More than twenty families in Thasa chiwog of Laja Gewog in Dagana have received new houses from the Tarayana Foundation. The Royal Patron of the foundation, Her Majesty the Queen Mother Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck inaugurated the newly constructed houses for low-income people on Sunday. With funding and construction materials support from the foundation, the construction of the houses began in 2018.
Her Majesty the Queen Mother is currently in Dagana and Tsirang districts for a four-day Royal Tour to oversee the housing and other livelihood projects initiated by the Tarayana foundation.
Her Majesty the Gyalyum met with the beneficiaries in Thasa chiwog. The chiwog is more than an hour’s walk uphill from Thasa Zampa. The people in the chiwog expressed their gratitude for giving them better houses to live in and initiating various projects in the chiwog. The project so far completed the construction of 21 houses and handed them over to the beneficiaries. The foundation helped the beneficiaries with funds, and construction skills and provided construction materials among others.
“Earlier, we had small houses with only one room. It was very difficult and embarrassing when we all had to sleep in one room. Now with new houses, it is convenient and very comfortable,” said Zeko Tashi, a Tarayana Housing Beneficiary in Thasa.
“The Gyalyum has done everything for us. We are very grateful for initiating various rural livelihood projects in our chiwog including drinking and irrigation water. Now the livelihood changed drastically. We don’t have any housing-related issues now,” added Khandu, also a beneficiary.
The foundation also provided farm machinery such as power tillers, rice mills, and maize grinders to the chiwog in the past. Four elderly people were also sent to Bodhgaya in India for a pilgrimage through the foundation.
“I also got an opportunity to visit Bodhgaya as a pilgrim. It was my dream but I couldn’t go until Tarayana took us there,” said Kinley Sithu in Thasa.
Similarly, the foundation also helped the construction of flush toilets for all 28 households in the chiwog.
Apart from the housing project, the foundation also initiated sustainable land management in the chiwog and introduced five different fruit trees to the communities. This is expected to help them make a decent living. Considering the acute shortage of drinking water and irrigation water, the Tarayana constructed three water reservoirs ranging from ten thousand to fifty thousand litres.
The foundation will complete the construction of a few more houses in the next few months. The projects are being carried out through the United Nations Development Programme’s Small Grants Programme and American Himalaya Foundation.
Pema Tshewang, Dagana
Edited by Sonam
