Non Profit Activities

I am Hari from India. My area of work is in the the Himalayan state of Uttara Khand (UK) close to Nepal and Tibet borders and extends from 5000 feet to almost 8ooo feet above sea level. The office of the Non Profit is located at Bhimtal, in the district of Nainital.
I retired from the Indian army in the rank of Brigadier General on 31 January 1997, after serving the country for 33 years. In order to keep Army young, the soldiers retire early and look for a second carrier option. I decided to make a smooth change over from the profession of Arms to Farms, as I call it.
During army service of 33 years I had not been in my home town for 33 months !!!Most of the time we remain on borders with China and Pakistan, fighting insurgency with in the country and much less time in Army cantonments, which we call peace stations. Families are allowed only in peace stations. Due to inherent dangers and also lack of infrastructure families are not allowed in border/ operational areas.
Once back home, I decided to make a Non Profit with my life time savings with the aim of ameliorating the problems of my child hood friends and their extended families in the community. My absence from home for 33 years had created a lot of gap between me and and the community. In order to breach this I opened a dispensary at my home it self to provide immediate medical relief. As there was no ambulance service, I used my personal car to evacuate serious cases to hospitals which are over an hours drive from my residence. But to get a patient from the mountains/ valleys to a road side where I could reach by car is a time consuming exercise in it self. I also started teaching children and women about preventive health care, hygiene, benefits of exercise. This enabled me to make deeper in roads in the villages and families.
The activities of the Non Profit in the last 14 years extend to providing holistic medical health support, an Ambulance service, organising/ assisting mobile camps for cataract surgery, provision of a Ceragem Thermal Acupressure Device in a hospital in Bhimtal ( a second one is planned to be procured for a village hospital 5.30 hrs drive time away from the present one), teaching and encouraging farmers in organic cultivation, providing seeds, assisting in sale produce, assisting students with books, note books and writing material, sweaters/ pullovers as part of school dress, and four meritorious annual scholarships to two boys and girls each for completing class XI th and XII th. In addition we support higher education with the proviso that the recipient pays back the money free of interest on gaining an employment. Plans are afoot to stand as one of the guarantors if a student seeks a bank loan and is unable to get a guarantor.
Though the Non Profit commenced work from 1997, it was Registered as Charity only in 2004. My eldest sister donated money and we not only became Registered Charity but extended our scope and area of operation. Here are some photographs which throw light on our area of work.

For more information Hari may be contacted on Emai ID: hmpant@gmail.com