and homes. Now, more than 7 years later, our relationships in the community have grown wider and stronger. Our agriculture, youth empowerment and natural building programs provide quality, efficient and essential support to the community, and each volunteer makes a huge impact.

In the past 7 years, Conscious Impact has received more than 800 volunteers at our camp in the Himalayas and provided professional, safe and inspiring experiences to each and every volunteer. We pride ourselves on our connection to the local community, our grassroots, community-led programming and the unique and personal volunteering experience provided by our team.

We know that not all volunteering opportunities are created equal, and we believe that you will feel not only that you make an impact during your time, but that you develop honest, authentic and life-long relationships.

Our Upcoming Programs for 2022/2023!

If you are unsure about what to expect, or which dates to join us, feel free to read through these descriptions. Please keep in mind that activities and projects are always subject to change, depending on the needs of the community and the flexible schedules and timing in Nepal. We appreciate your flexibility and understanding.

Harvesting rice in the fields outside of Takure. During our October program, you will get to experience this first hand as we support families to harvest their rice in the foothills of the Himalayas. Photo by Jonathan H. Lee.

Program 1: Rice Harvesting, Celebrating Tihar, Yoga and Service

Dates: October 20-29, 2022

Details: Each year, we are honored to work alongside dozens of families across the hillsides to harvest rice from their fields. This annual rice harvest provides the food for a year for every family in the community. As they say, “it takes a village” to complete this harvest, and we will work right alongside community members to support this enormous task. At the end of the week, the community will celebrate the completion of the harvest with Tihar (October 27th), one of the country’s largest holidays and our personal favorite. You will share the holiday with a family, receive “tika,” a blessing, and feast with traditional Nepali food.

In addition to harvesting rice, you will also participate in our youth program at the local schools, our natural building program supporting local sustainable construction projects, and additional elements of our agriculture program, including working at our on-site demonstration organic garden.

Lastly, this program will include daily yoga classes, plus meditation, hiking and delicious vegetarian food.

October is one of the most beautiful months to be in Nepal, and we absolutely recommend visiting during this time. Sign up today, and see you there!

Hard at work during our first ever earthbag construction in 2017. Our November program will include the opportunity to participate in a few days of our Earthbag Dome Training Course if you would like. Photo by Jonathan H. Lee.

Program 2: Youth, Agriculture and a Dome Construction

Dates: November 14-26, 2022

Details: During our November program, volunteers will divide their time between our main programs: sustainable agriculture, youth empowerment and natural building.

With the holidays complete, students will be back in class and this is an excellent time to work with our youth team to provide meaningful and inspiring extra-curricular activities to the local primary and secondary schools.

In addition, you can support our agriculture team as they care for our local demonstration garden, as well as prepare for the winter planting season of fruit and nut trees. This includes visiting local farmers to examine their land, checking on our coffee crops and managing our growing compost system.

Lastly, November is an excellent time for our natural building program. With the rains finished, the drier climate allows us to complete projects around the community and at our Camp. This November program will be especially exciting as it will coincide with our Earthbag Dome Training Course. As a volunteer, you will get to help to build this dome if you choose, and to learn the basics of the construction technique. If you would like to participate in the full course, please sign up through our Course Interest Form.

A gathering of our international volunteers. If you are looking for a place to be with passionate, kind and caring people for the holidays, our winter program is a great option. Photo by Jonathan H. Lee

Program 3: Volunteer and Celebrate the Holidays!

Dates: December 19-28, 2022

Details: The winter is a clear, beautiful and also cold time of year in Nepal, but for some of us it is our favorite time of year. With the shorter days and longer nights, we spend time around the fire sharing delicious meals and celebrating Winter Solstice, Christmas and other winter holidays. While the community joins some of our celebrations, this is a time during which our international volunteers build strong and lasting relationships among ourselves as well.

In addition to the tea drinking and cookie eating, we will absolutely still be hard at work supporting the community of Takure. December is a great time to get projects done, especially as it is the dry season and the cooler weather allows us to work hard all day. Our youth program will be hard at work, supporting extra-curricular and after school activities with the local primary and secondary school students. Our agriculture team will be working with mushroom cultivation and supporting local farmers to plant fruit and nut trees. And our natural building team will be focused on plastering the new dome (constructed during the November program), managing our bamboo supply and supporting small projects around the community and at our Camp.

Come join us to celebrate the holidays while being of service to the community of Takure. And if you are lucky, we will have clear views of the snow-covered Himalayas all day long. :)

Volunteers with Sunita (front, center) as we neared the completion of her earth home in 2017. During our January program, you will have the opportunity to be introduced to all kinds of earth construction techniques, including bamboo, cob, earthbags, earth bricks and plastering. Photo by Jonathan H. Lee.

Program 4: Youth, Agriculture and an Introduction to Natural Building

Dates: January 5-12, 2023

Details: We will kick off the New Year with a ton of projects in Takure. You can join our agriculture team to cultivate shiitake and oyster mushrooms, plus help manage and distribute compost to support farmers to plant hundreds of fruit and nut trees. You can work with our youth team to design and implement creative educational opportunities through our after-school programs. You can join our natural building team as well to learn about bamboo, cob, earthbags and earth brick construction, and support our team on special projects around our Camp. This program will be special as it overlaps with our Introduction to Natural Building Course. You are welcome to join a few days of the course, but if you would like to attend the entire course, please fill out a Course Interest Form.

Of course, all of our volunteer programs include dinners at local family homes, visits to the nearby communities and opportunities to spend quality time with the amazing Nepali people that we love.

January will be cold (around 30F/0C at night), but we will stay warm by working hard all day, cooking delicious warm food, enjoying each other’s company around the fire and sleeping in big, soft sleeping bags. :)

We also have programs available in February and April. More details of these programs will come soon, but in the meantime feel free to fill out a volunteer form to let us know which dates interest you the most.

We are excited to have you visit our project in Nepal this year. Please sign up today, and invite your friends and family to come with you. See you soon!

Remembering the Earthquake: 7 Years Later

On April 25, 2015, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake stuck Nepal, destroying hundreds of thousands of homes and taking thousands of lives.

Conscious Impact and the community of Takure responded by working together to rebuild. Now, 7 years later, the work continues…

Remembering April 25th, 2015

It was 12pm on April 25th, 2015, when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake shook Nepal and changed the lives of everyone across the country. The earthquake, based outside of the town of Gorkha, killed 9,000 people, injuring 22,000 others, and leaving more than 400,000 people homeless. In the community of Takure, all of the homes but one were lost. 

Even today, when Takure locals describe that day, you can still feel the emotion and devastation of the memory.

Kumari Bomjan, the Agriculture Program Coordinator for Conscious Impact, explains that she still cannot believe it happened, a horrific event that deeply affected her and her family. “I was on a bus traveling back to a teaching post when I heard a rumble, and as I looked across the valley at the city of Melamchi, buildings had turned to dust.” As she sat upon the river bank, crying, she tried repeatedly to reach her family members via phone. She felt they had died, until her father drove up on his motorcycle, having searched for her all day long. She says her community felt it was the end of the world. Immediately after the earthquake, aftershocks continued and monsoon rains fell two months early, ruining everything that could have been salvaged from the rubble.

Narayan “Mama” Bhattarai, Community Outreach Coordinator for Conscious Impact, says the day will forever feel tragic. He pulled out his uncles from the rubble of their homes, tried to save multiple livestock, and worked for days supporting his community to build temporary shelters so they could begin to feel some sense of security. 

Pabritra Khanal, a local Takure resident, remembers her own husband being trapped underneath their house as she worked with neighbors to uncover the stone on top of him. He was injured badly and was rushed to the hospital to receive treatment where he was able to recover. In the end, by some miracle, no lives were lost in Takure, though dozens were lost in the neighboring communities.

The effect of the earthquake went on for months, even years. Community members share stories of sleeping in their garden fields under plastic tarps for weeks through the monsoon rains from fear of the aftershocks. And when Conscious Impact arrived in August 2015, families were still living in temporary structures built with the remnants of their previous homes.

We began the journey of Conscious Impact with the hope to transform this horrible event into something good.

The beginning of Conscious Impact

When the initial Conscious Impact volunteers arrived in August, 2015, the goal was clear. We had committed to support the community to rebuild their primary schools, and we planned to do that using sustainable, locally sourced building materials. We were not expert builders, or experienced in Nepal, but through dedicated work by international volunteers and local community members, and a bit of miraculous fortune, we completed the Siddhartha Primary School in Bimire just before the rains began in June 2016.

In our first year, we had made nearly 20,000 bricks with over 100 volunteers and rebuilt a beautiful school, but the community had still not begun to rebuild their homes. The work was just beginning…

growing our work over the years

Over the following 5 years, Conscious Impact worked side-by-side the families of Takure and the neighboring communities to make nearly 250,000 earth bricks that have been used to rebuild 100+ homes, 4 community centers, two children’s homes, an elderly center and many more projects. Even more, Conscious Impact’s work expanded to support local farmers in organic coffee production and agroforestry to increase their income and restore local ecology. In the past 5 years, we have planted more than 15,000 coffee, fruit, nut, and native forest trees with more than 350 local farmers. We also began deepening our relationships with the local schools and providing after-school extracurricular activities in the areas of art, girls’ empowerment, English and general homework help. Over the years, as homes were completed and construction slowed, our Agriculture and Youth Empowerment programs became the focus of our work. 

Responding to the current needs

Over the past 2 years, since COVID-19 transformed the world, Conscious Impact has evolved. Without consistent international volunteers, and facing significant resource limitations, we focused completely on sustaining the small Nepali non-profit that has been born from the efforts of our local team and international supporters over the years. Our Youth Programming and Agriculture programs continue to grow (led by Bishal Khaiju and Kumari Bomjan, respectively), and we have even begun to expand to new projects. Most notably, after years of discussion, we have finally broken ground on a complete domestic water system that will serve 101 families across Takure and the neighboring communities.

It is so inspiring to see the work continue all of these years, led by our local staff and supported by generous donors. As we get further away from the earthquake and continue to find new avenues of supporting rural communities’ resiliency, it has become more difficult to sustain the funds needed for our work.

For that reason, we are asking for help.

Our Sustainers support our programs and work with consistent donations, allowing for programs to expand and explore new possibilities and potentialities of our work.

sustaining Conscious Impact

Many organizations have a start and finish model, but our model is different, we want to support resilient communities to face their ever changing needs which takes time, commitment, flexibility, trust and empathy.

Conscious Impact is more committed to our work now, after 7 years, than ever. While all families have finally been able to rebuild their homes after the earthquake, we believe our work supporting sustainable agriculture, youth empowerment, clean drinking water, and local artisans is more impactful than anything we have previously done. Our vision is for Conscious Impact to continue our work for generations to come, and in order to do this we need international supporters that can help sustain essential resources.

In honor of the 7 year anniversary of the earthquake, our goal is to find 70 new monthly donors that can contribute at least $10/month.

Anyone that signs up to donate $25/month or more by May 30th will receive freshly roasted Takure coffee beans, shipped directly to your door. And for $50/month, we will include our newest Conscious Impact T-shirt, designed and made in Nepal.

Thank you to everyone that has continued to make this work possible. We love you, and miss you, and invite you to come to Nepal anytime starting October 1st 2022 when we officially reopen our doors. See you soon!

We are forever grateful for some of our most committed and consistent donors, volunteers, staff and everyone else doing their part. We hope to continue to support communities and individuals to connect with themselves, with one another and with the Earth through conscious and effective service work.

Photography by: Jonathan H. Lee of Subtle Dream Photography, Ankit Tanu, Joshua Umesh Bohara, and others

Written by: Orion Haas and Beth Huggins

Our current Sustainers whose monthly donations help our programs and work continue every day. We are continually grateful for their trust and commitment to our work. Kris Rudeegraap | Jim & Dede Huggins | Dylan Ho | Don Krafft | Laura Nyavie | Wil Kiser | Teresa Huebner | The Jacobson Family | Birgit Penzenstadler | Tim O'Brien | Michael Jensen | Jesse Reeck | Elizabeth Layton | Ryan Serrano & family | Dora Lee | Mae Beth Price | Jonathan H. Lee | Anne Goodman | Travis Ludlum | Arnaud Joakim | Ben Perlmutter | Cindy Hecht | Matthew Wayne | Susan Emery | Brian Schneider | Frankie Lee | Carol Fox | Marit de Looijer | Trevor Fedele | Candace Forest | John Paula | John Clawson | Felicia Newhouse | Skjalg Bjørkevoll | Dan & Kristi Michener | Steven Ring | Rebecca Dempewolf | Christy Gervers | Tim Gehring | Kaela De Deaux | Eleanor Casson | Sarah Albinda | Lina Reitze | Sarah Beucher | Tim Junge | Also special thanks to Drew Marshall for his continuous generous and helping our work accomplish all of its goals!

November 2021 Updates from Nepal

Sending gratitude from a slightly bigger gratitude circle!

A group photo with some of our team members. We are grateful and lucky to have international volunteers again and as always grateful for our local, Nepali team of change makers!

Volunteers return to Camp!

It is the crisp, cool pre-winter season here in the mid-hill region of the Nepali Himalayas. Our team is growing as are our layers of clothes. This month marks the return of our first international volunteers back to our beloved Conscious Impact Sustainable Living Center, “Camp”.

The Langtang National Park and Mountain Range viewable from the village of Takure and a short walk from our Camp. This time of year presents daily gorgeous, clear sky and views of this Himalayan range. Photo by Jonathan H. Lee

Our team is so very happy to have the extra hands. International volunteers have always been a staple of our work - standing in solidarity with our community partners, supporting with their hands, energy, and resources. For the past 18 months, we have continued to operate our programs without these helping hands yet with the support of hundreds of donors. Nevertheless our staff has been eager to have diverse, kind people around again.

Our new volunteers arrived last month! We took a safe, private jeep from Kathmandu to Takure. Nepal’s restrictions have lightened for vaccinated tourist arrivals and we ask that every volunteer practices a 3 day self quarantine upon arrival to Kathmandu to ensure safety of our community partners in rural Sindhupalchok.

Our new arrivals jumped right into community activities with Tihar, the second biggest festival or holiday celebrated in Nepal and aligns with Diwali festival in India, both being recognized as the Festival of Lights. It is full of 5 days of festivities where each day is dedicated to a different ritual around animals and the goddess of Laxmi. This picture is from Bai Tikka the day where brothers and sisters give gifts and blessings to one another.

So, what has our team been up to?

In addition to clear skies, this time of year showcases the rice harvest, fruit and coffee tree care, the afterschool program, lemongrass, compost flipping, science projects, and the return of…

brick making!

Yes! We still produce Compressed Stabilized Earth Bricks (CSEBs). Well actually, the local social enterprise “Environmental Lover Brick Company“ run by Haribol Bhattarai and the team continues to produce bricks, and we partner with the team to ensure the bricks are produced safely and of high quality and can be affordable to local families. Since monsoon rains make brick production impossible, we usually start after the holiday season, sometime around early to mid November. The Earth Bricks are 100% locally made, seismically safe and the only locally available long-term, sustainable building material. Currently the team is producing bricks for our most loyal customer, the Janaki Thapa Foundation, a local foundation dedicated to supporting children and elderly in the region of Badegaun, about 1 hour drive from our site.

The Takure Earth Brick Production Center has been in operation since 2016 with the support of Conscious Impact’s donors. These bricks are made by a team of 10 local employees, 5 permanent and 5 rotational positions providing needed income and employment to 10 families. Photos by Jonathan H. Lee

The Janaki Thapa Foundation Home and Orphanage site in Badegaun, Indrawati-5, Sindhupalchok, Nepal. This site features a children’s home orphanage for 18 young children, space for elderly care, health clinics, a kitchen and living quarters for residential staff and visiting professionals, doctors and medical teams. The site has incorporated many features of a classic farm including a cow shed and a small-scale local chicken coop, plus areas for social gatherings including a play space, gathering space, alter for religious intents, meditation rooms, and more. They are currently building out a local hotel for visitors and teams to participate in their social programs.

Rice Harvesting

Rice harvest is always a favorite activity of visiting volunteers and during this season of harvest, there is a camaraderie around the village. Something that is felt when the community honors the same traditions that has been practiced by and fed this community for centuries.

Madhav Koirala, a local farmer in our cooperative, carries the bundle of rice stalks after they have been cut and dry. Photo by Jonathan H. Lee

Mela is word to describe the groups of farmer families that support one another in harvesting, planting, carrying rice. The system incorporates a social agreement where families support one another in the agricultural work. For example a local mela group may contain as many as 25 families - if the Gyanu Tamang family supports the rice harvest of Sunita Tamang family, then later when the Gyanu Tamang family is harvesting the same number of workers that supported Sunita’s harvest, will go to help Gyanu’s harvest. It is a labor exchange program that has been passed down for generations.

Supporting local farmers to plant fruit trees has always been about supporting their livelihoods so that they can continue to practice regenerative, organic, climate-resilient agriculture that feeds their families, communities, and country. That’s why we support them in activities like planting and harvesting rice too, building solidarity for their hard, necessary work as well as creating more connection of rice consumers to the producers. We believe that these relationships and awareness building programs are important to ensure future farming generations have access to secure livelihoods.

An aerial view of the rice production grounds. Photo by Jonathan H. Lee

The School Painting Program

Our School beautification project has a lot of popularity. We have partnered and completed 5 school painting programs and have another 7 schools waiting for their walls to be beautified!

We need painters and are actively looking among Kathmandu artists for volunteers to support this program. The schools in rural Nepal operate on very limited funds and restricted budgets, thus often cannot afford to improve the classrooms. That’s why we support them to do so! Our program paints bright and colorful learning materials on the walls of Early Childhood Development and Class 1 classrooms. The teachers are always appreciative and feel that the learning materials really helps them teach and supports the learning process of the students.

Tree planting and compost production

Our Agriculture Tree & Perennial program provided more than 15,000 kilograms of organic, quality compost for free this past summer! That’s more than 500 dhokos (baskets) of compost for those of you who have carried your share of dhokos full of compost.

15,000 kg of compost is a lot of compost! This compost helps farmers improve the quality of their soil and not take away compost from the other crops they grow. It was also provided as an incentive for local farmers. Growing trees is hard and different than the usual kinds of agriculture community partners participate in. Mostly it has a long waiting time to yield the benefits of their hard work - the harvest for coffee takes 4-5 years, the harvest for macadamia nuts takes 8-10 years, the non-grafted lemon, orange, avocado and other fruit take 5-7 years. For subsistent farmers, waiting that long is too much of a risk and pretty impossible, which is what our programs are designed to change.

After the free compost delivery, we worked individually with each farmer and created compost piles in their coffee and fruit tree fields, with the aim to increase their production of organic compost right in the very place it is used. Which means for all you compost carriers, less compost to carry! And also means cleaning up the overgrown grass in the coffee fields. A win win for all.

A view from above Udhav Kaphle’s coffee field. The upper canopy trees are Nepali Alder Trees which provide great shade and nitrogen nutrients to the coffee crop.

Udhav’s newly built compost field right next to his coffee tree orchard so he can easily give nutrients to the trees throughout the year.

Compost is a precious resource to farmers, especially when trying to grow organic fruit, nut and coffee trees! The photo on the right is a newly made compost pile - an equal mixture of cow or buffalo manure (if available), green grass, and brown leaves and sawdust and a bit of ash. The photo on the right is around 2.5 months later.

lemongrass and Conscious Crafts

Lemongrass farmers’ made their first harvests to be used for essential oil and natural soap production by Herb Nepal and sold as tea in Kathmandu.

This past monsoon, we helped farmers harvest their first batch of lemongrass, a pilot perennial herb we planted with a few farmers to test the growing nature and climate of herbs here in Takure and Bimire. Farmers were really pleased that lemongrass can be harvested twice per year and gives its first harvest within 50 days! That’s a very quick turn around for cash, something farmers are always in need of. We look forward to expanding this program! We were recently provided a higher quality variety of lemongrass for oil production by Herb Nepal, and farmers are very excited to plant next year. Additionally, we are looking at other types of herbs that can grow here to similarly distribute to local farmers and support their market access.

Farmer Chyangba Lama stands next to a organic lemongrass bush. He has planted around 80 plants and this past summer made nearly $80 USD on his harvest. That’s quite a good amount based on the 50 day harvest turnaround and the amount of work and maintenance required.

Dried, organic lemongrass for sale at Maya ko Chino store in Jamsikhel, Kathmandu. This store has hosted several products produced by community partners of Conscious Impact and we are always grateful for their support of local, authentic entrepreneurs. Check them out!

Coffee, coffee, coffee!!!

Coffee trees are FIVE and looking FINE.

It has been 5 years since we planted our first coffee trees, and htey look amazing! We are so excited to keep producing more delicious, local, organic, high mountain, Himalayan coffee and sharing it with the world.

The Aftershool Program

Afterschool Program kids build spaghetti towers to learn design, team work, and to eat the marshmallows!

Our afterschool program operates at the Takure Primary School twice a week with class 4 and 5 students, around 30 students aged 9-12 years old. Our team led by Youth Coordinator, Bishal Khaiju, works to develop hands-on, creative, learning activities for students that incorporates science, language development, creativity, and more. Currently our program is supporting the students to build a 3D model of their community. We explored maps, map history, google earth to introduce to the students the concept of a 3D map and the students loved it! On Google Earth, we visited around the entire globe, Kathmandu historical sites, the village of Takure and Bimire, Paanch Pokhari site, and Mt. Everest!

We are so grateful for all of the support for our work from around the world. This work is only possible because of dedicated, kind donors.

One Year Later & COVID-19 in Nepal

It has been 365 days since Nepal closed its borders, airport and all nonessential travel to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Our last volunteer group left our project site on March 14th, 2020, leaving only 17 of us, our quarantine team (“quaranteam”). We didn’t know it then, but we would end up living together relatively isolated from the world in the mountains for more than 3 months. Our team stayed safe, and took every precaution in solidarity with the local community of Takure. In June 2020, repatriation flights allowed for our international volunteers to return to their homes around the world, leaving our local staff to lead Conscious Impact’s work through COVID-19. While Conscious Impact looked different in 2020, our work continued on, and now, 365 days later, we can say with confidence that Conscious Impact remains more committed than ever to Takure, and the surrounding communities of Indrawati Rural Municipality in Sindhupalchok, Nepal.

The “Quaranteam” of 17 amazing international volunteers, alongside local community leaders in June 2020. We spent nearly 3 months in total lockdown together, until repatriation flights allowed most team members to return home.

HOW WOULD THE WORLD AROUND US CHANGE?

The COVID-19 pandemic left Conscious Impact, and everyone around the globe, with endless questions about what the future would bring. Where would we be one year from now? How will our lives all change? And now, exactly one year later, we can finally reflect on who we are, and how we have changed.

In Nepal, the complete lockdown continued until September 2020, about 6 months in total. Airports then slowly reopened to Nepali citizens returning home, and limited days for public transportation were initiated. Many amazing leaders within Nepal guided efforts to help prepare Nepal, and especially mountain communities, for COVID-19 prevention once borders reopened. By December 2020, tourists were allowed to visit Nepal again, with the requirement of a visa before arrival and a negative PCR test result before boarding the plane.

As of March 2021, Nepal has reached 3012 total recorded deaths due to COVID-19 and more than 275,000 reported cases. For many of us, especially those from countries still in an active fight to keep COVID-19 deaths below 1 million, these statistics feel a bit relieving. The situation could have been far worse given the limited availability of necessary equipment like ventilators and few medical facilities in most rural areas. The year has not been without struggle including a humanitarian crisis for migrant workers trying to return home to Nepal from India in April and May 2020, plus crowded ICUs and lack of available beds in government hospitals around the festivals in October and November 2020. Nevertheless, we are grateful to the leaders that supported the prevention of COVID-19, the organizations and agencies working to alleviate the economic effects, and the communities within Nepal that kept one another safe by wearing masks and staying home.

The Conscious Impact team that stayed through it all, and remains in Takure today! Here, Program Director Beth Huggins poses with the big family of Conscious Impact Nepal on a staff day hike to Kattike Farm & Homestay. It was a full day of walking, playing games, and visiting a demonstration organic fruit farm full of apple trees and kiwis.

HOW will CONSCIOUS IMPACT’S WORK CHANGE?

This was the main question of our team for most of the past year. Given that normally our programs operate from funding and support of around 200 visiting volunteers each year, we were not sure how exactly our work would continue throughout COVID-19. Furthermore, with school closures and limitations on gatherings, much of our community-based work was halted. Many times we asked ourselves what to do, how to respond, and where to put our energy and focus. With limited financial resources, no new volunteers and shifting local priorities, decisions needed to be made. Our local team, with support from Program Director Beth Huggins and Agriculture Program Lead Greg Robinson, Conscious Impact took on a new, much more local, and still inspiring and impactful look.

The summer months from May-August 2020 were a very busy time for farmers in rural Nepal, and for our agriculture team. This is the time to plant corn, rice and millet in order to provide food for their families all year long. For farmers that partner with Conscious Impact, it is also tree planting time! COVID-19 only made us more aware of how changing global circumstances, including climate change, market uncertainty and pandemics, can affect vulnerable farming communities like Takure. So we continued to work with farmers, planting trees outside in the open air. In summer 2020, we worked with 82 different local farming families to plant more than 5400 coffee trees, plus an additional 1000 other fruit, nut and forest trees with another 76 farmers, making it our most successful, and hopefully someday most “fruitful,” tree planting season ever!

Following the summer, despite severe financial challenges, we felt it was essential to continue working towards our program goals in solidarity with Takure. Our organization is local. We live and experience the daily life, joys and challenges that come to the communities in the mid-hills of rural Sindhupalchok, Nepal. Our local and international team felt that this was an important time for our work, that in the midst of a global crisis, we needed to continue working to be of service and build sustainability and resiliency for future generations. Even when the schools were closed, our Youth team worked to meet with school administration, local community leaders, teachers and students to find ways to support the education system, suffering from lack of technology in rural areas. We continued to provide jobs to our staff, operating as much as our funding would allow. We wanted to use this challenging time to strengthening our programs, our staff team, our volunteer camp, and ultimately our organization.

In short, Conscious Impact survived. In fact, not only did we survive, on many days we thrived. We built new partnerships, we developed new elements of our programs, we hired a new Community Organizer, and we even made some bricks! This is only the case because of the generous monthly donors we have from around the world.

Without our monthly donors, Conscious Impact would NOT have been able to continue our work, or survive through the COVID-19 pandemic. We owe our organization to YOU.

Conscious Impact Nepal Agriculture Program Coordinator, Kumari Bomjan and community leader and government representative, Shobhana Tamang planting coffee trees together in July 2021. Photo credit: Jonathan H. Lee

What will the future bring in nepal?

We asked our friend and one of Conscious Impact Nepal’s Board Members to comment on the situation with COVID-19 in Nepal. Raj Gyawali is a leader and innovator in sustainable tourism and lucky for us, an advisor to our work in Nepal. Raj is the founder and owner of Socialtours in Nepal, the first sustainability certified tour company in Asia.

“Since March 2020, tourism in the country of Nepal has come to a virtual standstill, and businesses are in the verge of collapsing, not to mention the thousands of jobs that have been lost. Nepal is however, endeavoring to open to the new world of travel, with particular focus on the pandemic and its ramifications. The country is currently open, albeit with conditions related to tests and quarantine. This is allowing the industry to start understanding how tourism could function with controls on the pandemic, both to the traveler and the community. While it might be complicated to come to Nepal at this particular time, there are always ways to connect. Several organizations are making meaningful utilization of the time, working with communities and helping them deal with the economic fallout caused by the pandemic, through agile pivots in the areas of agriculture, technology, innovation and micro enterprises, one of the main positive outcomes of the pandemic. Understanding what they do, engaging with them and supporting them can be a great way to connect from afar. When the time is right, one can always come in and also get engaged physically. Hopefully soon.” - Raj Gyawali

Today, life can sometimes be mistaken as normal, but the reality is far from that. The World Bank estimates that in the best-case scenario Nepal’s economy will not recover to pre-COVID levels until 2023. The economic loss, particularly with informal workers within Nepal, will have a far reaching impact. As for staying healthy, families are still precautious and many people wear masks, though not all. In Kathmandu, most places are business as usual. The largest exception is of course the lack of tourism, which faced a nearly 81% drop in 2020 reported by the Kathmandu Post, stating further:

“Nepal’s tourism sector generated Rs240.7 billion (2.07 billion USD) in revenue and supported more than 1 million jobs directly and indirectly in 2018, according to the annual World Travel and Tourism Council research report. The London-based organization said that travel and tourism's total contribution to the country’s gross domestic product stood at 7.9 percent.” (Kathmandu Post, https://tkpo.st/3oe6Kdq)

As the COVID-19 vaccine becomes available both in Nepal and countries around the world, we do wonder what will be the long lasting changes around us…

Flooded rice terraces in July 2020 | Photo Credit: Jonathan H. Lee of Subtledream Photography

WHEN WILL WE HAVE VOLUNTEERS AGAIN?

It has been a challenging, educational and exciting year! We weren’t able to reach all of our goals and certainly our work has been more difficult than ever with funding cuts, but we are still here dedicated to generational change. We miss the diversity, energy and enthusiasm of having volunteers and guests from all around the world, and we truly look forward to having international guests again. Our local Nepali team talks often about how fun and unique it is to have 30+ people around at lunch time or how much more fun volunteer music playlists make work. We miss having volunteers so much!

With Nepal open to tourists, we have begun to process individual applications for volunteering. Due to reduced resources and team members, we are only able to accept a very small amount of volunteers for different, specific programs and work throughout the spring and summer 2021. While it isn’t the normal community living volunteer experience, it is loads of fun, culturally immersive, and full of meaningful work. For more information, fill out our volunteer form on our website.

Thank you so much for your support, and for reading this story.

stay tuned for more volunteer programs in October 2021!

Kachenjunga National Park | Photo Credit: Joshua Umesh Bohara

20 Best Moments from 2020

2020 YEAR IN REVIEW

2020 was a year with a lot of challenges, difficulties, sadness and more. But it was also a year of strength, resilience, beauty, and hope. This blog is dedicated to sharing some of the best moments of 2020 for our organization.

#1.

COFFEE tasting & planting

Four years after planting coffee seeds in the community nursery, Takure farmers finally could taste their very own coffee. Harvest began after the COVID-19 lockdown, but our agriculture team got resourceful and learned some at-home roasting techniques so farmers could taste the "“fruits” of their hard work. It was a huge moment for farmers and for our team!

Pictured here is Goma Ama Kaphle (left) and Ambar Ranamagar, two very enthusiastic coffee growers. Goma Ama has planted 250 coffee trees in collaboration with Conscious Impact and Ambar has more than 150 coffee trees plus every other type of fruit tree we have distributed.

Look forward to these two’s coffee in years to come. Our team found hints of fig and caramel. 2020 was also our biggest year for planting coffee. In total our team planted 5400 coffee trees with more than 85 different farmers.

#2.

we completed the nest!

These beautiful, strong Nepali women helped us finish this amazing 8-room waddle and daub (bamboo woven and covered with cob - soil, sand and straw) building that will be offered to guests when they visit us. Although COVID-19 prevented more than 70% of our normal visitations, we are happy to have these earthen, rooms available when it is safe to travel and host again.

(From left to right: Ram Maya Ranamagar, Gyanu Tamang, Rabina Adhikari, and Rabina Ranamagar have worked on our natural building team for more than 4 years. They make earth bricks, know how to lay earth bags, and are the best earthen plasters we know.

#3. quarantined in rural nepal

Nepal went into nationwide lockdown in mid March 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID-19, it not only prevented visitors from joining our work but also kept 17 people from going on our March to the Mountains trip to Langtang National Park. While we didn’t get to go trekking, we used our quarantine time together in rural Nepal to work safely, have fun and ultimately find ways to support one another’s needs.

#4.

community forest planting day

In August 2020, we had our first ever community forest planting day. This is an activity we hope to continue each year with community forest user groups (CFUGs). Community Forest User Groups in Nepal are known for their unification and communal ownership of designated forested land with goals of supporting and benefiting both the managing community members and the forest itself.

We worked alongside two different community forest groups in August 2020. The Takure Community Forest Groups manages about 350 hectares of forested land beginning from the Takure Primary School and reaches to Dude and Bagawa communities. We planted 110 coffee trees under a perfect upper canopy spot in the forest below the Takure Primary School. Another six members from the Devi Taun Forest Group helped our team plant 150 Indian Gooseberry trees (known as Amala, a local medicinal tree) and 50 more native forest tree species.

#5.

BEAUTIFUL CLASSROOMS

Our Youth Program collaborated with Teach for Nepal fellows within Indrawati Gaunpalika to beautify classrooms by painting learning materials on walls and to also hold workshops with students. Two participating schools in Bhimtar and Bodgaun hosted volunteers for 3 days to paint and learn together.

The workshops conducted for secondary students included topics on gender discrimination and rights and STEAM design activities depending on each school’s request. We are super grateful for these participating schools and the leadership of Teach for Nepal within Nepal’s rural school system.

#6.

community homestay program

In collaboration with the local government, Indrawati Rural Municipality, we launched a Community Homestay Program. Visitors have the choice of different locations and stay durations during their time with us - it can include a 1-3 hour hike with lovely mountain views and most certainly includes delicious food and Nepali hospitality. The homestay experience allows families to showcase different aspects of their daily life and culture for visitors, creating a truly home-like experience.

Look forward to staying with local families your next visit to Nepal.

#7.

50 year old pizza

Throughout 2020, our oven baked a much smaller amount of pizza than normal since COVID-19 restrictions kept entering tourists from visiting Nepal, but the pizza we did bake included crust made from a 50 year old sourdough starter which traversed the globe thanks to our one and only Allen Gula.

We are always grateful for the simplicity of flour, yeast, water, and oil.

#8.

1000+ fruit trees

As most people know, we love planting trees and have planted our fair share of coffee trees. But we also plant many other types of fruit trees with local farmers. As coffee has preferential growing climate and terrain, not all local farmers have the ability to cultivate coffee successfully, especially those with north, Himalayan-facing land where the winter season temperatures gets quite cold. For these areas, we support the planting of all kinds stone fruit and nut trees including almonds, macadamia, walnut, low-chill apple, local plum and peach, timmur (relative of sichuan pepper), Japanese persimmon, pear and apricot.

1000 more fruit trees were planted in the communities surrounding Takure this past year. We look forward to many more years of planting fruit and nut trees and eating the future harvests with farmers.

#9.

OUR dome home

In August 2020, our beloved friend and employee, Umesh Bohara (also known as Joshua), moved into the Dome making it an official home! The Dome was built during our first ever 10 day superadobe training in November of 2019 and in 2020 we plastered, painted, and furnished it!

We look forward to more Domes at camp and more long-term, sustainable housing for short-term visitors and long-term staff.

#10.

student story writers

We collaborated with an amazing Nepali organization called Canopy Nepal to teach 20 secondary students how to write stories. Canopy Nepal facilitators led students through workshops on different parts of a story, adjectives and descriptive language and how to embrace their imagination! It was a wonderful workshop and local teachers reported to our Youth Team that afterwards many students continued to show their stories.

We hope to continue supporting local students in finding their voice and creative expression!

#11.

new rainwater catchment ponds

We partnered with 4 farmers last year to create rainwater catchment ponds for irrigating fruit trees and vegetables. This amazing technology was introduced to us in 2019 by Shree Krishna Dhital of Sanskriti Farms & Research Center. The training back in 2019 included 30 farmers eager to learn ways of irrigating their land for the 6+ month winter dry season in Nepal. Our volunteers and local staff joined the families of Muktinath Bhattarai, Damadar Khanal, Harkha Bahadur Tamang, and Madaph Koriala dig various pond sizes (16,000 liters, 18,000 liters and even 50,000 liters capacity). Then Conscious Impact supplied 70% of the plastic material cost to increase accessibility of this solution and helped each farmer install the plastic properly to ensure longevity.

Here Madaph and Sarita Koirala stand with their youngest son and their monsoon filled pond, excited to put it to use during the dry winter. Sanskriti Farms & Research Center also supplied us with water hyacinth to help farmers keep the pond water clean and cover the surface area to deter mosquito growth.

#12.

camp basketball court

During the COVID-19 nationwide lockdown, our “quarantine” team stayed busy with work and play! Our first ever basketball and volleyball courts were made by the one and only John Paula from northern California. Throughout April and May 2020, we played sports alongside community members also stuck in Takure during the lockdown. There was a lot of sun and sweat and good times!

Watch out for the Conscious Impact Sports Team soon!

#13.

first time blood donors

In November 2020, the local government Indrawati Rural Municipality held a blood donation drive to help meet the nation’s blood demands given COVID-19’s strain on the healthcare system. Many of our local staff members had never given blood before, so we ended the work day early and went together to all donate our blood. Our first time donors were surprised by the ease and painless experience of donating their blood, and we were all delighted by the post-donation snack made by the local bakery.

#14.

700+ plastic waste “bottle bricks”

Rural Nepal does not have waste management infrastructure so we are always looking for ways to get creative with waste, especially plastic waste. Back in 2017 thanks to our friend, volunteer and donor, Anne Goodman, we began taking our plastic waste produced at camp and stuffing it into plastic bottles. The plastic trash is stuffed such that the plastic bottle becomes hard like, similar to a glass bottle. We’ve used these bottles in benches and walls around camp and last year in the community.

The Community Bus Stop and Gathering Space was designed by extraordinary architect and our dear friend, Belkis Campos. This space holds more than 700 plastic bottles stuffed full of plastic waste picked up from around the village and stuffed by 25 short-term employed, local women.

#15. mu

shrooms for the school

Takure Primary School grew and sold their first oyster mushrooms in the pilot School-Based Mushroom Cultivation Project. This project was inspired by the school’s need for additional funds for a snack program which would feed primary students a snack mid-school day. In order to help the school raise independent revenue, the school-based mushroom program began. This was our first try and it hasn’t been easy with COVID-19 closures to the schools but the local teachers are very excited to continue the program.

#16.

coffee fruits (cherries)

Local farmers harvested coffee cherries from February to May 2020. This was the first harvest since planting coffee with us in 2017. Over the past 5 years, we have planted more than 15,000 coffee trees and it was an incredible joy to finally see the fruits of that labor. Takure coffee cherries are an exciting sign for farmers’ future income generation, plus we the taste!

In 2020, we processed 200 kilograms of coffee red cherry (~ 400 pounds). Each 1 kilogram of red cherry picked by farmers is bought by the local coffee cooperative group at 100 Nepali rupees per kilogram (~ 0.86 USD/kg). As it was the first year for harvest, the total amount of fruit was low, however in the next 2-3 years we expect for many more kilograms and rupees of coffee to be picked and earned.

#17.

more bricks moved!

The local Compressed Stabilized Earth Brick Production Team is still making earth blocks and distributing them to anyone interested in the region! We subsidize the cost of production so that these sustainable, locally produced materials can be accessible for local families, organizations, and institutions to use in construction, reducing the environmental costs of construction in our little corner of Nepal.

Here our team delivers another truckload of bricks to the Janaki Thapa Foundation Center. The Janaki Thapa Foundation is dedicated to social work in Badigaun, Sindhupalchok where they support the community with a children’s home, a private school, health workshops, and more. We are always grateful for the support of Janaki didi and her entire family of positive change-makers.

#18.

bird watching

Living in close proximity to nature, each year we have gotten to know the local birds (and other wildlife too)! This year thanks to photographer Jonathan H. Lee, we have documentation of our local bird friends, some rarer than others. Here is one of our favorites, the Verditer Flycatcher showing its beautiful feather structure (color) and that black eye shadow. Read more about its original appearance here.

#19.

hand woven goods

Corn husk mats are very common in local Nepali homes and this past year we partnered with local women to try and find market opportunities in Kathmandu. These mats, called “chakati” in Nepali, are great for seating, wall decor and even place mats. A group of local Tamang women made 25 beautiful chakati’s, different sizes and shapes and decor style, some even including plastic trash. We are still searching for greater market options this year and look forward to our visitors and guests being able to buy these.

#20.

staff hike day to katikke

Over monsoon season, our staff team took a day hike to the nearby village of Katikke where there is a beautiful homestay and apple and kiwi fruit farm, Biloba Organic Farm. This day gave local staff time away from their usual jobs to connect, learn and be together as a team. We played team building exercises, ate delicious high mountain potatoes with timmur archaar (a salsa-like dish made from a relative of Sichuan pepper), and then toured around the fruit farm to see the beautiful kiwi, apple and other fruit trees.

It was a fun and inspiring day for our team and we are grateful to our very generous hosts, Katikke Biloba team.

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We are super grateful to all of our donors and supporters for sticking with us through one of our hardest years yet and continuing to believe in the work we are doing. We are grateful to our local staff team for making the best of 2020. Looking forward to many more years together!

Photography by Jonathan H. Lee of SubtleDream, Ankit Tanu, and Joshua Umesh Bohara.

We Did It! 5250 Coffee Trees Planted

After 6 months of work distributing coffee trees, digging holes, carrying compost and planting trees in collaboration with dozens of local Nepali families, today we announce that we have completed our goal to plant more than 5,000 trees this summer. We are very excited and super grateful to our donors, supporters, staff, and local farmers for making this possible!

Kumari (far left) and Greg “Shiva” Robinson (far right), our Agriculture Program Coordinators, walk with Anil Tamang (center left) and Aiscing Tamang (center right) after a full morning of work - carrying baskets or “dhokos” of compost, digging holes, managing forest land, and planting coffee trees.

For the last 6+ months, we were also fundraising actively through our “Planting Trees During COVID-19” fundraiser that allowed us to keep our Nepali team employed and at work supporting families across the Himalayas. We raised $23,766 in total from 170 donors. What a success! Thank you to each of you for supporting our work, and for keeping Conscious Impact alive during these challenging times. So far, we have raised enough to plant and care for 4,750, but there are still 250 trees left to adopt if you would like one!

Kumari Bomjan, Agriculture Program Coordinator for Conscious Impact, takes another 30 baby coffee trees from our greenhouse to be carried to a local farm for planting. Photo by Jonathan H. Lee

Our agriculture team worked tirelessly all summer to make this happen. Led by Kumari Bomjan and Greg “Shiva” Robinson, we loaded baskets, crates and trucks full of coffee saplings from our community greenhouse in Takure to be transported and distributed to community members in Takure, Bimire, Nawalpur and dozens of other local towns. We worked alongside 160+ total famers this monsoon season to plant the 5250 trees. Each tree once mature, in 3-5 years, can produce annually up to 10 kilograms of coffee, red cherry, and more than 25,000 USD per year in total for local families’ livelihoods.

Bala Krishna and friends load 750 coffee trees into the back of a truck to carry to their village called Pokhare, about 1.5 hours walk from Takure, for planting. Photo by Jonathan H. Lee

WHO ARE THE FARMERS?

Ketcharnath and Bodi Mai Dahal, live 40 minutes below Takure in the village of Bimire. These two inspiring and active farmers have 10 existing mature coffee trees (8 years old) that produce around 50 kilograms of coffee cherry annually. Through our Tree Cultivation Program, we are working with farmers like these two to improve their cultivation of coffee, so that they can get more fruit each year. Additionally, this year a team of volunteers and staff went down to plant 35 new coffee trees with Bodi Mai & Ketcharnath along with their visiting grandchildren from Kathmandu. Ketcharnath says he is really excited to hopefully pass over his coffee farm to a grandchild someday and looks forward to increasing his income with coffee.

Shobhana Tamang lives in the village of Duduwa Kharka. She had not planted coffee before October 2019, when she agreed to trial coffee on some of her forest land. Shobhana is a local government leader, she is hardworking and active in the community to support positive social change on various fronts. After planting an initial 30 trees in 2019, she was inspired to lead her community to plant more. Not only did she inspire 5 other farmers to plant trees this year, but she also planted an additional 50 coffee trees. Carries heavy baskets of compost the whole work shift alongside our team. We are so grateful to work alongside community members like Shobhana.

As we celebrate the completion of a 6-month fundraiser, we also want to honor everyone that made a donation. This work would not be possible without the support of the 170 people that in total contributed $23,766 to help us plant 5250 coffee trees, 750 fruit trees like citrus and hundreds more native forest trees. Thank you so much from our entire team! 100% of the money donated goes directly to supporting local farmers. This was our most successful tree planting season yet, and we look forward to more!

Left to Right: Narayan Bhattarai (staff), Greg Robinson (agriculture program lead), Kumari Bomjan (staff), and 4 farmers from the village of Pokhare picking up their 750+ coffee and other fruit trees for planting.

THANK YOU TO OUR DONORS.

Jim & Dede Huggins | Victoria & Kyon Hood | Andy and Cathy Huggins | Julien de Wit | Elizabeth Layton | Drew Marshall | Wil Kiser | Emily Ray | Jean Dorband-Penderock | Sherry Ray Manka | Brigitte Ender | Haley Poarch | Tony & Soos Angles | Ben Perlmutter | Mr A Hughes-Onslow | Benedikt von Schroder | Daniel Escola | Gary Butler | Greg Ichtertz | Helmut Penderock | Isabelle Durrett | Pat McFadden | Scott Hanson | Erin Enright | Maria Antequera Mulet | Kevin Keierleber | Kris Muller | Marc Benoit | Elpis & Dora | Cameron Wallenfels | Dylan Ho | Morgan Smith | Pamela Maguigad | Joey Hassan Suárez | Holger | Ingrid Müller | German Linares | Elisabeth Musum Mathisen | Sophie Lemee | Michael Müller | Nathalie Stauffer | Kakai Marr | Skjalg Bjørkevoll | Alison Kearns | Chase Keierleber | Chauncy Hinshaw | Cindy Hecht | Elson Haas | Emily Cohen | Federico Amorosi | Grace Aaternir | Jeanne Krafft | Kara Callaway | Lee Farrell | Marty & Barb Ceranec | Mathew Kwok | Peter Phelps Renee Dyke | Samantha Nolloth | Steve Tracy | Suzanne Benoit | Tiffinie SMITH | d benjamin cahn | Andy Klun | Stan Stalnaker | Christina Patsi | Natalia Mixailidou | Supreme Galactic Emperor Jupiter | Joy Maguigad | Anna Wirtz | Rachel Phelos | Dor Yanai | Paolo Garlasco | Clare McInerney | Katharina Ziller | Normande Grenier | Amy Robertson | Ankesh Gupta | Anne Goodman | Barbara Wilt | Birgit Penzenstadler | Candace Forest | Carla Villasana | Carly Boggs | Christina Yu | David Hawkins | Eric Low | Jay Saponaro | Joyce K | Judy Haley | Kathy John | Khara Ledonne | Kristi & Dan Michener | Marlene Negrete | Matthew Robinson | Muriel Manka | Nicola Radcliffe | Patricia Silverman | RHETT BUTLER | Rene Pyatt | Ricardo Marin | SHERI OLSEN | Sam Wong | Shannon Haley | TIANGE ZHANG | Tammy Chan | Tim Witzenman | Tonio B | Angelika Klüver-Leclercq | Alan Haimowitz | Dora Lee | Raquel Portillo | Amelie Weber | Jennifer Giordanelli | Xochi Maberry-Gaulke | Hannah bailey | CAROLINE GRENIER | Gilles Massicotte | Adriana Pineiro Coen | Frank Pinto | Seema Patel | Alison Edwards | Carl Adler | Clark Atkins | Dan Michener | Darian Gumper | Eduardo L. | Jessie Paul | Katrina Zavalney | Sarah Algwaiz | Simona Zagrean | Conrad Olende | Eduardo Evaristo | Eunice Jimenez Martinez | Dimitris Athanasiadis | Georgia Lagoudi | Abigail Rotholz | Callia Johnson | Jateshwar Das | Lisha Limbu | Maria Fotopoulos | Nga Hoa | Samantha Taylor | Sarah Beyerlein | Shamin Dagan | Shannon Reid | Tallulah Kay | Giuseppe Di Biase | Hanna Ginzburg | JoAnn Riemen | Ibrahim Ahmed | Alexandra Frousklia | Keely Mclaren | Eduardo Mouhtar | Patricia Mora | Pau Farres Antunez | Alex Maguigad | Ferdinand Maguigad | Francisco Santos | Daniela Di Martino | Edoardo Caroli | Rob Aerts | Edgar Gomez | Jaime Gomez | Jillian Gomez | Nico Hoffmann | Vanessa Farias | Jack Sanctuary | Luis Perez Gonzalez | Kira Schlegel |

Narayan Bhattarai, Lead Community Organizer for Conscious Impact, makes a final count of coffee saplings loaded into the truck. 750! Photo by Jonathan H. Lee

Fall 2020 Programming Postponed Until 2021

This year has challenged each of us deeply, and changed the world forever. We have each been pushed to adjust our lives, our work and our futures, and to fight for the health, safety and wellness of ourselves and our families and communities. Whether we are working from home, studying online, or serving every day as essential workers, we each face great uncertainty as the world around us changes.

Our small team of Nepali staff and volunteers continue our work, even through the global pandemic. We need new volunteers to help, but with international travel restrictions, we will have to wait until 2021. Photo by Jonathan H. Lee

Here in Nepal, COVID-19 has transformed the country. For more than 6 months, businesses, transportation services and educational facilities have remained restricted or entirely closed. The economy is suffering deeply, and much of society has come to a halt. Most notably, the international airport in Kathmandu has been closed to international visitors since March, and will likely remain closed until the end of 2020. This means that sadly, Conscious Impact will be required to postpone all volunteer programming until 2021.

Our team in Takure would absolutely LOVE to receive volunteers again as soon as possible, as we have plenty of work to get done. Even during COVID-19, we continue to plant trees, support local farmers, provide alternative educational environments to students and mobilize community-driven infrastructural development projects. The extra hands, minds and hearts of international volunteers would provide much needed inspiration, energy and support. We want you to come now, but we will have to patiently wait until 2021. :)

You can learn more, and sign up today for 2021 volunteer programs at www.consciousimpact.org/volunteer.

Our agriculture team with a local family after planting trees together this summer. Photo by Ankit Tanu

In the meantime, one of our greatest challenges is financial. Our goal since the beginning has been to support Takure for generations to come, and we are more committed to this than ever before. Without the income of volunteers, however, we are even more dependent on our international supporters and monthly donors to get us through this time. We know this is a challenging time for many, but if you or your community are able to support our work, it would make a huge difference. We are still actively fundraising to help plant coffee trees at https://www.classy.org/campaign/covid-19-resilience-fund/c286580. We are also seeking additional supporters to become monthly donors. Even $10/month makes a difference, and $150/month allows us to keep a staff member at work. Thank you SO much for your support!

New baby coffee trees beginning to sprout from seed in our nursery. Our hope is to again distribute thousands of trees to farmers around the region in 2021. Come help us please! :) Photo by Ankit Tanu

We have faced challenges in our work in Nepal before, and each time we have stood strong and shown our commitment to continuing to serve Takure and the families of this region. We also know that our world has faced difficult times before, each of us have, and we are confident that we will all come out of 2020 stronger and more resilient than ever before, even if it feels hard. We hope that you and your family and friends are staying healthy and safe during everything. If you need anything, even just someone to talk to, feel free to reach out to us and write at volunteer@consciousimpact.org. And please come see us in Nepal in 2021. We will be here. :)

WIth love and deep gratitude,

The CI Nepal Team

Our Conscious Impact Nepal team on a day hike nearby Takure. Without volunteers coming this fall, they will continue their work in agriculture, sustainable construction and youth empowerment while they patiently await your return to Takure! Photo by Ankit Tanu

3,000 Trees Planted, 2,000 More to Go!

Planting 5,000 Trees Amidst a Global Crisis

When COVID-19 halted the world in March, the Conscious Impact team in Nepal quarantined in Takure, and at the same time undertook a huge tree planting mission: to plant more than 3,000 organic coffee trees in collaboration with local farmers. For 3 months, we worked almost every day to dig holes, carry compost and plant coffee saplings across the region. We are excited to announce today that we have reached 3,000 trees, and with the support of local farmers and our Nepali staff in Takure, we have extended our goal to 5,000!

We are SO grateful to everyone that has helped us raise almost $15,000 since March to help us plant 3,000 coffee trees. Every donation of $5 has already planted one coffee tree, and will allow us to continue to care for this tree for years to come. Our work would not be possible without your help, and we are so grateful.

Help us reach our goal and keep Conscious Impact at work

The Conscious Impact international team heads to a local family farm to plant coffee trees. Photo by Jonathan H. Lee

What does it take to plant 3,000+ trees?

1. Dedicated Local Farmers: First, it takes an incredible mobilization of local farmers from Takure that are inspired and ready to plant on their own land. We work directly with the Takure Coffee Cooperative, more than 50 men and women committed to expanding quality coffee production in the region. We do outreach to find new interested farmers around Takure, and in nearby communities such as Bimire, Baguwa, Aisilukharka and Pokhare. Each farmer is required to provide compost and participate in the tree planting process. We have made so many new and amazing community partners along the way! (Check out some of our highlighted families below)

2. A Growing Nepali Staff: Conscious Impact’s agriculture program is run with great support and leadership from our long-term Nepali staff. Program Coordinators Kumary Bomjom and Narayan Bhattarai communicate and organize with local farmers, and set the plan of work for the week. But with growing demand for support planting coffee, and limited access to international volunteers, Conscious Impact has needed to grow our local Nepali Agriculture Program Staff. In the past 2 months, we have added 4 amazing Takure community members to the team, Reshma Tamang, Tharendra Mishra, Chyangba Lama and Kapil Kafle. We love working together and are so grateful for the extra hands!

3. International Donor Support: With international travel to Nepal stopped, and no new volunteers, Conscious Impact faces the most challenging financial circumstances we have seen since our foundation in 2015. We rely on international volunteers for 90% of our annual income, and without this revenue, we struggle to pay our Nepali staff and invest in necessary supplies for our projects. Despite all of this, we have been able to continue our programs, and even grow our local staff, in thanks to the contributions of international donors around the world. Our fundraiser, launched in May, has almost reached our original goal of $15,000 and continues to provide the income we need to sustain our work. Every $5 donated plants and cares for one tree for life. Thank you so much for making this happen!

The fundraiser is still open, and we need your help.

Kumary Bomjom, Agriculture Program Coordinator for Conscious Impact, takes another 30 baby coffee trees from our greenhouse to be carried to a local farm for planting. Photo by Jonathan H. Lee

Who are the farmers?

Since the beginning of our coffee program in Takure in early 2016, Conscious Impact has helped to build a network of passionate, innovative and skilled local farmers across the mountains where we work. These farmers include men, women, grandparents and youth, and range across the diversity of ethnicities in the area. Tamang, Brahmin, Rana Magar, Dahal, and people of every community are excited about the possibility that coffee brings to increase their income without significant additional labor. We are excited about supporting them to make this transition into agroforestry and organic coffee production.

In a single day, our team can plant on average 35-50 trees with one family, which means that we have supported more than 50 families during this time, families like Ser Bahadur Koirala, Haribol Bhattarai, Aising Tamang, Radha Mishra, Madhav Khanal and dozens more. Each partner family becomes a part of our growing network of beautiful people that we work each day to serve. Take a moment to explore the family photos below:

Who makes this all happen?

For those of you that have visited our project in Nepal to volunteer with our team, you know our local staff well. Our work, our lives, in fact all that defines Conscious Impact, is our Nepali staff. Almost entirely born and raised in Takure, our team demonstrates the best of what makes Nepal famous: hospitality, kindness, humility, physical strength, non-stop work and playful laughter, all wrapped into one. Plus, each team member has their own stories, background, passion and visions. Kumary Bomjom, at only 22 years old, leads the way with her enthusiasm, open-mindedness, radical vision and absolute dedication to serving the Earth. Narayan Bhattarai, our lead Community Organizer, has spent 5+ years building our relationship to Takure with great humility, selflessness, a soft smile and deep wisdom. In our agriculture program alone, we now have 6 team members: Kumary, Narayan, Chyangba, Tharendra, Reshma and Kapil. They each offer a unique perspective and individual personality that together creates a dynamic, powerful and effective local Nepali team. Check out photos of our team below:

Why plant coffee now?

We know that this is a challenging time for people all across the world, and we stand in solidarity with struggling communities globally. In Takure, community members are also vulnerable to changing climate patterns, economic downturns, health risks and international travel restrictions. More than 25% of the country’s GDP comes from remittance (money sent from Nepalis working abroad). With this income in jeopardy, local agriculture becomes even more important to creating resilient, self-sufficient, economically sustainable village communities.

Every coffee tree planted sequesters carbon, builds soil life, prevents erosion, preserves local ecology and provides essential income to farmers in need. After more than two months of work, we continue to believe that planting coffee trees is the most valuable way to support the local environment and the resilience of Nepali families in the Himalayan mountains.

We need your help.

Without international volunteers able to arrive to Nepal, Conscious Impact is facing our greatest economic challenge yet. We have lost 90% of our income, and are now entirely dependent on the generosity and donations of our alumni and international supporters. We need to raise $25,000 in order to sustain our work, and keep Conscious Impact alive and well into 2021 and beyond. Please consider helping us today so that we can continue to pay Nepali salaries, purchase necessary supplies and plant thousands of trees in the Himalayas.

We know that this is a challenging time for families across the world. We send our love and blessings to each of you, and hope that you, your families and communities are staying healthy and safe. We understand as well if this is not a time that you can make a financial contribution. Still, we are committed to continuing our work in Nepal, and without this fundraiser it may not be possible. We are grateful to anyone that can donate, and to each of you for all that you have already given to this organization.

Love and blessings from Takure,

The Conscious Impact Team

In Solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter

For the past two weeks, since the murder of George Floyd, our team has watched as millions of you have taken to the streets in protest of the rampant police brutality inflicted upon Black Americans. We are so grateful that while we are across the world, our extended network of friends and supporters have put their passion, strength, and lives into standing up for justice. We stand in solidarity with Black communities, as well as all communities of color and queer/trans identities fighting against police brutality, today and every day.

Illustration from Damianimated

As we reflect on what we can do to help from the other side of the globe, we are reminded of what we have learned over the years here in Nepal about how to stand in solidarity with vulnerable populations working for social change. Below are a few key steps:

(NOTE: This list is far from complete, and if you are looking for more developed resources on allying, there are many. Here are two good examples: https://www.swaay.com/ally-resources-black-lives-matter and https://www.greatbigstory.com/guides/how-to-become-a-better-black-lives-matter-ally):

1. Acknowledge Your Biases, Judgements and Privileges, and Work to Dismantle Them – We each carry our own perspectives and beliefs, built over generations of cultural, economic and social influences. It is good to “drop our judgements” and open our minds about what is “right” and “wrong” when working with people of different cultures and backgrounds, but it is even better to face the deep judgements and biases that we do carry and to be honest with ourselves about these biases. Then, we can truly begin to dismantle our “isms”, starting with racism.

2. Listen and Learn – To stand in solidarity with others requires listening deeply to their concerns, their needs, their inspirations and their visions for the future. From listening, we can begin to learn and understand, and from understanding we can support. These are some of the powerful and inspiring Black American voices we are listening to right now (just a few of MANY, and if you know more, feel free to share):

Layla Saad: http://laylafsaad.com/

Rachel Cargle: https://www.rachelcargle.com/

Rachel Ricketts: https://www.rachelricketts.com/

Ijeoma Oluo: http://www.ijeomaoluo.com/

Ibram X. Kendi:  https://www.ibramxkendi.com/

And here are some organizations leading the way in education and action (again, just a few of MANY, and feel free to share others that you know):

Black Lives Matter : https://blacklivesmatter.com/
NAACP Legal Defense Fund: https://www.naacpldf.org/
Black Visions: https://www.blackvisionsmn.org/about
Anti Police-Terror Project:
https://www.antipoliceterrorproject.org/
Campaign Zero: https://www.joincampaignzero.org/
Color of Change: https://theblackresponse.org/
Critical Resistance : criticalresistance.org

Photo from SF Chronicle

3. Act Consciously – As many have expressed during these past weeks, solidarity requires direct action. This does not mean everyone must march and protest, as we all have our different abilities and contributions. It does mean, however, that love, support and compassion must be met with conscious action. Here are some of the actions we have been taking this week:

Petitions to Sign:

Justice for George Floyd: https://www.change.org/p/mayor-jacob-frey-justice-for-george-floyd

Justice for Ahmaud Arbery: https://www.runwithmaud.com/

Justice for Breonna Taylor: https://www.change.org/p/andy-beshear-justice-for-breonna-taylor

#JusticeforFloyd: https://act.colorofchange.org/sign/justiceforfloyd_george_floyd_minneapolis

Defund the Police: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/2005_email_blm_defund

Hands Up Act petition to make it illegal for police to shoot unarmed citizens: https://www.change.org/p/us-senate-hands-up-act

Phone Numbers and Email Templates to Call for Change:

Defund the Police: https://defund12.org/

Contact your local and state representatives about passing the End Qualified Immunity Act: http://chng.it/Y2xczQFNSt

Places to Donate:

National Bail Out for Black Mamas and caregivers: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/freeblackmamas2020

George Floyd Memorial Fund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd

Black Lives Matter: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ms_blm_homepage_2019

And lastly, a few other comprehensive resources with info on political action items and places to donate:

BLM Resource Directory: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/
Anit-Racism Packet by Jasmine Mitchell (Instagram: @smooth_jas): https://anti-racist.fyi/
75 Things You Can Do For Racial Justice: https://medium.com/equality-includes-you/what-white-people-can-do-for-racial-justice-f2d18b0e0234 

Thank you for standing for what you believe in, for working for a just, fair and safe future for all people, and for continuing to fight for positive social change across this planet. We love you, we support you, we stand with you. 

#BlackLivesMatter #BeTheChange

Photo by The San Jose Mercury News

Plant Trees During COVID-19

COVID-19 has changed the world, creating uncertainty and challenges for every human being. Businesses are closing, travel is stopped and thousands of people are facing compromised health. We send our love and appreciation to everyone that is in the middle of this struggle, and our deepest gratitude to each of you that is taking care of yourself and others during this time. We hope that you and your family are healthy, well and able to find peace, wherever you may be.

Here in Nepal, the country is dealing with similar challenges, dozens of new COVID-19 cases everyday, and the first few COVID-19 deaths this past week. A nationwide lockdown has been issued until June 2nd, and the international airport is closed. The economic challenges of the lockdown are beginning to affect all families in Nepal. There have been very few cases of coronavirus in the district of Sindhupalchok where we live, and most farmers continue their lives as usual, planting corn in the fields and collecting grass for their animals. At Conscious Impact, we are healthy and eating well, sheltered in place at our camp in Takure.

Despite the global crisis, local farmers have no choice but to continue their work, and we are committed to supporting them in any way we can. Many farmers already rely on less than $5/day of income, and often struggle to afford basic necessities such as food, supplies and education for their children. Taking a break from their work is just not an option. Similarly, we feel that our work in Takure and around this region is essential, and we aim to continue supporting farmers in every way that we can. Global challenges like climate change, economic instability and COVID-19 are not new to these rural families that have spent generations building self-sufficiency, and our work has always been to strengthen their resilience and independence. We believe that planting coffee trees is one of the greatest ways we can support the planet and Takure families during these challenging times.

We are asking for support to continue this work.

Goma Kafle (shown in the above photo) is one of Conscious Impact's partner farmers. In the last 5 years, she has planted more than 250 coffee trees with our support, and this year she harvested beautiful coffee cherries! Her mature coffee trees will increase her annual income by more than 1200 USD to buy essential food and supplies for her family.

Every coffee tree planted and cared for sequesters carbon, mitigates climate change and provides a much needed sustainable livelihood for local farmers. A single coffee tree can produce 10kg of red cherry every year. At $1/kg, a farm of 100 trees can bring in an extra $1000/year, or nearly the equivalent of a year’s salary for one full-time job. This makes an enormous difference in the lives of these farmers and their families.

Over the past 5 years, Conscious Impact has partnered with over 100 farmers to plant more than 15,000 trees.

Our goal this year is to plant another 3,000 coffee trees.

We are asking for help to fundraise $15,000 to keep Conscious Impact working to support Nepali farmers during this challenging time.

The work has already begun, and the Conscious Impact team is working every day to plant trees alongside local families. COVID-19, however, has stopped all international travel to Nepal, and halted the majority of income to Conscious Impact. Without any donations, we are unable to pay our local staff and provide the necessary support to continue. After 5 years of hard work to get this far, we are not ready to quit. We are so grateful to anyone considering donating to our current fundraising campaign.

Each donation of $5 "adopts" one coffee tree in Nepal for life. That means digging the hole, carrying compost, planting the tree and providing the initial care. It also includes follow up consultations and support from our Nepali team and international volunteers for years to come.

Each tree produces 10 kg of red cherry equivalent to 10 USD in annual income to a local farmer. We support farmers to plant 50-100 trees depending on their land availability, which can provide an additional 500-1000 USD annually (nearly doubling many local families' annual income). 

$5 Donation = 1 Tree Adopted for Life

$25 = Adopt 5 Trees 

$50 = Adopt 10 Trees

$100 = Adopt 20 Trees

$500 = Adopt 100 Trees or a Local Farm (supports a farmer to increase their annual income by $500-1000)

We understand that right now is a difficult time for people all across the world. COVID-19 has changed all of our lives, and many of us are suffering. We truly hope that you and your family are healthy and well during this time. If you are not in a position to fundraise, we completely understand. If you can still help share this campaign and spread awareness about our work with others, that is also helpful. Every donation helps, just $25-$50 can plant and care for 5-10 trees. 

Above, Sanu Kanchi Rana Magar stands alongside her husband Ambar with one of their new coffee trees. This tree, as well as dozens of others they have planted, will provide much needed income to their family in future years.

Additionally, every tree planted sequesters carbon, mitigates climate change, supports local ecology and rebuilds soil. Our goal is to plant more than 50,000 trees in the next 10 years to transform the environment and economy of the local area. 

Narayan Bhattarai, our Lead Community Organizer, stands with his wife Sita and daughter Anju (in the above photo) next to one of their 4-year-old coffee trees. Narayan will be one of the staff that Conscious Impact continues to employ with the support of our international donors. He has more than 100 trees planted, and is excited to continue training farmers across this region of the Himalayas to plant coffee for years to come.

Kumary Bomjon, our Agriculture Program Lead (shown in the above photo), sits happily among more than 50kgs of locally harvested coffee. Our goal is for coffee to become abundant in this region of the Himalayas so that local families can sustain their livelihoods without needing to leave to the cities or foreign countries for work. Coffee is a great cash crop, in addition to being great for the local environment. We love it and we hope you do to!

Thank you for your support, and we look forward to the day when you too can taste locally harvested Takure coffee. :)

COVID-19 Update from Nepal

For the last 3 weeks, our Conscious Impact Nepal team has “sheltered in place” during Nepal’s nationwide lockdown response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the world adapts to the Coronavirus, we too at Conscious Impact are transforming our work and our lives to fit into the “new normal.” Yet, as always, we remain positive, inspired and grateful for the work that we do, and for our home here in Takure. Our team is happy and healthy, quarantined in the Himalayan mountains.

Our Quarantined Team (“Quaranteam”) here at our Conscious Impact Camp, outside the community of Takure, Sindhupalchok, Nepal. Photo by Jonathan H. Lee

As of today, Nepal has only 42 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, which makes it one of the world’s safest places to be. Still, to prevent further spreading, the government has ordered all travel and business within the country to stop. With flights canceled and the country on lockdown, we unfortunately cannot receive any new volunteers for the remainder of this season. But, we are lucky. We live in nature, sleep in tents, work outside and eat organic, fresh food delivered from local farmers and producers. We live communally – supporting one another’s’ needs — and our team is more grateful than ever to Takure and our community partners here in rural Nepal for their resilience, strength and hospitality. 

Mariana Jimenez, our Natural Building Program Lead, paints the Dome with the first coat of lime mineral. As community-based projects are mostly on hold, we are using our time to focus on beautifying and completing some of our camp projects. Photo by Jonathan H. Lee

Our group of 17 international volunteers, our “Quaranteam,” is using our time here sheltered at our Camp to finally complete some of our home projects. We are working to finish our 8-room new volunteer accommodations, called “The Nest”, made out of local bamboo and daub – a mixture of soil, sand and straw. We are painting the Dome, built last November during our 10-day Superadobe training course, with lime, a natural mineral used for water protection. We continue working in our gardens, flipping beds, mulching the springtime blooming orchards, and everyday collecting farmer harvested coffee. And our youth team is planning to better implement programs once schools are back in session. It feels good to be able to remain productive during these times, and to give our Camp some much needed love.

Our Agriculture Program staff member, Kumari “Kanchi” Bomjom and Polly Gunton, one of our Youth Program team members spend the morning planting coffee saplings with a local farmer. Although our work is limited, we are able to work in small groups on farmers’ lands to begin our pre-monsoon tree planting. Photo by Jonathan H. Lee

At the same time, we are feeling the challenge of being separated from the communities that we love and serve every day. Most of our community-based projects are on pause to honor Nepal’s lockdown and keep everyone safe and healthy. This definitely delays some of our project outcomes like the community bus stop, waste management program, youth and education programs and tree hole digging in preparation for the monsoon tree planting programs. We continue to stay in communication with all of our staff and community partners, and are ready to return to work as soon as the lockdown ends. 

Our hearts are saddened by the global crisis and suffering that is happening around the world. We are hopeful that these challenges will give people and the earth time to rest, and ultimately lead to better lives in the future. We are grateful for all the healthcare workers, leaders and people responding with love, compassion and selfless service around the world. We strive to support the local community in whatever way we can and feel confident that at this time “sheltering in place” is the best we can do for the local and global communities. 

Thank you for your support and belief in us. Our work continues even limited and you make that possible. We look forward to getting back to our full work mode, supporting rural community resilience here in Nepal and send our deepest condolences and hearts to people all over the world as we each process and proceed through these trying times. 

Much love from Takure, 

The Conscious impact Team

Celebrating 2019 and Looking Forward!

The end of 2019 means the completion of more than 4 years of work in Takure — four years of inspiring collaboration with local Nepali families in the beautiful Himalayas of Nepal. It’s amazing what we have been able to do in the last 4 years with the support of hundreds and thousands of people from around the world. Thank you!

Conscious Impact began as a disaster response and recovery project in Nepal, supporting families to rebuild their homes and lives following the disastrous 2015 earthquake, but our vision has always been much greater than disaster relief. From the beginning, we aimed to support long-term development, to ensure that in the next 25+ years, Nepali families in Takure gain access to a higher quality of life than ever before. After more than 4 years, we are still 100% committed to building resilience in Takure and the surrounding rural communities through slow, deep and transformative development.

We aim to strengthen the power of communities to take action, support them to manifest their visions, and ultimately empower them to create the world that they want to live in. Additionally, we strive to engage international volunteers in environmentally sustainable, effective and radical service work. Our mission is to connect people to themselves, each other and the earth, and we hope to do this for many years to come.

As we enter 2020, we celebrate what Conscious Impact has accomplished and share gratitude for the ability to continue this work. We have a lot to be thankful for this year.

Here’s the full list of our work over the past 4 years in Nepal:

A local family stands in front of their newly completed home made from environmentally sustainable CSEBs produced at our Conscious Impact site in Takure, Nepal. More than 65 homes were completed with these bricks!

Home Reconstruction and “Bricks for Nepal”

• We have created and maintained a local brick business which employs 15 men and women from the Takure and Bimire communities to produce Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks (CSEBs), an environmentally sustainable alternative to fired bricks.

• Our “Bricks for Nepal” program has produced 250,000 sustainable earth blocks in 4 years to be used in local reconstruction efforts. We have supported 65+ local families to rebuild their homes (20 in just the last year), plus the construction of 2 primary level schools (1 in 2019), 1 orphanage for 27 children, 3 community centers and more family household projects than we can count!

• These local, environmentally sustainable earth block homes alone have saved more than 240 tons of CO2 emissions* by replacing the use of traditional fired bricks from KTM. That is more CO2 emissions than what is created in 80 roundtrip tickets from London-KTM.

  *Calculated from our partner Build Up Nepal’s research and data collection (https://www.buildupnepal.com/interlocking-bricks/building-with-compressed-bricks/).

• After 4 years, more than 90% of families now live in reconstructed, earthquake-safe homes, and this is a really big deal! Our CSEB Production Center is now looking at what’s next. 2020 will potentially bring new types of CSEBs to find new market opportunities within local government projects and a local NGO-supported health clinic.

The completed earthbag dome (superadobe) built by 15 participants during our first ever Earthbag Dome Training Course this November. This construction represents an environmentally sustainable, earthquake-safe and affordable alternative to cement construction, and we hope over the years to build many more! With 3 meters in diameter, this dome will create opportunities to host people more sustainably and comfortably at our camp.

Natural Building and Sustainable Construction

• We have taught and trained hundreds of people from around the world and the local Nepali community in sustainable construction techniques, including earthbags (and superadobe), CSEBs, rammed earth, cob, bamboo, earthen floors, natural plastering and more!

• This past November, we completed our first ever Earthbag Dome Training Course, during which we built a dome with 15 participants in less than 2 weeks. Our first ever Introduction to Natural Building training finished this week. We hope to continue offering many different natural building training courses over the years.

• We completed 3 community earthbag projects – 2 family homes and this past year 1 coffee collection and cooperative processing center.

Sano Kanchi Ranamagar, a member of the Takure Coffee Cooperative, poses proudly next to one of the 100+ coffee trees she and her husband have planted. She, as well as many other farmers, eagerly await this year’s first harvest of coffee.

Agriculture & Agroforestry

• We have planted more than 15,000 trees with more than 85 local farmers (this includes an additional 3300 trees in 2019 alone). With a focus on increasing farmer’s income generation and livelihood security, as well as restoring local ecology, we have collaborated with the community to plant coffee, an emerging high value crop in Nepal, as well as citrus and other local income-generating forest trees.

• These trees sequester carbon into the soil, replenish natural groundwater sources and provide habitat for beneficial wildlife. A few estimates report that 15,000 trees planted accounts for more than 450 tons of CO2 emissions saved from the environment each year, or more than 10,000 tons in their lifetime.* We plan to continue planting thousands of trees each year.

  *https://science.sciencemag.org/content/365/6448/76

• We have trained more than 100 local farmers in sustainable agriculture and permaculture practices. This includes bio-pesticide creation, biochar processing, mushroom cultivation, multi-layered cropping, and bio-intensive tree planting.

• We supported the creation of a 50 member local organic coffee growing cooperative with 50 farmers (25 men and 25 women) committed to managing the harvest and processing of coffee in Takure. We are currently providing this cooperative with the knowledge, training and equipment required for specialty coffee processing to ensure they get the most money for their crop possible. Stay tuned for more in January/February 2020 as the first harvests begin!

• We completed 3 collaborative pond projects to support farmers in access to irrigation for farming purposes. Year-round water supply is limited in Takure, and a pond enables farmers to irrigate during the dry season and to plant a larger diversity of crops.

• We have assisted more than 50 farmers in their annual rice harvesting. Every year families harvest up to 200 kg of rice to eat for the remainder of the year. As a part of our farmer outreach and evaluation program, we send helping hands and connect with new farmers in the area.

After learning about bottle bricks, our waste management solution for plastic waste collected, local youth participated in a community roadside cleanup where they collected plastic trash and stuffed it into bottles. Then for fun, we played Plastic Bottle Brick Bowling.

Youth

• We expanded the Girls Empowerment classes to 2 high schools and now have begun a Boys Empowerment Program, continuing to focus on creating safe spaces for young people to explore themselves, their community and their culture.

• We began our “Chutti Macai Bhutti” program to engage youth while on school holiday in outdoor, environmental educational activities like waste management, sustainable building, and the impact humans have on the environment. The program ran for 2 weeks with 6 half-day sessions.

• We hosted more than 100 local youth from ages 12-17 years in our “Camp Youth Days” where they participated in trainings, workshops, outdoor education activities, and of course, games!

• We offered After School Programs three times each week for local students to get homework help and engage in educational activities after school.

A 40,000 liter water tank for 65+ families in the community was completed this last year. This tank will triple the current water storage capacity of the community and help increase water security in Takure.

Community Projects

• We completed a 40,000 liter water tank for more than 65 families in Takure, tripling their current water storage capacity.

• We started an Adult English Class program for community members after multiple community requests. The classes regularly engage more than 15 adults, including the local school principle, leaders of the women’s microfinance cooperative and a 65-year-old retiree wanting to learn something new.

• We began our Homestay & Community Dinner Programs, where families are able to host volunteers in their homes, provide food and accommodations and generate income for their families. Our volunteers love the intimate cultural exchange, and just last year we ate delicious dal bhat at more than 40 family homes across the region. Now, we offer weekly homestays to any interested volunteers wishing to spend a night with a family, explore new regions of the mountains and visit local tourist sites. There are currently 20 Nepali families participating in the program, and more joining soon.

• We supported Takure Primary School’s inaugural school snack program in which students (ages 3-12 years) are fed half way through the school day to keep them engaged and healthy.

• We supported a local Nawalpur community organization’s efforts to purchase a new ambulance for the hospital to transport the most vulnerable families in crisis.

• We sponsored 6 local women to travel to an annual women’s conference in southern Nepal to connect and learn about women’s empowerment and leadership in Nepal.

And that’s not even everything! We are SO grateful to the more than 150 international volunteers that joined us in Nepal this year, and to the hundreds of people around the world that donated to support this work. We thank you for supporting long-term, sustainable, resilience-building development work and promise to continue this work for years to come. And lastly, we thank all of the amazing Nepalis in Takure and around the country that have made this work possible. Without you, we would not exist.

Happy New Year!

A Holiday Youth Program

This October, Conscious Impact held 6 sessions of our inaugural school holiday program, “Chutti Macai Bhutti”. Chutti Macai Bhutti is a Nepali phrase meaning, ‘we’re on break; let’s make popcorn!’. Schools in Nepal are closed for about one month during the festival times of Dashain and Tihar, the two largest and most celebrated festivals of the year. During that time, we invited children of ages 4-15 to a holiday youth program at our camp. We had more than 60 children attend our program!

Local youth use bottle bricks to build a new table and bench. Photo by Ankit Tanu

Building upon our bottle brick program from last year, we chose the holiday theme to be waste management and natural building. As Nepal does not have a nation-wide waste management system, trash is often left on the side of the road or burned in and around the home. Our goal is to raise awareness of the dangers of burning plastic trash and alternatives to throwing trash on the ground through the youth of the Takure community.

Our Youth Empowerment team explains the importance of collecting trash in the community and how we can use bottle bricks to build sustainable structures. Photo by Ankit Tanu

What are bottle bricks and why are they important?

Bottle bricks are a great way to deal with plastic trash in areas where there are not proper waste management systems. Bottle bricks are created by tightly stuffing plastic bottles with small pieces of plastic trash. When the bottles are stuffed properly, they are incompressible and can be used as material in building projects. We have used bottle bricks in the creation of interior walls for our toilets and the benches around our bakery area. In March of 2019, we began offering a recycling program to the local community. We offered to pay youth for properly stuffed bottle bricks, paying from 5-20 Nepali rupees (0.05-0.20 US dollars) depending on the size of the bottle. In two months, we collected 194 bottles from the children of the local community. It turned into a family affair with many children telling us the trash was collected and stuffed by their parents and grandparents. We have resumed the bottle brick program and have already collected dozens more.

Children stomp in the cob (a mixture of sand, clay and straw) during the holiday youth program. Photo by Ankit Tanu

During the Chutti Macai Bhutti program, we chose to focus on a building project with the students where they would be able to build with the bottle bricks many of them had collected and stuffed. We used the bottle bricks along with cob to improve our oven and baking area. Cob is a mixture of local clay soil, sand, water, and straw. It’s a natural building material we use in and around our camp. The most fun part of cob is that you get to mix it with your feet, and no matter your age the feeling of squishing mud in between your toes is magical.

Bottle brick bowling! Photo by Jonathan H. Lee

A school holiday program can’t be all work, so we divided each session into two blocks of activities. We spent half of each session working on the baking area with cob and bottle bricks and the other half of the sessions were games, games, and more games! We played a mixture of games from Nepal and abroad, all incorporating our theme of waste management.. Having a community of volunteers from around the world gives us the unique opportunity to share games of various origin. After group discussions about the various types of trash we had trash sorting relays and bottle stuffing relays. A huge hit with the kids was bottle brick bowling!

A local student and participant in our Chutti Macai Bhutti holiday program, makes her own pizza for the first time in her life. Photo by Jonathan H. Lee

We ended our two-week program with a baking extravaganza in our newly remodeled oven area. We baked chocolate chip cookies and made PIZZA! The children helped prepare the cookie dough, chop veggies for pizza toppings, and then each had the opportunity to help assemble and create a pizza. There was lots of dancing and laughing along with bellies full of pizza and a cookie to top it all off. It was a wonderful ending to a successful program.

To learn more about our Youth Program, donate to support this project, or sign up to volunteer with us next year, visit www.consciousimpact.org.

A little fun and games with the kids :) Photo by Ankit Tanu

Sustain Us: Our Story, Our Vision

Watch our Newest Video

Here it is. Our greatest video ever!

It shows our story, our work and the beautiful people and places that make Conscious Impact who we are.

Since the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, Conscious Impact has been committed to the long-term support of the families in and around the village of Takure. We believe that only through continued collaboration is powerful and conscious transformation possible. This video shows our commitment, and asks our supporters (that's you!) to help sustain this work for years to come.

Our commitment to Takure is for the long-term.

We believe that only through sustained support to the people of Nepal can we make a real impact.

Will you help to sustain our work?

We have already planted 15,000+ trees, produced 150,000+ earth bricks and provided safe and empowered learning spaces to more than 150 young boys and girls in Takure. But the work has just begun.

We will continue to serve Takure and the surrounding communities of the Himalayas for the next generation. We will continue to protect the environment and reforest the region. We will continue to invite you to come visit us in Nepal, to our beautiful home in the mountains. Today, we ask for your support to ensure this work can continue.

Join our Sustainer Team today: www.consciousimpact.org/donate

This film was made possible the amazing Jonathan H. Lee and the entire Conscious Impact team. Thank you to all of our past volunteers that have poured their hearts and souls into our work. And thank you to everyone that supports us from afar, all across the world. We are SO grateful.

Best wishes from all of us,

The Conscious Impact Team

The Earthbag Dome Training Course

Have you ever wanted to learn to build your own home? Now you can in just ten days in Nepal with Conscious Impact

Learning to fill earthbags on site at a 2017 home construction with Conscious Impact. Photo by Jonathan H. Lee

Our Background

Since the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, Conscious Impact has supported dozens of families to rebuild their homes with natural materials. Using Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks (CSEBs), bamboo, rammed earth, cob, wattle and daub, and earthbag construction techniques, we have built a primary school, community center, women’s cooperative, coffee processing facility and homes for families in need. Throughout this process, we have specialized in earthbag construction, finding that this technique is the most efficient, affordable and earthquake-resistant solution for our area. In the last 3+ years, we have trained more than 200 international volunteers and local Nepalis with earthbags on site at our projects. Now, we are SO excited to offer our first ever official training course and certification!

Earthbag Dome Construction, also known as “Superadobe,” is a simple, beautiful, affordable and extremely strong construction technique. We want to teach as many people as possible this technique.

The Conscious Impact construction team, alongside local community members, build a home for a family in need in rural Nepal. Photo by Jonathan H. Lee

This November 4th-13th, we invite anyone passionate about natural building to join us in Nepal for a 10-day immersion course in earthbag dome construction. You will learn everything you need to know to build your own dome.

We will offer both Nepalis and international participants hands-on experience with building the foundation, laying earth bags, understanding soil qualities and plastering. By the end of the 10 days, the dome walls will be completed!

Earthbag dome construction training at Rancho Uha in Guanajato, Mexico where our Lead Engineer Mariana Jimenez studied and volunteered.

We invite you and anyone you think would be interested to come to Nepal.

Learn more and sign up today at www.consciousimpact.org/earthbag-dome-training.

Hope to see you in Nepal in November!