Two Wartburg College students from southern Asia have received a $10,000 Davis Projects for Peace grant to improve education, overcome caste barriers and alleviate poverty in Nepal.

Kushboo Rana, from Nepal on India’s northeast border, and Maneesha Gammana Liyanage, from Sri Lanka, an island nation south of India, have created a two-pronged approach to address social and economic problems with their “Maya Project,” named after the school the children will attend.

The Wartburg students will use the Davis grant to buy three small tractors this summer for farmers in Nepal’s southern agrarian lowlands, so children can attend the Maya Universe Academy — for students from all four castes — rather than work in the fields.

They also will establish a Village Agriculture Committee to help farmers solve problems of discrimination, poverty and education. Agricultural experts have been enlisted to advise farmers on techniques to boost production.

Rana, a mathematics and physics major with an engineering minor, and Gammana Liyanage, a psychology and international relations major, are sophomores and Davis United World College Scholars. Both graduated from the two-year UWC program in Costa Rica — one of 13 such campuses worldwide — prior to enrolling at Wartburg. 

Philanthropist Kathryn Wasserman Davis initiated the Davis Projects for Peace on her 100th birthday in 2007, committing $1 million annually to 100 grass-roots efforts by college students. The Davis United World College Scholars Program founded by her son, financier Shelby Davis, and Dr. Philip Geier, a former professor of history, supports 2,000 scholars at 91 partner U.S. colleges and universities.

The Maya Universe Academy — a school for elementary-age students in rural Chisa Pani Village founded and staffed by UWC graduates — has an enrollment of 45 students, which it hopes to double next year. It has received 500 applications.

“Maya means ‘love,’” Rana said, “and this institute we are trying to help is built on love. It’s a very poor village, and the Maya Academy is trying to bring together people, who are divided, in the name of education.”

Agricultural experts will teach farmers how to use the tractors and develop new techniques for cattle feed management, hay storage, transporting goods and selling produce — primarily rice and vegetables —for better prices.

Rana said parents in the region are too poor to pay for their child’s education, but will exchange manpower and produce “like the barter system going back to ancient times.”  

Overcoming caste discrimination — with its roots in a family’s occupation — is another objective of the program. Rana has experienced that bias. Male members of his family are expected to become Gurkhas, Nepal’s legendary soldiers.

“There are four stages of hierarchy, and I belong to the third caste group,” Rana explained. “It’s a concern in terms of privileges rather than law. It’s an unconscious kind of racism, a differentiation among people. For example, if you go to a job interview and the interviewer knows you’re from a low caste, unconsciously he has expectations that you would be a little dumber than someone from a higher caste.”

The Maya Academy is trying to stress unity, a concept Rana described as “radical” and threatening to some parents.

“When those kids aren’t in school, they communicate with each other. It’s just the parents and society. Kids are kids, whether from higher society or a lower caste,” he said.

Gammana Liyanage belongs to a higher caste in Sri Lanka.

“In our country it’s also related to occupations,” she said. “It doesn’t matter in a general sense, but when it comes to marriage and relationships it really matters. It is changing nowadays. Education will create opportunities.”

That is essential for Nepal, Rana said. “The economy is stagnant, and education is not free at all. Maybe with this approach we can see a more developed country.”

The students have budgeted $18,200 for the project. The three Indian-made tractors will cost $11,250, while $2,800 has been allocated for fuel, maintenance and repairs. Seeds, transportation and workshops are among additional expenses. The students will pay $1,600 each for travel. Maya Universe Academy will fund the remaining $5,000.

This is this sixth time Wartburg students have received a Davis Projects grant. The other initiatives have been for building latrines for female students and women’s health education in South Sudan, bore-hole drilling to provide safe water in a Nigerian village, fighting malaria by helping Amerindians in Guyana make mosquito nets, removing land mines in Cambodia and promoting “inclusion” in Iowa.