Inspirational and Full of Hope and Promise

A lot of my tour through South America, Africa, the Middle East and now Asia, has been through third world countries that are struggling with poverty, pollution, over population, disease, corruption and a lot of other issues. Sometimes this becomes depressing to see, other times I just shake my head at the insanity of it. But occasionally I see a glimmer of hope, or a ray of sunshine that shines through the craziness. I have seen a few of these places, such as Duncan's Mwendo Needy Children and Orphan Project, or the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and the work that the government and the guides are doing to protect gorillas in there natural environment, and the way the community has rallied around to support this because they can see a benefit for themselves.

The Sapana Village Lodge is another such place, run by another amazing young man. His name is Dhruba Giri. Sapana, means dream. He is the man in the black T-shirt, and Lisa is the woman on the right of the photo.

One of our group members, Lisa, is an actuarial consultant who sometimes works for the International Labour Organization (part of the UN) with micro-finance/micro-insurance institutions. She had heard something about how this lodge came to be and what it was trying to accomplish. So when we arrived she asked if she could speak to Dhruba. She found out that he was one of ten children, the son of a farmer, who eventually grew up to became a waiter in a local restaurant. One day he met a Dutch couple who took an interest in him. They asked him what his dream was. He said he'd like to run a restaurant or hotel. They helped him financially to sign a four year contract with a local tourist lodge to become its manager. The Dutch couple came back 3 years later to see how he was doing. When they saw that he was successful, they asked if he had other plans and he replied that he would like to own a tourist lodge with accommodation and a restaurant and give back in some way to his community. Again they loaned him the money, helped him buy a piece of land and we are staying at the result of that generosity.

He hires local people and buys produce and baked goods locally. With a percentage of the profit he makes he provides micro finance loans to local people who want to start their own businesses. Each proposal must be a joint effort of six families. One is a candle making factory, which he agreed to loan the money for because of the continued blackout problems here. Another initiative is a chicken farm, needed because of the increase in tourism.

Those who borrow, mostly women, don't have to pay interest in the first year, but then do need to after this time if they have not already repaid the loan. The repayment rates are excellent and the women come and pay even a couple of rupees at a time when they earn it.

In addition, he is trying to educate the community about the necessity of personal hygiene, the washing of hands, providing toilets (some in farm fields) in order to encourage the locals not to further pollute the river with their waste, the need for family planning in order to not burden families with too many children to educate and feed, and to try and do something about the increase in garbage and plastic, in particular, that comes with the increase in tourism. He recently helped a local young girl receive surgery, including skin grafts to repair her hand which had been burned in a fire as she was trying to stay warm, and as a result, had become balled up into a fist.

He is also starting up a 'homestay' opportunity for tourists to come and stay with one of the Thura families, to see what life is like in rural Nepal. This will directly aid the family with extra income and he hopes it will help them to value and preserve their culture.

Dhruba already sponsors a number of needy children so they can attend school. He has plans to build a school in this area, where 15,000 people live. He would like to build a permanent school with much lower class sizes and more resources, so that the children can learn more than they do in the under financed public school.

Dhruba is passionate about the development work and loves helping people. This is a great example, like Duncan with his AIDS orphanage in Uganda, how supporting one person can sometimes mushroom into support for a large number of people. It also illustrates how GAP and Intrepid with their focus on responsible tourism, try to find places where tourists can support communities just by coming to visit. When we buy souvenirs, or eat food here, we directly benefit the community. The money we spend in an area like this helps the local people and helps to protect the wildlife and the national park, because the people can see a reason for keeping it.

If the developing world is going to progress and overcome all of its issues, it will need more people like Duncan and Dhruba, who have a vision and a drive to help their communities. I suspect that this internal aid would be better utilized and appreciated than the aid that comes from the first world. The developed world tends to throw money or resources at the problem, but often times that money or those resources are swallowed up by the corrupt officials in charge.

I know that this is a little over the top, and that these are just two examples which in the grand scheme of things won't change too much, but it is this kind of grassroots, help yourself type of program that just might given enough support and with many more instances, provide some help for the needy.

Sapana Village Lodge has an website: http://sapanalodge.com/