Visionary Dristy

21 year old brings light to the lives of hundreds

by DAMBAR K SHRESTHA

FROM ISSUE # 171 (March 2010) | IN THIS ISSUE
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MIN RATNA BAJRACHARYA

While city dwellers all over the country are enduring 11 hours of load shedding per day, 30 houses in Mapikhel, Gurdang of Lalitpur and 32 in Bhimkheri VDC, Tallo Kerabari, Kavre are lit round the clock. All thanks to the model 'Micro-hydro Power Project', synthesised by 21 year-old Dristy Shrestha, an undergrad student at Middlebury College, USA. 

Many would find this Shah Rukh Khan-in-Swades like scenario dreamlike, but Dristy has proven that it only takes a bit of willpower to make it become real. As a child, she had always aspired to become the first lady prime minister of Nepal. Now a young adult, Dristy feels one doesn't have to make it that big to do something for the community. She goes back to her days as a scout in St. Mary's school, regulating lines in Krishna Mandir, as an example. 

"Besides, I don't even understand politics," she says jokingly. 

Dristy felt a sort of inborn love for her country develop during her days at United World College in Mexico, where she was a Nepali among students from 92 different countries. Gazing at the six-foot Nepali flag she had in her room would always feed on devotion to her homeland. So when the opportunity came, she grabbed it, in the hope she would realise this deep-seated desire to do something for her people. 

Setting her mind on the $10,000 she could access if she won an inter-college competition to draft a project for a conflict-affected area, Dristy immediately got to work. Her first thought was to help establish micro finances in villages in Nepal and second, to distribute solar lanterns. Other possibilities crossed her mind before she finally settled on the micro-hydro power project. 

"Whatever it was, I wanted it to be a long-term scheme rather than an easy one", she says. What's more, having watched her dad work as an engineer in the Chilime hydro-electricity project even gave her a head start. "But I only let my dad into my plans after I'd conceptualised the project, and I must say he was more surprised than happy to know of it," she says. 

When her project only made it to second position, instead of losing heart, Dristy went to the college chief with her idea. She was able to convince him of the vital need for electricity in the rural areas of

A boy from Gurdang points at the light generated by the power plant

Nepal, and was granted the $10,000 she needed. The project was first implemented in Gurdang last June; the procedure involved pumping water to the village from a river 500 metres away. But keeping in mind the saying 'Give a man a fish, he will eat for a day, teach him to fish and he will eat for a lifetime', Dristy made sure the villagers were a part of this project (including contributing to expenses) and that they took it to heart. 

Keeping a watchful eye on the project was the jury of the International Clinton Initiative Award, back in the USA. Considering its successful implementation in Gurdang, they granted Dristy an award of $7000, which allowed the project to be put into operation in yet another village, Tallo Kerabari. 

Dristy had imagined that the success of the project would revolutionise life in these villages, and help locals build dairy farms and cold storage for fruits and vegetables, for instance. But the fact was the power project was just a start. People were relieved more than anything else that they didn't have to pay Rs 70 per litre for kerosene. "I decided that the dreams I had dreamt for the people would take some time to materialise, that the development would be gradual," says a determined Dristy. 

So what does Dristy feel about society's attitude towards the youth, and vice versa? "I feel that society doesn't understand us and us them," she concedes. But she is clear that each person has the potential to make a difference. It's up to them to recognise it. One doesn't have to raise thousands of dollars to recognise one's potential, but perhaps even thinking twice before chucking litter out of a bus window is a start.