Nepal Film Night, presented by UNM4Nepal in collaboration with Nepal Study Center, is just one of the fundraising efforts put together by the student group, said Jen Van Osdel, President of UNM4Nepal.
Van Osdel, who has been with the group since its beginning, said it was heartwarming to see the big turnout for Nepal Film Night, which showed the first Nepalese film to be nominated for an Academy Award, and to see “the way that the UNM community has rallied behind Nepali students and faculty in their time of grief.” About 50 students, along with their friends and family members, attended the event.
Nepal Film Night raised $1,100, with all proceeds going to Bahunepati village in Sindhupalchowk, one of the hardest-hit districts, said Alok Bohara, founding director of the NSC.
UNM4Nepal’s main collaborator is the Pratiman-Neema Memorial Foundation (PNMF) and others like the Nepal Engineering College and the Dhulikhel Hospital, which is a part of Kathmandu University, where NSC’s regional office is located.
The partnership between Nepal and UNM has grown exponentially since about a year and half ago, Bohara said, when the NSC formed an interdisciplinary research group called the Himalayan Climate Change Impact Initiative that included Bohara (economics), Mark Stone (engineering) and Joe Galewsky (Earth and planetary sciences).
The group was formed to look into climate issues occurring in the Himalayas and in the HCCII’s infancy, before the earthquake devastated Nepal.
“The three of us (awarded) a small grant for a research planning trip and went to Nepal in December 2014,” Bohara said. “The NSC facilitated contacts in Nepal, and helped forge collaborations between the UNM group and the Nepal group. After our return, this UNM interdisciplinary climate faculty group with students kept meeting to discuss research ideas for grant proposals.”
One of those students was Van Osdel, who started with UNM4Nepal first as a fundraising lead.
“Like so many others, I fell in love with the country and the people and was shocked to hear that an earthquake had happened so soon after we left,” Van Osdel said. “Going forward, our organization will be a platform for students to come together to undertake projects that will help Nepal both now and in the future.”
The group also works with many scholars affiliated with the Lumbini Center for Sustainability, an initiative based out of Nepal created to improve the foundations of community sustainability.
“We do have a good group of collaborators from the Nepal side,” Bohara said.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Bohara said one of the next objectives for UNM4Nepal and the NSC is the design of a sustainable and affordable dwelling structure – the Project Himali Dream initiative. This project has been in the works since April, he said, when the earthquake hit, and was started by the PNMF and aided by the UNM4Nepal and the NSC. The challenge they face is making a dwelling that is both strong and affordable – around $2,000.
“With Mark (Stone) and I as faculty mentors, and NSC as a collaborator and a facilitator between the Nepal and the UNM groups, we formed a UNM for Nepal group,” Bohara said. “The main task of the UNM group is to create a sustainable dwelling design in consultation with our Nepal collaborators.”
Bohara said the UNM group had a video conference with the Nepal group on May 15, to discuss various aspects of the dwelling design project idea. They decided that the UNM team will formulate a design by the end of June.
“We are looking at it from a long-term perspective,” Bohara said. That includes adding amenities to the dwelling design; for example, a cooking stove, solar lighting and even water filtration systems are possibilities.
“The idea is to promote sustainable living to the extent possible,” he said.
Once complete, the design will be sent to PNMF for trial demonstration and submission to the Nepal Government, he said. In the meantime, the UNM team will continue to refine their design while doing fundraising to cover the team’s international airfare, with plans to travel to Nepal in December for a site demonstration model construction.
Expenses incurred for materials for the demonstration project in Nepal will be covered by PNMF, Bohara said.
Matthew Reisen is a staff reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @DailyLobo.
