Thanks to generous donors, this project has been fully funded! Here is a detailed report with photos.
In 2014, we completed the construction of 8 individual retreat huts on a secluded piece of land adjacent to Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute in northern India. This area of India has some of the heaviest monsoon rains in the country.
During the 2018 monsoon, the nuns raised the alarm about torrential downpours. The heavy rains were causing problems inside the retreat huts. The rains were also flooding the paths to the huts and inundating the surrounding garden areas.
In 2018, we put out a call for help and 9 generous donors came to the aid of the nuns and nunnery. These kind donors made it possible to:
- Add gutters and drainpipes to the roofs of the 8 retreat huts so that the rainwater does not splash back against the walls and damage them;
- Improve the drainage all around the retreat huts to protect the nuns and the huts, and to channel the water efficiently into the main drainage system behind the huts.
The nuns at Dolma Ling do a lot of the maintenance work at the nunnery, but this project was too big and complex for them. The nunnery had to hire a team of workers.
Photos of the Retreat Hut Drainage Project
To create permanent drainage channels around the retreat huts, workers dug a network of ditches and created concrete channels.
This collage of photos shows some of the many drainage channels created around the eight retreat huts and the surrounding gardens and land.
Thank you to all the supporters who funded this project! Your generosity and kindness has a long-term impact. You have protected the nuns and the retreat huts from the monsoon rains!
To get a sense of the enormous amount of water that the nunnery must cope with, here’s a video taken in July 2018 by the Nuns’ Media Team showing the monsoon rains. This area is near the top of the nunnery complex and the retreat huts are nearby.
We keep an updated list of Current Needs at all the nunneries on our website.
Here’s the original description of the Retreat Hut Drainage Project: PDF description of the Retreat Hut Drainage Project here.