EnlightenNext: An international organization founded by Andrew Cohen

Exciting News

Clean Himalaya wins World Bank India Development Award!

We are thrilled to announce that our very own Jitendra Kumar, caretaker of EnlightenNext in Rishikesh and long-time student of Andrew Cohen, has recently won a $20,000 grant from the World Bank for his work with Clean Himalaya. It was awarded at the India Development Marketplace in Delhi at the end of May. India Development Marketplace is an annual competition hosted by the World Bank that awards grants to the best innovative, small-scale development projects throughout the world. There were 2500 contestants and only twenty organizations received the award. Congratulations Jitendra!!

Clean Himalaya is a recycling project that began in 2000. It was inspired by Melissa Hoffman, founder of Living Future. Living Future is a nonprofit foundation whose mission is to create conditions that are conducive to life rather than harmful. Their main project, Teal Farm is an integrated, ecologically designed farmstead in Vermont which is designed to be self-sustaining and " perpetually life-enhancing".

Melissa attended a retreat in Rishikesh with Andrew Cohen that year and noticed that the many plastic bottles amassed by Westerners were being burned by local trash collectors, creating toxic pollution. She suggested cutting and flattening the bottles so that they could be taken to the West for recycling. Once the project began Mary Acton Adams and Sumadi Bambang Oetomo, students of Andrew Cohen and directors of the Rishikesh Center continued the recycling work. With the help of Jitendra, they encouraged local ashram owners to collect garbage so that Jitendra's workers&mdahs;local rag pickers&mdahs;could sort it and send it for recycling. Over the next five years, Clean Himalaya underwent a number of changes. Workers that never showed up, broken promises of support, monsoon rains but through it all Jitendra Kumar kept developing, learning and growing the organization. He garnered support from many local spiritual organizations including Sacha Dam (Shanti Mayi's ashram) and Sivananda ashram.

In 2006, Jitendra and Clean Himalaya teamed up with Susan Eilers of the Divine Life Society and together created a recycling model at the Sivananda ashram. They put different colored (monkey-proof) bins out for plastic, paper, and organic waste and met with the residents to raise awareness of the problem and the solution. Slowly, news of Clean Himalaya began to spread. Jitendra had 6 reliable workers and was taking care of several local areas– Muni-ki-reti, Tapovan and much of Laxmanjhula. Through his integrity and dedication, Jitendra was able to convince local hoteliers, ashrams and private homes to pay a small fee so that he could pay his workers to regularly collect the waste for recycling. Today, with the funds from the grant, they have started to build a shelter that will enable the workers to sort the garbage even during the monsoon season so that the recycling project will continue throughout the year. And the grant monies will enable them to advance their work in other ways such as:

• Purchasing a mini-carrier truck to transport the waste
• Building a vermin-composting unit
• Better working conditions for their workers.

If you'd like to read more about this, go to: http://dmblog.worldbank.org/cleaning-himalayas

Stay tuned here for updates and ongoing reports on the progress of Clean Himalaya and EnlightenNext activities in the area.

EnlightenNext Rishikesh