Like many families in the village his parents worked as farmers on their own fields. When he was little, his family was one of the poorest in the village and they didn’t have enough food from their own field. Therefore they had to work on other people’s farms since from their own they had only enough food for about 4 or 5 months. Sometimes they had only corn or popcorn to eat or nothing at all, so they had to go to bed hungry. Most of his family members never went to school, only one of his brothers and Ram. At that time they had a huge problem in the village with men who went out during the day for playing cards and drinking alcohol instead of working. In the evening they came back home angry because they lost all their money and beat their wives. Ram was only 13 years old when he started to bring those women to the public place where the men played cards and lost their money. Back home in the evening they beat their wives and complained why the food was not ready. Ram tried to stop them playing cards with money and drinking too much alcohol and beating their wives. In Nepali culture men are usually in a superior position compared to women who are responsible for the household and all the work. So this was the first time local women fighted the bad behavior of their husbands. Without knowing Ram had started his first social work for women’s rights in the village. At 8th class he had to stop studying because his parents could not pay for the school costs. Since he was eager to attend the class he begged his parents to help him. His mother was very kind and she told Ram that he could have a goat and try to sell it, which he finally did for NRP 1’500 (approx. It was still not enough money for the study expenses because secondary school is more expensive than primary school. So far there was no shop in the village, so he planned a small store 10 minutes from his house where he could sell small candies, pencils and all kinds of things for the locals. As the first person in the village Ram rented a house for NRP 50 a month and started his own business next to a primary school with just two classes. To buy the goods for his shop he had to walk 5 to 6 hours to the headquarter of Dhading, a town where the wholesaler shop was located. Ram had to carry the goods back to the village self, otherwise he had to pay a porter for carrying which means he would lose the profit. For three years he studied during the day and worked at his shop in the morning and evening. When he finished high school he was able to sell the shop for NRP 5000. According to Nepali tradition all that money went to his father, the head of the family. After the exam Ram had to wait a few months for the result, in case he passed he could go to university, otherwise he had to study for another year in the village. There was a road building going on a three hours walk from his house, so he started working at the road for one month. After a month of working on building the road he received his salary and run away from home. He and another friend went to headquarter and took a bus to Pokhara where they stayed with a friend they knew. Until then he never went to the city, never rode the bus or he had never used the telephone in his life. To earn money both worked as loaders, unloading or carrying tables, cement bags or metal for big shops or sometimes large baskets full of candies or noodles. Ram finally passed the exam and went back home to his village and told his parents that he wanted to go to Kathmandu for university study. Since he has already been away from his parents it was no problem for them to give him permission to go to the city for his study. Again he had to work and earn money to pay the college. There was a trekking company in Kathmandu, so he asked for a trekking porter job. During the day he worked as porter, kitchen boy, Sherpa or assistant guide, while at night he was reading books and studying for university. After 2 years of both studying and working he finished with his intermediate in political science, history and culture. Ram always studied in private without any teacher. He then became a trekking guide and continued the private readings at night. After becoming a guide he wanted to give something to the society, especially to poor families in the village who were not able to send their children to school. With the money Ram earned he not only paid for his own university fee but also forwarded cash to his parents and with what was left he started to support children for going to school. Ram told their parents they should send the kids to school and he would pay the expenses. This is when he started the ‘real’ social work, this time he knew he was helping the families and the future of their children. As a trekking guide Ram naturally met a lot of foreigners. He told the clients about his ongoing projects, so many of them gave him extra tip which he would use to help more children. Once while working as a guide he met a kind couple from Sweden. He explained to them about his projects, so they were eager to visit his village. After they had seen the village, where children had lessons on the open ground because the school building had nearly collapsed, they decided to support Ram. The couple was very impressed with his activities and started back in Sweden their own supporting organization, Tuki Nepal. Until then the projects run independent, but Ram too started his own small social organization, Tukee Nepal Society. As a consequence people knew the money would go into the fund and not into his own pockets. He continued guiding and finally started his own trekking company. At the same time he finished his bachelor and master degree in population education, history, culture and political science. So after he started the company, part of that profit he put into the fund for helping people in his village. The village was poorly equipped in terms of infrastructure, which means there were no toilets or electricity. If the inhabitants had to see a doctor they had to walk for several hours to the next hospital. Instead of only helping children going to school Ram started a few village development projects like building toilets or a health center that was affordable to everyone. His company’s policy was also to find new tourist destinations off the beaten path so that both tourists and locals would benefit. The tourists could explore new and beautiful destinations while the locals were offered a safe job to earn money, as a result they could provide support for their children themselves and send them to school to study. Furthermore it’s essential to Ram to buy local products and hire local porters to support the community.
