On 31st July 2021, Saturday Lumanti Support Group for Shelter hosted a zoom event to celebrate its 28th Anniversary Day. More than 60 participants including board and general members of Lumanti, staff members and representatives from partner organizations along with network members have attended the event. 

 

The event was started with one-minute silence in memory of Late Dr. Ramesh Manandhar, the man behind the establishment of Lumanti and Late Prafulla Maan Singh Pradhan, the Founder Chair of Lumanti.

 

Delivering the welcome remarks, General Secretary of Lumanti Mr. Anil Sthapit recalled the thoughts and vision of Late Dr. Ramesh Manandhar on improving the living condition of the low income families and briefly talked about the initiatives that Lumanti has carried out following the path led by late Dr. Manandhar.  

 

The Executive Director of Lumanti Ms. Lajana Manandhar shared about the mud brick housing technology introduced by late Dr. Ramesh Manandhar under his thesis on Self Reliance in Small Communities.

 

During the event, the Housing Program Manager of Lumanti Ms Lumanti Joshi, WASH Program Manager Mr Uddhav Bhattarai and DRR Program Manager Ms Sobina Lama presented their reflection on their respective theme. Video show and photo presentation focused on housing, DRR and WASH were also presented during the online event.

 

Followed by the reflection session was the award session. This year two students from Institute of Engineering were awarded with Dr. Ramesh Manandhar Fellowship Award worth NRs 25000.00 each for their thesis. Mr Sabin Khadgi is awarded for his thesis on 'Exploring the prospect of Eco-Tourism for Sustainable Development' and Ms Roji Puri is awarded for her thesis on 'Assessment of Residential Neighborhood of Kathmandu valley for Social Sustainability'.

 

On the occasion, six staff members from Lumanti who have completed 10 years of their service in Lumanti were also awarded the certificate of appreciation. Mr Ananta Raj Bajracharya, Ms Bilochana Karmacharya and Mr Hari Krishna Khadgi from Kathmandu center office and Mr Abdul Kaish, Mr Anil Mandal and Mr Jeet Bahadur Shrestha from City office in Kalaiya and Sundar Haraicha were presented with the Certificate of Appreciation. 

 

Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Country Director of Catholic Relief Society (CRS), Mr Milan Mukhiya appreciated the work done by Lumanti in sustainable development and community resilient. He also talked about Lumanti's 28 years long continuous contribution towards women empowerment and livelihood improvement. He added, the reconstruction works that Lumanti has done in different areas are commendable. 

 

Ms Sangeeta Singh, the Deputy Director of Center for Disaster Study said, the contribution of Lumanti in developing equitable, sustainable, inclusive and resilient communities adopting integrated approach is commendable. She added, promotion of low cost housing technology, creating livelihood opportunities through women empowerment and Lumanti's efforts in WASH sector is highly appreciable. On her remarks, talking about Kirtipur housing, she appreciated Lumanti's approach of community participation and cooperative modality of housing program. She also admired Dr. Ramesh Manandhar concept on sustainable development and low cost housing and suggested to recommend the title of the thesis on the basis of Dr. Manandhar's philosophy for the next announcement of the Dr. Ramesh Manandhar's Fellowship Award. She also thanked Lumanti for its contribution in the sector of education through the fellowship award. 

 

The program was concluded with the concluding remarks from the Chairperson of Lumanti Dr. Anita Manandhar.