December 9, 2019
The Gundi irrigation project has been completed and the Drinking water project in Kiratikhola is in process. A team of 10 people, from Unica Foundation and CFP Green Buildings, went for the monitoring expedition program to Chepang villages in Chitawan. Bram Adema, director of CFP Green Buildings, led the team.
The opening ceremony of the completed Gundi irrigation project and the inauguration of the drinking water distribution room in Kiratikhola was held on the same day on October 26, 2019, Saturday. The Gundi area was far from Kiratikhola, so the team decided to complete the Gundi ceremony and attend the second program in Kiratikhola on the way back.
Despite the steep cliff roads, the beautiful and enchanting waterfalls on the way kept the team overwhelming during the drive. The jeep stopped at a small shop at the foot of Gundi and crossed the pristine, free-flowing river of which the representatives of the executive organization Shanti Griha, Nepal, joined. The village has already greeted the whole freshness of the village and the surrounding greenery on the hills. Yet there was a steep rock to climb over to reach the project location, the Gundi irrigation project.
Chepang communities are considered a semi-nomadic lifestyle in the middle of the hills of Chitawan and some of the neighboring districts. It was not long ago that they went to live in houses and used a systematic conventional agricultural system. Because the farmland is in a messy dry area, the Unica Foundation has offered the community the financial support of Shanti Griha Nepal for irrigation projects. This visit was to attend the official opening of the irrigation canal. Men hurried to the opening while women and children waited for us with flowers in the welcome gate. We all went to the distribution room and did the opening by reading the memorandum in a notebook on the wall. The community served us with the best Nepalese Dhal-Bhat, all fresh and locally mixed with goodness, love and respect. Descending from Gundi through rich rice fields and vegetable growing, the Unica Foundation was proud of its contribution.
The day continues to the Kiratikhola WaSH project. The welcome ceremony surprised with a decorative gate, the priest spelling “Mantra” for best wishes from the Chepang culture, all cheerful faces, big bright smiles and expression of gratitude from women and children greeted us with a bunch of Marigold and red tika. The formal session lasted for a while and eventually the stone-laying ceremony of the distribution room began with Buddhist rituals. Monitoring the water collection room in the main region that connects drinking water taps in households shows how marginalized groups of people get unlimited happiness, even with limited projects.
The beauty of the whole day visit was the presence of the Shanti Griha team, which had mobilized the volunteers to help the community with everything they needed during the welcome, opening and initiation program. A day long visit to two Chepang communities was followed by a hike in Tangting (a remote Gurung village in the Kaski district) as part of an ecotourism project.
