Krishna Shah

Hoste Hainse

Hoste Hainse is a non-profit non-governmental organization (NGO) that has been catering to sustainable community development through education for the last 32+ years. We build and run non-profit free-for-all community schools for underprivileged children across rural Nepal, where poverty levels are high and education penetration low. Our education programs are primarily funded via donations, but we also run sustainable fundraisers spanning both income generation programs as well as eco-friendly endeavors, which now cover about 15% of our budget. Our income generation programs are local and currently include fish farming as well as milk delivery, while our eco-friendly endeavors include fundraising through recycling (Recycle for Education), reusing (Reuse for Education), and tree planting (Plant for Education) to name a few. Hoste Hainse is a member of both the United Nations Global Compact as well as IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature). Hoste Hainse was founded in 1990 by Sulochana Shrestha-Shah, and had the initial purpose of ensuring sound working conditions for the employees of its sister concern, Formation Carpets , a for-profit hand-knotted rug exporting social enterprise. The efforts of Hoste Hainse included hygiene programs with complimentary health insurance, provident fund facilities, and paid maternity leave, to name a few, for a 100% female workforce advocating women empowerment. Programs like a day-care and pre-school facility for the children of the employees, to ensure the children would not end up playing on the streets (which was a problem that plagued Nepal then), were one of the first milestone efforts of Hoste Hainse. As the children grew up, Hoste Hainse started to become involved in providing full/partial scholarships for them to attend school with the proceeds of Formation Carpets business. This catapulted Hoste Hainse into the education sector.