GoodEnoughCNC empowering Nepal community

Our GoodEnoughCNC Hybrid found its way to Nepal, where enthusiastic young makers have built it from a suitcase kit and are now using it for their community projects.

Sharing the idea of empowering communities through collaborative making, we connected with Communitere, which is an innovative non-profit, pioneering an effective international model for sustainable disaster recovery. They are creating dynamic hubs in affected communities, which involves providing the resources, processes and tools required to empower locals to take an active role in the renewal of their own community and becoming self-reliant. At the moment, they are active in Nepal, which suffered a massive earthquake last year and it is in the process of reconstruction.

That is why we sent Hybrid CNC in a suitcase to Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital city, where it was delivered into good hands of four local developers, who joined forces to build their own GoodEnoughCNC Hybrid, Dipesh Khanal (Project Co-ordinator and President of Robotics Association of Nepal), Kaushal Wagle (hardware and software developer), Saroj Shrestha (hardware and software developer), Kushal Wagle (hardware developer). Before starting with the assembly the team needed to source locally the heavy components, long beams for the machine frame, and print out the required 3D printed components. Dipesh Khanal, explained that in Kathmandu, being the capital city, they usually don’t have problems finding the components for their tech projects. And recently, they are starting to take advantage of different digital fabrication tools, from 3D printers to laser cutters to make the components and customized objects.

When they got all the materials ready, they were finally able to start with the assembly following our step by step instructions and technical documentation, then they calibrated the machine and made some tests with it, firstly with a simple marker and then with Telwin Plasma cutter.

They are going to use the machine first of all for the construction of Communitere facilities, but it will be of great use for other projects of their tech start up community as well. In September they plan to present it at their local Kathmandu Mini Maker Faire and use it for the upcoming robotic competition during Yantra 5.0 Art, Tech, Science Festival 2016, happening in the last week of November. Later they want to offer plasma cutting services to local hardware companies. Moreover, Dipesh explained that he wants to circulate the CNC knowledge and services also outside of Kathmandu through RAN’s network. For the start he has in mind two cities, Pokhara and Biratnagar. We can’t wait to hear about the future projects of GoodENoughCNC in Nepal.

Believing that GoodEnoughCNC and other open source hardware, together with fab labs and maker movement, hold a huge potential to solve local community problems in a sustainable way, improving life of citizens in developing countries, enabling them to build tools they need where they live, we’ll continue to work hard to foster the collaboration with organizations and individuals in different parts of the world to bring digital fabrication to places where it is most needed. Everyone sharing the same vision, who wants to get open hardware out to the field, is invited to join our GoodEnoughCNC Academy, where participants will learn everything about GoodEnoughCNC and open digital fabrication. If you want to build the machine yourself you can buy the kit version and build it following assembly instructions and joining our online workshop.

Photos credits: Dipesh Khanal