This Ladakhi woman engineer has provided solar energy to 50 villages

Gurmet Angmo is a 36-year-old solar engineer working with the Global Himalayan Expedition (GHE). The GHE is a for-profit enterprise working for the development of Himalayan communities based in remote areas through sustainable tourism and technology. Gurmet could not finish her high school, still she got associated with electrifying more than 50 villages in Ladakh and Meghalaya with solar power. GHE is among one of the few organisations in the world which uses tourism and technology to provide solar energy to remote communities. The GHE was founded by an electrical engineer Paras Loomba in 2013. To cover the cost related to the hardware, transportation, installation and training of village-scale solar micro-grids they rely on a part of the expedition fee. The community owns and operates the micro-grid infrastructure set up by GHE. It was honoured by the 2020 UN Global Climate Change Action Award. Gurmet left for Leh in search of quality school education after finishing her primary education. She couldn’t study past matriculation and started searching for a government job which she, unfortunately, couldn’t get any. Even years after she didn’t get any job, she got married to Rinchen Namgyal, a carpenter. She gave birth to two daughters. However, in 2015, her brother who worked at the GHE told her about the organisation and asked if she would be in a six-months solar engineering training course in Rajasthan. She decided to take the training after discussing it with her family. Next year, she left for the training leaving her two daughters with the family. Three months of starting were quite hard for her. She felt difficulty in adjusting to the spicy food and people across the nation. She was not even sure if she would be able to finish the course. However, she finished the course after the initial skepticism. After the completion of her course, her first assignment involved electrifying the Sumda Chun monastery. This was followed by another task of electrifying the Lingshed village in October 2017. Even getting to the village involved a six-hour journey. She and her colleague were given the task of electrifying 97 households of the village in 10 days. Which she completed in nine days. She credits her husband for his support in her entire journey. She says that when she goes to work, he sends their children to school, cooks and takes care of the shop. She feels grateful to him for his relentless support. Source: The Better India