Christian Zangerl: The Epitome of Dolphin Philosophy

November 23, 2017

Rajesh Chapagain

An Austrian couple Christian (Christ) and Margit, frequent travellers to Nepal, first landed in the Himalayan country about two decades ago. They travelled to many parts of Nepal, including the upper mountainous terrain where they happened to see the hardship of life. While they got enthralled and mesmerised by the natural beauty that Nepal has to offer, they were deeply moved by the condition of the highly underprivileged and downtrodden people in the upper part of Dhading, which has a very inhospitable terrain. It demands an arduous journey for its people to reach out for a good school, hospital and modern amenities. They came across many children who were parentless, homeless and lifeless, lacking vigour, vitality and excitement. Due to extreme poverty of their family, their fate was hanging in limbo. There were no signs of smile on heir faces. Stricken with their despondent condition, Christ and Margit made up their mind to take an initiative for a humanitarian cause. Realising that education is a fundamental tool to bring about a positive change in people’s livelihood, the couple started sponsoring some children of the Himalayan region by donating some money and educational materials–this was just a single step towards a journey of a thousand miles!

Christian Zangerl, a great philanthropist, is guided by the Dolphin-nature ideology. He has a number of social initiatives operating at the international level to his credit. He is currently the president of a charity called ‘Himalaya Children Help’. Headquartered in Austria, the organisation is also working in Nepal for the empowerment of the poor and needy people through education, health and various works of relief and rehabilitation.

The Dolphin Way

He gives an apt analogy of ‘Dolphin versus Shark behaviour’ to the current economic and social practice that most people and organisations today are following. He elaborates on the dolphin and shark philosophy saying that the two wonderful creatures share the same sea world but there are certain characteristics that set them apart. Dolphins are highly intelligent, social and show playful and friendly behaviour towards others whereas sharks are ‘solitary or lonely hunters’. They prey alone on various kinds of animals that come their way. Likewise, most human beings today tend to have solitary benefit for themselves as far as possible. They always wish to take everything from everywhere and are not ready to move and grow together by sharing joy with others. So, Christ obviously asks us to learn from dolphins. “I feel ecstatic when people call me Dolphin!” he says. The true nature of ‘Dolphinness’ is reflected in Christian and Margrit’s action. They quite often travel thousands of miles in order to present something to the people here in Nepal. In Austria, they engage in multiple activities involving a lot of hard work to raise funds from generous people to support the education of the Himalayan children of Nepal.

Among hundreds of children sponsored by ‘Big Dolphin Christ’ and his organisation, this columnist had an opportunity to give career guidance to Ms Pasang Yancgchen Sherpa, one of the fortunate ones. Ever since she lost her father, she had been out of education and was brought up by her mother who had a life crippled by poverty. One day Mr Christian happened to reach her home at a small village in upper Dhading. He then offered to sponsor Ms Pasang for her schooling in Kathmandu. It has been around eight years since he started supporting her. She has passed the Plus Two level with a good score. Normally, Mr Zangrel supports children up to the school level, but  impressed with the  promising future of Pasang, he is sponsoring her university education as well. She is now measuring the scale of academic excellence in Bachelors of Optometry at Chitkara University, a leading university in India. With regard to Pasang’s future, Mr Christian envisions that she, upon graduating as Optometrist, will work at an eye clinic that he plans to establish in Pasang’s native place to benefit the local community. Another sponsored student, Mr Sanchay, who is loved greatly by Mr Christian as his own son, is doing a course in Traditional Medicine at Kathmandu University. Besides, there are so many poor children supported by ‘Big dolphin’ Christ and his dolphin family.

His Love for Nepal

Fascinated by the friendly and hardworking nature of the Nepali people, he keeps coming to Nepal to launch some project or the other now and then. His charitable contribution is confined not only to sponsoring for children’s education, but also building schools in remote areas and houses for earthquake survivors. His organisation has brought smiles to the faces of many earthquake-affected families by building many houses in Nepal. His love for Nepal and the Nepalese is so profound that he could not keep himself quiet when he heard of the devastating earthquake of 2015. He came to Nepal in the immediate aftermath with a lot of relief materials and busied himself with relief works in the disaster-affected areas.

As he has closely observed Nepal over the past several years, he laments that Nepal’s development is going on at a snail’s pace. He finds a lot of similarities between Nepal and Austria. Both are land- locked countries with similar geographies including tough mountainous regions. “Many years ago the condition of Austria was quite the same as Nepal has today. But in the recent time Austria has become one of the top 14 richest countries in the world in terms of GDP per capita with a high standard of living, whereas Nepal has a long way to go,” Mr Christian observes.

Whenever he comes to Nepal along with Margit, he spends a fairly long time working with the local communities here. He organises different fun-filled programmes at schools where the children sponsored by his organisation are studying. He also spends time with the children, teaching them good habits related to personal hygiene and sanitation. Most importantly, he doesn’t miss the opportunity to inculcate the ‘Dolphin Habit’, i.e. being social and living also for others, into the young minds!