One day, Mahesh "Max"
Moktan was strolling with some friends through their hillside town of
Kalimpong, in northeastern India, when they decided to start an
organization to better their community. Now Max is the Secretary of HOPE, the Himalayan Organization for People's Education.
He talked to MOLI about how HOPE has cleaned up waste in Kamlimpong and
welcomed visitors from around the world to help in the cause.

So who are the people that the
Himalayan Organization for People's Education educates?

HOPE is run by young educated men and women between the ages of 20 to 35 years who are all very
enthusiastic and energetic. HOPE educates people of all ages from a
young child to an old man with regard to health, education,
environment, human rights, and all social issues.

Tell us a little about how HOPE came about and how you got involved?

The idea of HOPE started
during the spring of 2003, when I was strolling with a group of childhood
friends on the streets of Kalimpong, our hometown, and
thought of doing something productive voluntarily for the possible
development of our town. We wanted to intermingle our dreams to
move forward. We eventually set up an
organization named HOPE.

As
for me, I am a nature
lover and like to help people whenever I can. I am very emotional when
I see an animal that is wounded or sick or small children picking up
trash to earn a living. I immediately think about helping however I
can.

Tell us about HOPE's Wealth in Waste initiative. What inspired Wealth in Waste?

Irresponsible disposal of
garbage by the local administration led to the
start of Wealth in Waste. Our town is a hill station
and has no dumping place, so the daily 20 metric tons of garbage
collected by the municipality is dumped from a hillside, which
ultimately pollutes the river flowing
beneath.

One early morning in January 2005, some of my friends
and I -- four boys and a girl -- were watching a municipality truck loading trash that was collected
alongside the road. The trash consisted of all sorts of things like
plastic, metal cans, paper, glass bottles, rotting vegetables, etc.
Suddenly a question struck me: Where does the
municipality throw this trash? What do they do with the tons of
trash collected everyday?

To our worst surprise, we found that the municipality
truck used to dispose the trash down the hill near the river. We immediately visited the
dumping site and to our horror, we found the place to be a hell -- very
smelly with huge loads of trash strewn all over the hill, down the hill,
and down to the river. We were really worried about the situation and eventually set up Wealth in Waste, where we conduct
house-to-house garbage collection and separate the recyclable waste to
sell it in the recycling factories and generate some funds to sustain the project, thus reducing the burden of landfill.

By August
2005, WIW was running with full support from the local
community, the Hotel Association, and the Municipality of Kalimpong
town. The town mayor/chairman was very cooperative and provided us
trucks and other necessary materials to take the recyclable waste to
the factories.

Now WIW covers about 500 houses in the
town and it’s expanding. The project director is Mr.
Nawang Tenzing, a board member of HOPE, and there are two ward
supervisors and 16 waste collectors and members of WIW presently.

The project is self-sustainable
and the funds are generated from the selling of the recyclable wastes
like plastics, metals, glass, and paper in the recycling factories
located about 80 kilometers away from Kalimpong town.


Companies like Hindustan Coca
Cola Ltd., North Bengal Plastic Federation, and Indian Plastic
Federation have also been supporting our initiatives by providing
collection bins, crushers, gloves, and uniforms for staff.

What signs of success have you seen?

The
most important success is the awareness among the people regarding responsible disposal of their
garbage. Self-help groups in small towns have effectively implemented
the same concept.

Public participation in the
solid waste management service and awareness play an important role
and pose a significant
challenge. Funding for the service until
it becomes self-sustainable takes six months to a year depending
upon the size of the area
covered.

I
notice that you're also a travel agent. How did you get into both careers?


It was through the need for organizing travel guides for foreign
volunteers coming to work with HOPE. When
volunteers started coming, there was a need for
someone to look after their air tickets, some sightseeing, and travel
packages during their free time since every volunteer used to run about
in the town searching for travel agencies and Internet for their flight
bookings and suitable sightseeing, trekking, rafting, or
meditation.

So ultimately last year we set up Aspire Global Tourism
development project, which works out the most
reasonable travel packages and assistance for all volunteers and foreign
tourists visiting India. The tourism project also earns some revenue for HOPE and provides some employment
opportunities for young men and women. We are in a team, so I have been able to coordinate both careers very
successfully.

HOPE takes volunteers from around the world. The
website mentions a number of expenses involved in volunteering. What
does a three-month stay generally cost a foreigner?

Actually the duration of
stay for volunteers can be for a minimum of two weeks to a maximum of six
months. The volunteers need to pay a minimum program fee of $330
per month, which includes accommodation, food, supervision, simple
spoken native language training assistance, administrative charge, and
savings for an upcoming HOPE project.

Apart from the program fee,
the volunteers need to pay for their own flight tickets, visa costs,
their own travel insurance, private expenses,
etc.

What draws visitors to
Aspire Global Travels?

The most important thing that draws
visitors to Aspire Global Travels is an opportunity to take the
pleasure of traveling while also participating in a good
cause with HOPE such as planting trees, pr visiting an orphanage or a
community school, etc. Anyone traveling through Aspire
leaves with an everlasting impression of love and friendship and longs to visit again in
future.

What is your biggest dream for
what you can accomplish?


My biggest dream for HOPE
is to make it a well-reputed Himalayan charitable youth organization
and a ray of hope for all young people and communities all over the
world seeking development and possible assistance.