The Prague Post Online: News: Prague NGO builds in Himalayas

May 10th, 2008

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Prague NGO builds in Himalayas

Group contributes school, works to improve standard of living in mountain village

By Curtis M. Wong
For The Prague Post
March 19th, 2008 issue

COURTESY PHOTO

Laying foundations: The Sun School in Kargyak will be built entirely of wood, stone and sun-dried bricks and rely on solar energy. enlarge

COURTESY PHOTO

Jan Tilinger, right, who founded Surya in 2006 and splits his time between Prague and Kargyak, hopes the school will alleviate the social problems of the next generation. enlarge

COURTESY PHOTO

Young pupils gather in a makeshift classroom before the school opens in the fall, offering a curriculum of geography, math and science in English, Hindi and Zanskari. enlarge

When Jan Tilinger first visited India in 1999, he never guessed that he’d one day be leading a project to build a village’s first school in one of the country’s most remote regions.

For the past three years, Tilinger, a 30-year-old civil engineer currently doing his postgraduate studies at the Czech Technical University, has split his time between his native Prague and Kargyak, a tiny village with a population of 200 in the northwest Indian region of Zanskar in the Northern Himalayas. In 2006, Tilinger established Surya, a Prague-based NGO focusing on youth and education, as an effort to give back to the region that he says has left him enriched.

“Certainly with the knowledge and skills I gained in university, I knew I could go work for a local architectural firm or something similar,” he said. “But I realized I’m not interested in that. I’d much rather go where I feel I’m most needed — developing countries.”

This year, Surya anticipates the completion of its most ambitious project yet — the opening of the Sun School in Kargyak, the village’s first school.

The three-classroom facility will be built entirely of wood, stone and sun-dried bricks, and will rely on solar energy for heating and power. The first class of approximately 50 students, ages 4 to 12, is set to start in the fall. Geography, math and social sciences will be taught in three languages — English, Hindi and Zanskari, a local dialect.

Tilinger says the project is an effort not only to educate youngsters, but also to boost the local economy, which is largely dependent on agriculture. Currently, students are sent to boarding schools and rarely return, often straining the relationship with their families and leading to the disappearance of the native culture, he says.

“In a place like Kargyak, people don’t look much further ahead than next year,” he said. “The impact of the Sun School may not be realized until the next generation. We’re hoping to not only slow down migration [out of the area] but also many of the social problems that develop as a result.”

Long-term planning

Tilinger began developing the idea for the school in 2004. Two years later, the Surya NGO was founded to support the project, and members collaborated with residents and local authorities to construct the village’s first greenhouse, which would serve as the future school’s template.

Once an appropriate location for the school was selected, Surya faced challenges ranging from the skepticism of local authorities to the region’s unpredictable climate. Located 4,200 meters above sea level, Kargyak’s temperatures have been known to fluctuate 20 to 30 degrees Celsius in a single day.

Another concern was the village’s location, 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the nearest road, which makes transport of materials problematic. Also, considering that Kargyak is one of the last places with surviving Tibetan culture, conflicts in the region are commonplace, reflecting the tensions between its Muslim and Buddhist inhabitants.

However, Tilinger says Kargyak locals provided him with more than enough inspiration to carry out the project, despite the odds, and school construction began last year.

“I’ve found that, quite often, it’s the poorest people in the world who are also the most hospitable,” he said. “They may have nothing to eat themselves, but they’ll go to a neighbor to prepare food for you. The entire family may sleep elsewhere just to give you a bed. It’s truly amazing how great humanity can be.”

Home stretch

Money for the school’s construction is largely dependent on Surya fund-raising efforts both online (Suryaschool.org) and through events held in Prague. Most recently, an exhibition of Tilinger’s photos at Galerie Divadlo Hybernia culminated with a charity auction March 19, where visitors bid on photos as well as native crafts.

Surya plans to staff the facility with approximately five teachers — two or three locals and two volunteer Europeans, who will serve six-month contracts.

In August, Tilinger will return to the region with Ladislav Kleger and Markéta Bartošová, two teachers who joined the Surya team from the Czech branch of Hope Worldwide, an international charity organization.

According to Bartošová, organizers will make every effort to maintain the area’s customs, while providing new opportunities to local youngsters.

“[Europeans] often take many benefits — including education — for granted,” she said. “All of us can read and write, often in more than one language, so let us give the same opportunity to those who don’t have it yet, as well as the opportunity to understand the surrounding world and to have the chance to find one’s place in it.”

Tilinger echoes this sentiment.

“In this line of work I know it has some kind of meaning,” he says. “What can be better than the sense that you’re making other people happy?”

Curtis M. Wong can be reached at news@praguepost.com

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