| |
|
|
In 2007, Mahabir Pun received the Ramon
Magsaysay Award for his community leadership
and “innovative application of wireless computer
technology in Nepal, bringing progress to remote
mountain areas by connecting his village to the
global village”. The award has been called “the
Nobel prize of Asia”.
|
| Photo credit: Y. Kawasumi |
Mahabir Pun was born in what is now the Federal
Democratic Republic of Nepal. After finishing his
studies at a university in the United States, in 1992,
he returned home with a dream: to provide opportunities
for the people in his native village of Nangi,
amid the western Himalayan foothills in the district
of Myagdi. He joined with local residents to upgrade
the village school to become the Himanchal Higher
Secondary School. This has become not only a source
of education, but also the hub of community development.
Its effectiveness in this role is greatly supported
by another innovation promoted by Mr Pun:
connecting the school to the Internet in a network
that now covers thousands of people in nearby
communities.
Two computers were donated to the school in
1997, but, with no mobile phone coverage or fixedline
telephones — as well as the difficulty of gaining
access to remote areas in a harsh climate — achieving
Internet connectivity was a hard challenge.
Eventually it was decided that wireless networking
would provide the best and most cost-effective solution,
through Wi-Fi technology linked to the nearest
Internet service provider in the city of Pokhara.
International volunteers were recruited to help bring
in donated equipment, set up the network, and
teach villagers how to expand and maintain it, while
Mr Pun and his group also learned how to assemble
computers themselves. By 2002, the high school in
Nangi was connected to the Internet.
The following year saw the formal launch of the
Nepal Wireless Networking Project, with the aim of
expanding the Wi-Fi network throughout Myagdi and
the neighbouring districts of Parbat and Kaski. Funds
were raised nationally and internationally through
the intensive efforts of Mr Pun and his supporters and also through international partnerships with aid
agencies. By 2008, Internet connections had been
provided to community centres, schools and clinics in
42 villages, with plans to add 19 more. ITU contributed
equipment worth some USD 30 000 to the work.
| |
|
|
Antennas connect a school to a network relay station
|
| Photo credit: Y. Kawasumi |
Connecting computers
The Myagdi network of the Nepal Wireless
Networking Project is owned and run by the
Himanchal Higher Secondary School. The organizational
structure involves many community stakeholders,
allowing for democratic participation as well as
the sharing of profits and risks. The school builds
and manages the network, but services are provided
through independent communication centres in each
village that are run by local people.
The networking system has two relay stations
to forward the wireless signal to a base station and
server facility in Pokhara, with a connection to Om
Hospital in the city. In the mountain villages, access
to services is provided mainly through used desktop
computers and laptops. Internet telephony equipment
and high-resolution network cameras facilitate
phone services, telemedicine and e-education. Many
of the computers have been donated by individuals
and businesses from inside the country and abroad,
while others were assembled by local people from
donated parts.
A variety of wireless devices maintain connectivity.
The network’s backbone connects the Pokhara
base station to the two major relay stations, which
are linked to villages via client connections. In five
cases, connected villages also act as relay stations,
due to the difficulty of transmitting the signal over
the mountains. The network server in Pokhara uses
open source Linux software, which has proved to be
capable of maintenance by local volunteers through the use of graphical user interfaces and customized
management software.
Sustainable power
Because of their isolation, the villages do not
have access to a mains electricity grid. Instead, the
relay stations use such sources as solar energy. The
electricity for a computer laboratory at the school in
Nangi comes from a micro-hydroelectric system in a
local stream. There are plans to increase its output to
power a grid for the entire village.
Services for the community
The services that are now available in these remote
mountain villages include:
Internet Access: for students, teachers, local residents and tourists E-mail: Villagers use the free accounts available
through nepalwireless.net or other web mail services,
such as Yahoo or MSN Hotmail Internet Access: for students, teachers, local residents and tourists Telephone service: Ordinary landline phone calls
can be placed through Internet telephony equipment
and the private branch exchange (PBX) software
on the network server e-Education: To help address a shortage of qualified teachers, there are programmes to provide
live lessons to school classrooms using networked
cameras Telemedicine: In collaboration with Om Hospital
in Pokhara, medical services are offered to residents
of remote areas through audio and video
links Community: Using an online forum, villagers can
exchange news and opinions, place advertisements,
and engage in community affairs Money transfers: In collaboration with thamel.
com, a business based in Kathmandu, the capital
of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal,
money transfers (used by family members working
abroad) and credit card transactions are available.
These services have been enthusiastically taken
up by local people. They can go online at community
centres for a low fee, and voice-over-Internet-protocol
(VoIP) phone calls can also be made. Lessons
in basic computer skills are offered too, by students
from a technical college in Kathmandu. And women
health workers in the villages are trained at hospitals
in the capital or in Pokhara.
While remaining affordable by local people, the
charges for services generate revenue for the Nepal
Wireless Networking Project, to sustain and expand
its work. Meanwhile, residents in neighbouring
Himalayan villages that are not yet connected understand
the benefits of the project: they sometimes
walk for several hours to reach centres where they
can access the Internet or VoIP phone services.
Job creation
One of the most important goals of the project is
to give rural residents a better way to trade goods,
and to create jobs. Also, Himanchal Higher Secondary
School offers vocational training programmes and
is engaged in community development projects
such as animal husbandry, forest conservation, and
handicrafts.
Yak and cattle farming is one example. The wireless
network is used to manage a project in which
the animals are kept in fields near the relay stations,
high up on the mountain slopes. Despite the isolation,
herders can communicate with other staff using
e-mail on a laptop computer. Projects like these are
also targeting the tourist market. Camp grounds for
trekkers have been established near where the yak
graze, and the animals’ milk is used to make cheese
that is sold to tourist lodges.
| |
|
|
The ITU mission team with staff of Himanchal Higher Secondary School and residents of Nangi village
|
| Photo credit: Y. Kawasumi |
ITU visit
Ten of the connected villages were visited in May
2008 by a team representing Study Group 2 of ITU’s
Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU–D),
examining Question 10-2/2 on Telecommunications
for rural and remote areas. Their mission was to
study cost-effective technological solutions for rural communications in developing countries. In addition,
the team delivered more equipment for the network,
donated by ITU.
The team’s report gave high marks to the effectiveness
and sustainability of the Nepal Wireless
Networking Project, which it concluded “has greatly
contributed to social and human development in
Himalayan mountain villages”.
Future expansion
Before the project, there was no telecommunication
infrastructure in the Myagdi area, very limited
electricity supplies and few roads. Despite this, a
wireless network has been established to bring information
and communication technologies to villagers
in the Himalayan foothills. Partnerships are being
sought with the national and local governments, and
a “One dollar a month” campaign has been launched
to raise donations. There is a strategic plan to expand
the Nepal Wireless Networking Project to as many
rural areas of the country as possible that otherwise
could remain unserved.
* More details of the Nepal Wireless Networking Project
are available at: www.nepalwireless.net/index.php
|