“My primary goal remains providing better education and health facilities to villagers,” says Pun, a man strikingly careless in the choice of his clothes. “I started working on connectivity in 1997 after realizing that without communication my goal would not be fulfilled.”[break]
Pun, 56, was born in Nangi village, Myagdi district, in western Nepal. He grew up in the hilly slopes of the village grazing cattle. Pun studied from grade one to seven in the local Himanchal School, which would later become the site for his first Wi-Fi project.
Pun saw pencils and papers for the first time in the seventh grade, and textbooks in the eighth grade. His father, a retired Indian Gurkha, supplemented his pension with agricultural activities in Chitwan to support the higher education of four sons and three daughters.
After completing SLC in the second division, Pun was fortunate to get a scholarship from the Indian Embassy to do I Sc at Amrit Science Campus. Continuing studies after I Sc was difficult due to the financial condition of the family, and supporting the education of his siblings also fell squarely on the shoulders of Pun. He took up teaching profession.
FROM TEACHING PROFESSION TO CONNECTIVITY
Pun believes he would have spent his life in the teaching profession, were it not for a curious incident that took place in 1987. He had been in the teaching profession for 14 years then, and was appointed as assistant invigilator for the School Leaving Certificate exam at a center in Chitwan.
During an exam, then Chief District Officer (CDO) of Chitwan, who was infamous for his filthy temper, barged into the exam center and verbally abused teachers alleging that the exams were not being conducted with propriety.
Seeing teachers humiliated in front of students, Pun protested. The result was that a few days later, while strolling in the evening, he was hurled into a police van and taken to a police post. He was kept there for a week, and eventually released after the CDO ordered so.
This incident made Pun call it quits with teaching profession.
“Had that incident not taken place, I would have remained a teacher,” he said. “I would probably have taken retirement by now.”
Then started Pun’s journey through the unknown.
Back then, going abroad for work wasn’t as widespread a phenomenon as it is these days. But Pun toyed with the idea of going to the Gulf.
Friends suggested that he go to the United States for further studies. And in 1989, his efforts to get a scholarship at a university in the United States bore fruit.
While doing a Bachelor in Education at the University of Nebraska, Pun was gripped by a dream which has continued to fuel him to undertake tough treks in the remote hills of Nepal. He dreamt of improving health and education services in the hills to make sure that the newer generations have an easier time than he had.
PURSUING THE DREAM
He returned to Nangi in 1992, over two decades after leaving it.
To realize his dream, Pun started out by helping upgrade his childhood school in Nangi to High School level, and also volunteered to teach there. He also worked to start income-generation activities in the village with the support of friends and several organizations.
“But for the success of these works, communication proved indispensable,” he said.
When Pun came up with the idea of bringing internet connectivity to the school in 1997 after the school had been donated four computers by students of Billanook College in Melbourne, Australia, he had no technical know-how of setting up an internet connection.
It took seven years, several failed tests, and the help of volunteers from Belgium, Finland, US, New Zealand, England, Singapore, and Canada for the students of Himanchal High School to finally be able to exchange emails with the Australian students.
Technical know-how was not the only thing Pun had to master for making this possible. The country was going though armed conflict, and getting
By now, Pun has managed to introduce wireless internet technology to 75 villages in 10 districts including Myagdi, Parbat, Kaski, Baglung, Gulmi, Makwanpur, Dolakha, Mustang, Nuwakot, Gorakha, districts.
“The villagers are now able to communicate with their family members abroad using messengers, emails and internet phones,” he said. “Also, they can communicate for free within networks comprising clusters of villages using the local VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) system.”
Pun’s work has received generous support from the World Bank, and the Asia Pacific Tele-community.
WI-FI FOR HEALTH, COMMERCE, EDUCATION
Thanks to internet connectivity, three villages in Myagdi and the Gaurishanker Hospital in Dolakha enjoy a tele-medicine facility from Model Hospital in Kathmandu.
“Health workers in Dolakha receive live trainings from Model Hospital,” he said.
Pun plans to connect Jomsom Hospital to Model Hospital once his project to introduce wireless internet in Mustang succeeds.
Work is also underway to provide digital interactive textbooks to students in the villages, based on textbooks subscribed by the Department of Education.
“We are also working to set-up an e-library where villagers can get useful information on agriculture, health and job vacancies, among others,” he said.
Virtual ATM machines have also been introduced in the villages with tourist inflow.
“Tourists can undertake credit card transactions from the internet through this facility,” he said.
In the near future, the villages will also benefit from remittance services via internet.
A DOLLAR A MONTH
With the word of his work spreading across the globe, Pun has received requests from Nepali people residing abroad to install wireless internet technology in their villages.
“Nepalese living in the UK, US and Japan have asked me to introduce the technology in eight villages where they come from,” he said.
In 2008, Pun started the “One Dollar a Month” campaign asking Non-Resident Nepalese to help Nepal move to the 21st century. With funds generated from the campaign, Pun plans to build Broadband Internet Highway across Nepal.
The technology introduced to the hills by Pun depends on electricity mostly supplied by the national grid, though the relay stations have solar power.
“Some villages are lucky to enjoy uninterrupted power as they have micro-hydro,” he said, grinning. But such villages are few in number. These days, most of the villages employ the powered hours to the fullest to benefit from the internet.
Pun has a new dream: starting a university in a remote hill of the country, where children of the poor can have easy access to university education. For financing this dream, Pun is planning to set up a four megawatt hydropower plant.
Pun says earning money for himself was somehow never a consideration. “Life is going on smoothly,” he says. When asked whether his family members are happy with his way of life, he answers, “Those who know me have understood that I won’t listen to them.”
Pun spends little time with his family – wife and two daughters - in Kathmandu. A man constantly on the move, he still has many more villages to connect to the World Wide Web.
(With inputs from Surendra Poudel)
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