Our hand-made greenhouse!
It is very important to us, that our home is sustainable and self sufficient in providing food for the children. We already have chickens and buffalos providing eggs and milk in Birgunj, but are now looking to provide more fresh vegetables for the children.
In addition to our vegetable patch, our local staff and volunteers have built a DIY greenhouse! This means we will be able to grow vegetables requiring a warm climate, even in the cold winters! We’ve also built a fence to separate the buffalos and chickens from eating our seeds and crops before they are ready for harvest!
A big thank you to all the volunteers that helped with building the green house!
Clean water in Birgunj!
With the vast mountain area in Nepal, the last issue you think the country would be facing is a lack of adequate drinking water. The Department of Water Supply & Sewerage in Nepal states the the general water supply in Nepal is not safe for consumption. The water is contaminated from a wide range of sources, such as natural and anthropogenic contaminations and largely due to national sewage system. The sewage entering the rivers and brooks of Kathmandu Valley is untreated and is equally polluted by industrial waste. It is estimated that half of Kathmandu’s waste (approximately 75 ton a day) is dumped into rivers. In rural regions, communities still rely on tube wells as a water source. Water from Nepali wells is at risk of being filled with arsenic due to the sedimentary layers of sand and gravel.
As water is generally untreated in rural areas of Nepal, waterborne parasites and diseases are found in high numbers. Diseases such as dysentery, typhoid, gastroenteritis and cholera are very common in less developed areas of Nepal and there is no doubt that the questionable water supply is partly to blame, coupled with the unhygienic environmental situation. Children under the age of five are the most affected with an estimated 44,000 children dying every year in Nepal from waterborne diseases.
At Our Sansar we strive to provide clean and fresh water for the children in our homes. Recently in our Birgunj home, we have installed a water filter in our home. This means we have an unlimited supply of water, which we can be sure is of suitable drinking quality! Water is the drink of choice for all the boys at our Birgunj home, so we are ecstatic to provide this sustainable development to our home! Thanks again to Tobias from ASHA for his help in the installation.
You can help us sustainably develop our home and help with our other projects by donating at Global Giving. https://www.globalgiving.org/donate/16982/our-sansar/ You can also learn about our new projects!
