grantees » Tika Dhoj Bhandari

Tika‘s passion for education was apparent from an early age, where he was a top student in his remote village in Central Nepal, despite halving to walk an hour and a half to get to school. He stumbled into science teaching partially by chance, but quickly found that he not only loved it, but could motivate and encourage students by applying innovative teaching methods. Through teaching his students he discovered the value of sustainable development, and today he is the Secretary for the Vajra Foundation, an organization which focuses on renewable energy sources. Here, Tika is noted especially for his promotion of the parabolic solar cooker with Bhutanese refugees. Most impressively, however, Tika has been, and continues to be, indispensable in bringing green education to Nepal. Today, Tika is the coordinator of the Vajra Academy, Nepal’s first green and eco-friendly school.

Using the JWH initiative grant, Tika could complete his MSc in Environmental Science and Education Management. He then went on to attend a workshop on green education in Bali, Indonesia, where he learned practical approaches to design and implement a curriculum of environmental education in primary education. Immediately upon his return to Nepal, Tika set about preparing the participatory approach for designing the Green Studies curriculum in the Vajra Academy. Today, students are learning about the environment, recycling, reducing consumption, waste management, etc., and are even managing their own organic kitchen garden. The students are not only learning more and better, but are also taking their own initiative to raise awareness and rally support in their communities. Tika feels this is by far his greatest achievement, and later, with this success story, would like to push the government to include Green Studies in the national curriculum. There were also more personal gains for Tika: “It made me aware of how far an individual is responsible for the degradation or conservation of the environment, and I want to increase the public’s levels of awareness. Because in a developing country like Nepal, people normally complain that the government didn’t do this or that, but they never realize ‘What am I supposed to do?’”.

For the future, Tika says, “I have a plan to continue my career as an environmentalist, to advocate for the environmental issues, and also as an educator, to incorporate both subjects together.” He plans to do a PhD about the effectiveness of having an environmental subject at school, and “I have a personal dream of making my house with only reusable and recycled materials.”