I had the privilege of attending the unofficial opening of Ama Ghar's new house at the end of last month. The day was full of meeting friends and family, eating and of course dancing and singing. The Ama Ghar family has been waiting almost two years for the new house to open, and their dream will finally come true by the end of this month. The unofficial opening included close friends, donors, board members and volunteers. A major milestone in the history of Ama Ghar, almost in it's 10th year of existence, all attendees absolutely glowed with joviality making the day one to remember. Considering that each attendee was witnessing the fruits of a tremendous amount of time, effort, and money, it's not surprising that everyone was in such high spirits.
The house is an inspiration to whomever has the pleasure of viewing it. Not only aesthetically pleasing, using many traditional Newari architectural design elements, it's design also incorporates features to guarantee the safety and sustainability of all who inhabit it. For instance, instead of being built on one foundation the house is split into three sections, increasing the houses chance of survival in the case of an earthquake. The house also was designed with an extensive water collection and filtration system. The house uses gutters and reserve tanks to help insure that water supply is never scarce, and extensively filters all waste water before it is re-introduced into the environment. Solar power will also be utilized, in place of gasoline run electricity generators, in cases of power outages which are frequent during the winter months. To witness these developments, which one hopes will set an example of sustainable development in the surrounding villages, has been a privilege for me. Photos of the event, as well as of the house, are available for viewing and download on my flickr page, located in the Nepal collection, under the Everyday Ama Ghar and Unofficial new Ama Ghar opening sets. Hope you enjoy. Until the next post… cheers.
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