Jhamtse Gatsal

Nothing will prevent the sun from rising again, not even the darkest of nights.

Let us gift ourselves a ray of sunshine.

General situation
Jhamtse Gatsal means " garden of love and compassion " in Tibetan, and is a community for orphaned children, they having found home in an orphanage wanted by Lobsang Phuntsok, a budhist monk from Tawang, a remote part of Arunachal Pradesh, a state in the north-east of India, near the border with Bhutan, China, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
At present the community is made up of a building hosting 90 children, but the requests from others continue to grow. In recent years 1,000 have arrived here. The objective is to construct 3 duplex, so as to host a total of 6 'families' of 24 students and their respective 'Amala' (mother), and in this way take care of a total number of 150 as opposed to 90 – this the project for the next four years.
The project is made up of two principal phases. The cost for the first part – the preparation of the site and the beginning of construction works for the new site – is estimated as USD 500,000. The Costa Family Foundation has undertaken to pay 25,000 euro in 2017, a contribution which will go towards the construction works.
Jhamtse Gatsal is a very remote area, situated on the ridge of a mountain and where every type of transport is very costly and time-consuming, this latter factor often due to the condition of the roads and communication challenges generally. The new 'family' areas will require the levelling of the area above the actual area used and the construction space to be prepared will accommodate three new duplex. There will also be a compost system organised nearby which will be used for the production of biogas.

Location
The school is situated on a ridge, on a property of about 5 acres and which was donated by the villages of Kharteng, Baghaar and Phomang. To reach the school a 3 day demanding journey is needed from the airport of Guwahati, in Assam, along some of the country's worst roads. The access to the site is ripid and difficult. There are variations in level on the site itself and the sides of the site are steep also.
The remote nature of the site menas that it is more difficult to find carriers and involve companies in making bids and employing workmen to carry out the work. The workers often come from the nearby state of  Assam and in the past they have abandoned the chance of working at the site in favour of more rewarding projects nearer to home.

Preparation of the site
The region of Taiwang in the state of Arunachal Pradesh is one of India's least developed. There is no heavy industry, and consequently the availability of heavy machinery necessary for the preparation of the site is limited.Given its geo-poliical location in an area contested by China, and its very presence near the Chinese border, there is a big military presence in the state. The Indian army, having the task to support the local population as much as is possible, and is the only type of authority near to the school and with access to the ridge. The  Jhamtse Gatsal locals have a good relationship with the milirary superiors, but the work is not regulated by contracts as happens in the western world. The school has frequent contacts with the Army commander and in relation to the mentioned project.

Transport
The state of Arunachal Pradesh is one of the poorest and most remote in India, and for this reason most of the supplies must be imported along roads in poor state of repair, including that crossing the Sela Pass, which at a height of 4170m is the second highest in the world. In winter snowy conditions make the journey across Pass In winter treacherous and it is slow and often snowbound, and whoever travels must ensure to have snow-tyres. Costs for a project here can be up to 4 times as much as elsewhere.

Timings
During 2017, after the project having started in 2016,the new works on the family houses will begin, this the second part of the project as planned.