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.

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.