Background:
Nepal - an idyllic mountainous country situated somewhere between the yaks and sherpas of the high Himalayas and the explosive mix of spices and cultures of the north indian plains. But while Nepal remains one of the hottest spots for trekking tourism and a gateway to some of the world's highest mountains, Nepali blind and visually-impaired people are still some of the most discriminated and left-behind communities in a country that has one of the weakest economies in all of Asia, where nearly a quarter of the population survives on less than 1 US $ per day.
Due to religious beliefs and social stigma, blind and visually-impaired people in Nepal are not regarded to be suitable for regular employment by the greater society. Despite there being a much higher success rate among blind and visually impaired Nepalis in the education system than among sighted students, these students have one of the highest levels of unemployment of the entire country. According to the "Nepal Association of the Blind" only 2% of an estimated 200 000 blind and visually impaired people are employed today. Of these 2 % nearly 80 % are employed as teachers at government schools, because the government has a rare job reservation policy for disabled people in this sector and blind and visually impaired people have slowly fought for a partial recognition of their abilities in this sector. As a blind or visually impaired person in Nepal it is therefore essential to attain a university degree in teaching, since it currently is their only chance to find employment in one of the valuable teaching positions at schools across the country.
Since the Nepali government is currently only supporting the education of blind and visually impaired students up to their high school diploma, most blind and visually impaired students find themselves unable to continue their education after completing high school. Paying for course materials (that are not published in a format accessible for the blind), renting a room close to the campus (which they are often not able to find, due to the distrust of landlords towards disabled people's independence) and paying for the cost of an independent livelihood is simply to difficult and costly for most families to manage. For this reason only an average of 30 blind and visually impaired students throughout Nepal are able to successfully complete their university education every year.
Our goal:
We want to change this desolate situation by building the first inclusive learning center and boarding home for blind and visually impaired students on the campus of Nepal's oldest and largest university in the city of Pokhara, Nepal. Here we want to provide an eco-friendly, earthquake resistant, barrier-free model building constructed through traditional building techniques that will taught to builders from the local community. Our H.I.L.L. (Hostel for Independent Learning and Living) will provide blind and visually impaired students from throughout Nepal with free lodging in modern and specially adapted surroundings where they will be provided with all the skills and materials necessary to succeed in Nepal's university education system. They will prepared for an independent life during university and afterwards, through an extensive six-month education programme training them in all the skills they need to be able to run a household independently and make their university materials accessible on their own accord.
In order to realize this dream, we need your help.
Who we are:
Dylan White - A German student of special needs education, focussing on the inclusion and empowerment of blind and visually impaired students. He already volunteered twice for 8 months with IEC Nepal and began setting up H.I.L.L. in March 2016
Joshua Guiness - A young German architecture graduate from Berlin. He joined the project in 2017 and has worked for a year on the preliminary, innovative building design in close cooperation with experienced professors at his university.
Khom Raj-Sharma - The head of Nepali NGO "Inclusion Empowerment Center Nepal " (IEC Nepal). Khom became blind himself when he was 11 years old and has lobbied for the rights of and accessibility for blind and visually impaired people in Nepal and setup several large education programmes in cooperation with international NGOs since his early 20s.
Architecture Sans Frontiers Nepal (ASF Nepal) - Part of the international Architecture Sans Frontiers network. Is supporting the project with technical and legal advice.
What we have done so far and how we need your support:
We have already successfully designed an extensive project proposal and an innovative building design, while consulting closely with large international NGOs working in Nepal, such as Christoffel Blindenmission (CBM) who have seen great potential in our project. But in order to move on we need some funds. Our construction partner, an innovative start-up bringing the rammed earth technique to communites in Nepal can only complete our architectural design and set up an exact budget breakdown for our funding plan if we are able to support them with some funds.
