"The jobs always go to the city people: they have all the
advantages.
They
can't
make
the changes we need because
they don't know the needs of the village people." Intern on why he took such a difficult job with our organization
Cynthia Hunt
Magic means different things to different people. For Cynthia Hunt, the founder and education director of HEALTH Inc, it's all about good health and nutrition. As a passionate artist, book publisher and educator, she helps communities form women's co-operatives to pool their efforts in order to bring about much needed change.
She grew up on a commercial farm in Minnesota which she helped to manage while still in her teens. Her physician father headed a research team at the Mayo clinic that advanced the theory of improved nutrition leading to improved health. Her Masters thesis from the University of British Columbia examined appropriate technologies using solar sources for heating and cooking in Ladakh.
Hunt routinely hikes for days at a time through the rugged mountains of northwest India where government agencies and NGOs rarely go. She fondly refers to this as her "commute to work."
Tsering Stanba, Director
Stanba grew up in a nomad family in the very remote Ladakhi village of Merak near the Tibet border. He, his wife and daughter now live with his wife's family in a small farming village near Leh, the capitol of Ladakh. Starting as an intern in HEALTH's education and training programmes, he quickly rose to be Village Projects Director and in 2007 was selected as the Director of HEALTH by his coworkers and the Board. His own life experiences have taught him the need for supporting people-centered development and fighting prejudices. While his passion is primary education, his skills range from film making to teaching pest management to our agricultural co-op members.
Phuntsog Stanzin
Stanzin is from a nomad family, with 7 brothers and sisters. He went to government schools in his remote semi-nomadic community. Absent teachers, beatings and rote-memorizing for exams was the norm. He dreamt of having an opportunity for a good education and becoming a teacher.
Stanzin took on HEALTH Inc internship for 3 years, traveling to the remotest villages and helping people to believe in themselves. He gained skills as a teacher, a leader, a group worker and in educational materials production. He now works as a teacher – in a village near his home – helping other remote village children achieve as much as he has.
Sonam Norboo
Norboo is from the remote northern zone of Ladakh over the highest motorable road in the world, and then a long walk to his village. Norboo dreamt of medicine but family responsibilities cut his education short. Working as a HEALTH Inc intern, he completed his pharmacist training and has since gone on to study public health and physiotherapy. Norboo traveled (on foot) all over the district, helping villagers gain control over their health. He now works for the Department of Health.
Gullam Hussein
Hussein is from a village that passed between Indian and Pakistani control. He grew up knowing bombings on a regular basis and with little sense of security. Determined to get an education, he joined (SECMOL) youth groups. Passionate about education, he now divides his time between running HEALTH Inc's education programs for remote villages and working in pre -primary open schools in Denmark (where he moved while his wife finishes her education). Having spent over ten years tramping to every village in Ladakh, he has inspired dozens of villages to reinvigorate their schools and thousands of children to stay in school.
Thinles Dorje
Also from a remote village, he is one of the few young people to enter the sciences stream at university and hopes to work in biochemistry or teaching. Thinles helps us with our disabled children's program.
Thinlays Dorjay, Jigmet Dadul and Dorjay Raftan Village Projects Coordinators
All three young men hail from roadless villages and joined HEALTH in our intern programme. Their decision to stay on as staff was largely based on the positive impact they saw from their work, and their strong desire to support healthy change in the dozens of service-deprived communities we serve.
Thinlays coordinates HEALTH's disabled children's projects – offering support for kids, their families and caregivers who otherwise have no access to specialist health care. Helping villagers see the benefits of inclusion and seeing children blossom are rewards not just for Thinlays, but lessons for the entire district.
Dadul uses his artistic abilities to bring creativity and inquiry into all our education programmes.When not helping teachers improve their skills in Ladakh, he is completing his university degree and studying filmmaking in Jammu, India. In 2007, he will lead HEALTH's Joining Mountain Communities study exchange, sponsored by Alberta Rotarians and the Wild Rose Foundation, using knowledge gained to open a pilot early childhood education center in Ladakh.
Dorjay Raftan is HEALTH's locally-trained engineer and architect, responsible for the design of all our solar-heated structures. In villages where children used to die from exposure and associated health problems, Dorjay helps people learn the basics of trapping heat from the sun in solarised creches, schools, greenhouses and adult learning centers.
Future Leaders Team
This team of 9 people, all from a group of villages in our test youth programme area, range in age from 15 to 40, in school experience from working on their high school matriculation to never having been to school and range in talents from carpentry to calligraphy. But they all share a passion for social entrepreneurship. In a first-for-Ladakh experiential study programme, they are learning leadership skills while starting up HEALTH-sponsored projects in their home villages, caring for their families and continuing with school work. Namgyal and Chos are starting a solar lighting workshop, Chuskit and Phuntsog are managing an experimental farm and Rigzin and Rinchen are hosting a many Voices One World teen exchange, bringing Canadian kids together with Ladakhi kids to tell their own story of identity in an era of rapid change in our world.
Nawang Tsering
Now serves his home nomad community as a health worker after one year in our intern program. Without him, his villagers would have no access to health care.
Tsewang Yamphel
He is from a remote village in Zanskar. His mother walked him 5 days on the frozen Zanskar river to get him into a school as a child. He now studies in Delhi and will return to his village to help others achieve their educational goals.
Phuntsog Dolma
Puntsog loves books, games and learning materials. She studies with our book production team so that she can help Ladakhis become self-sufficient in producing educational materials in their own language.
Volunteer Specialists: Namgyal Tashi, Tsering Angchuk and Tashi Thokmet
All from remote villages, these three men managed to succeed in the competitive world of Ladakh's capitol city. But none of them forgot their roots, creating and serving on a volunteer network for HEALTH. When women in our cooperatives asked HEALTH to create a Youth programme, to address problems of early marriage, school dropouts, unemployment and the brain-drain in villages, the volunteers understood the problems and offered to help.
Now HEALTH operates the only capacity-building programme based in remote villages for their village youth. The young people manage the programme and its social entrepreneur projects themselves – whether operating an ice hockey camp for children or establishing solar lighting businesses where no roads, tap water or electricity exist, they build leadership skills by leading.
Women United
All of our women's cooperatives joined together to create a marketing and learning organisation they call Women United. They've discovered the power of strength in numbers, learning together and sharing problem solving between villages. This year they are marketing 4 specialty products, grown in their cooperatively-owned fields, processed and packaged by marginalised members of their communities and sold to niche markets in Leh. The advertising that goes with the products helps every small producer in Ladakh – encouraging tourists and army members to buy local and be responsible while traveling.
The village women of Kurimbik
These women felt that government services would never help their remote village. Additionally, there was a serious rift in the village and cooperative work had proved impossible in the last 14 years. They asked HEALTH Inc to come to the village and help them form a cooperative. After a 3-day workshop, all the women agreed to set aside differences and work together for their joint health, agricultural and educational needs. 14 months later they are still united and a fearsome force in achieving their goals. They have constructed several greenhouses, improved their herd production, built a solar-heated school and learnt new farming skills. More, the men are now united and the government eager to support a village that is the living testament to self-help development.
The teachers of Domkhar
A group of remote villages with no school buildings, the teachers decided that they wanted to gain more skills. With the help of Tsering Angchuk from the Education Department, they motivated all the Village Education Committees and organized a series of workshops. They now have some of the best examples of activity-based learning methods in their schools. More importantly, the villagers are more knowledgeable about education potential in their villages and eager to support change.
