Environmental protection

In rural Nepal, it is common to use firewood for cooking. The open hearth is usually in the middle of the room where the family lives, cooks and sleeps. In the evening the smoky wood is burned to have light. It also serves as a source of heat [...]

Improving life with environmental protection. If cooking areas are operated with biogas systems, the surrounding forest is also protected. Among many other benefits, the health of residents [...]

In March 2017 we reported on the delivery and installation of solar lighting systems for over 500 families in Gamtha, Mugu. From the beginning of our activities in Mugu, we also relied on ecological and clean energy sources in our local projects [...]

In some areas of Chitwan, many families only settled down a few generations ago. Before that they lived as hunters and gatherers in the forests that now form the 'Chitwan National Park'. With the opening of the national park in 1973, families had to make way and adapt to a new lifestyle in the hills, outside the park [...]

When our immediate neighbors light their backyard wood burning firepit to enjoy cool Ohio autumn evenings with a sip of wine and good company, I sequester myself in the house with windows shut to prevent a coughing fit that I will inevitably have from inhaling firewood smoke. Of course, when our neighbors invite us to join them, I apologetically decline their invitation because I do not want to ruin their peaceful social evening with my incessant cough [...]

The residents of Thakaltar had produced a little energy for light even with a mini hydroelectric power station. But then the monsoons came and destroyed their work. Today, their houses are safely lit and all sorts of other energy has entered the village [...].

The people in rural Mugu are predominantly smallholders who practice extensive agriculture (low capital and labor input in relation to the area). The soils in Mugu are not very fertile, the farmers' harvests not particularly productive [...]