In some ways the antecedants to this journey lie in the distant past, not that I was to know it that day when I stood on a stone path watching life unfold in a Himalayan village. A cold wind funnelling from the mountains adding to the spring chill as I slowly walked out of the Pindari valley glancing back at the crops dancing in the dappled sunlight. It began with a love of the mountains and it's people, a himalayan friendship and a subsequent death in heavy snow, a dream left incomplete and a vision.
It was within this realm that People's Environmental Awareness - Khati (PEAK) was born.
PEAK currently has a school running for Class 1-5 (approximately 75 students) in Khati, Kumaon Himalaya, India. Khati is a small village of 375 inhabitants that also caters for trekkers with basic accomodation at an altitude of 2200m. The town has no service utlities and is situated a two day walk from the nearest road-head at the confluence of three major trekking routes: Pindari, Kafni & Sunderdhunga Glaciers.
We are in the middle of setting up an Environmental Education Centre. The nature of the project is to protect the fragile Himalayan Alpine environment and mitigate any possible deleterious tourism impacts on the local community during the two major trekking/climbing seasons (April-June & Aug-Nov), while building on the collective experience and knowledge of the local population. The establishment of the centre is necessary to facilitate the urgent and growing need to disseminate environmental and culturally appropriate information and awareness among the Indian/foreign trekking community and within the local community. This will minize the ecological trekking foot print, help preserve Pahari culture and reduce the biotic pressure on the Himalayan ecosystem. The safe guarding of environmental, cultural and social heritage is of prime importance in the face of growing global ecotourism.
pens pencils & rubbers... thanks to the wonderful fundraising efforts of World Nomads we can now supply educational materials to two schools in the region. BK's School (Khati) and the Jatoli School (Sunderdhunga valley). The process has begun with goods ordered, all except the vexing issue of pencil cases! Thanks to a strong environmental ethic the task of finding the 'right' pencil case may not be as easy as you think?!
We will keep you updated on the building renovations as the environmental centre takes shape and the logistics of delivering goods to a himalayan village in a few weeks.....
Bonnie & Scott
