Submit your Article

The price of gold has dropped by Rs 700 per tola in the domestic market on Sunday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association, the yellow bullion is being traded at Rs 95, 100 per tola today. The gold was traded at Rs 95, 800 on Friday. Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 94, 600 per tola. Similarly, the price of silver has decreased by Rs 20 and is being traded at Rs 1,160 per tola today.

Established in 1998, CeLRRd has been contributing to the rule of law, good governance, and access to justice, peace, and human rights as a non-profit organization. Since its inception, CeLRRd has implemented programs that primarily focus on community mediation, legal aid support, justice sector reform, legal education, and research. Over the years, CeLRRd has worked on several issues, including trafficking in person, violence against women, and commercial sexual exploitation against children. The organization has experience of working with several partners such as UNDP, USAID, European Union, Action Aid, TDH, DanidaHUGOU, TAF, ECPAT Luxembourg, Winrock, and Plan International, among others.  For nine years, CeLRRd implemented a project entitled “Working Actively Together for Children (WATCH)” in the Kathmandu valley, Kaski, and Kavrepalanchowk. Under this project, CeLRRd focused on increasing the prosecution of perpetrators, especially traveling sex offenders, to ensure easy access to justice for child victims/survivors of sexual exploitation. In addition, the organization rendered free legal services to victims/survivors ensuring their easy access to justice. During the implementation of this project, the organization realized that, in most cases, child sexual offenders were not strangers to the victims/survivors. In the case of traveling sex offenders or foreign pedophiles, they developed relationships with victims or survivors, as well as their parents.  They gained the trust in the name of providing family support, teaching English, and providing good food and money. The nationalities of the foreign pedophiles as prosecuted by the organizations are French, Canadian, American, Danish, Dutch, Australian, Austrian, English, German, Indian, and Arabian.  It was also observed that most of these offenders had impressive educational and professional backgrounds. Some of them are development professionals, doctors, businessmen, app designers, teachers, and lawyers.  Based on the experience of the organization, it was understood that most of the pedophiles were well-reputed in society and had been contributing to the social cause. For instance, a former UN official who was convicted in a child sexual abuse case put forward his immense social contribution to children as a UN official in his defense. He even stated that he had taught English to four adolescent prisoners in Kavre District Prison during the trial period. Similarly, one pedophile who is a psychiatric doctor by profession was working as a volunteer for an NGO based in Kathmandu. He was convicted of abusing two children receiving educational support from the same organization.  Furthermore, based upon free legal services provided to the victims/survivors of pedophilia over the period, CeLRRd realized that pedophiles abuse the children by taking advantages of their vulnerable situations. In other words, children not having proper guardianship or having incapable guardianship are at risk of being victims of child sexual abuse. It was observed that about 56 percent of victims/survivors belonged to a low income family, 22 percent were from the family that migrated to the city and the rest were children on streets unattended by their parents. In addition, no pedophile appeared to be randomly abusing children. They are usually initiated to groom children and earn their trust in order to normalize the abuse. This would keep them safe as there would be less chances of cases being filed/reported. For this they used multiple alternatives such as supporting their families, providing education and giving good food and money. Some even bought advanced electronic devices such as laptops, mobile phones, watches, etc. to lure the children. From the cases prosecuted, 46 percent of those pedophiles had offered livelihood support to the victim/survivor’s family, 36 percent of cases victims/survivors were offered good food and money, and the remaining received educational support. During the legal proceedings, the organization observed two unique characteristics in case of pedophilia. First, the victims/survivors were abused multiple times. In most of the cases, victims/survivors had been abused periodically for 2 to 5 years. Some were abused for the first time when they were 10 years old until they became 15 years.  Some pedophiles even abused multiple numbers of children. A number of them continued to contact the victims/survivors through social media, where they informed them about their arrival and periods of stay. Among the cases CeLRRd facilitated, there is no case in which a pedophile abused only one child.  Second, pedophiles had abused multiple victims/survivors. Among the cases CeLRRd has facilitated, there is no single case where a pedophile has abused only one child. From the cases CeLRRd had prosecuted, three pedophiles had each abused 10 children. In addition, most of them had abused at least three children during their time of visit in Nepal. Over these nine years, CeLRRd prosecuted more than 100 cases of sexual exploitation of children and provided free legal services to the victims/survivors. Moreover, through legal facilitation, 22 victims/survivors have already received compensation. 

Helambu Education and Livelihood Partnership (HELP), a local NGO, set up to improve the schools in rural villages of Sindhupalchowk district is celebrating its 12 years of establishment this year! HELP’s journey that started with a humble initiative to help improve a school in a village of Helambu a decade ago has now gone on to reach out to more than 200 public schools in about 20 districts and make some educational differences directly to the lives of more than 20,000 children. For a small grassroots NGO, this is no small feat.     HELP’s executive director, Jimmy Lama, says that the organization’s story is nothing more than the efforts he, the other co-founders, the supporters and staff members have collectively devoted with utmost belief and confidence to go deep inside the rural communities and stay engaged for as long as it is needed in order to bring about some desired positive changes in the lives of local people and the communities with whom they have worked.   HELP did not establish a big plan and assurance of abundance of resources. However, it was established with an intention and a hope of becoming a reliable supporter for its elective partner schools and communities to address their problems with a focus on education.   HELP hopes that any written and unwritten documentation of the work it has done over the 12 years journey can also become a subject of learning experience and sharing for individuals and other local organizations willing to take similar step with commitment rooted in their community and sector of work  The main occupation of HELP’s current work lies in strengthening and growing the Saathi Teachers Programme. Saathi Teachers Programme is a teaching placement programme for qualified and passionate young people to teach at basic level schools (grade 1-5) struggling with a shortage of teachers in rural communities. This programme started from the fundamental belief that there is a rampant learning crisis at the primary level of the community schools, mainly in rural areas, and to change it, there must be a concentrated and coordinated effort to alter the way teaching learning can be experienced and delivered. This is supported by the national statistics that show that whilst Nepal has achieved 98 percent students’ enrolment, the retention of students has been a big challenge and even more challenging is the delivery of the quality of teaching and learning in the classroom. To make a difference in the learning achievement of the students primarily of grade 1 to 5 is where the focus on the Saathi Teacher Programme lies. Currently, 27 of our Saathi teachers are working in 15 schools in three municipalities under this programme. Prior to starting Saathi Programme, HELP worked on to design and reconstruct earthquake resilient classrooms and physical facilities across 13 schools in Sindhupalchowk funded by UK based charity, Mondo Foundation. HELP has also been running a Scholarship Programme for the last 10 years where each year 40 to 50 SEE graduates are awarded a scholarship on the basis of merit and financial needs to pursue their higher education. As of 2022, we have supported over 560 students on the basis of their family circumstances, academic achievement and commitment to return to their community. Many of them have graduated and are working as local elected representatives, engineers, doctors, nurses, health in charge, teachers, running business, involved in politics and social workers.  In addition to this scheme, HELP is also hosting the Bharosa Scholarship Programme funded by the network of Dish-Home, to provide scholarships for students who lost their parents owing to Covid. Currently 40 students have been selected from 20 districts across 6 provinces under this scheme. This programme is governed by a very distinguished group of people in the likes of Hon. Gagan Thapa, Sudeep Acharya (The chairman of Dish Home), Manish Jha (the Managing Director of Facts Nepal) and Charu Chada (Director at 360 media group) and Jimmy Lama (HELP’s Executive Director).  In partnership with a UK based charity, School in a Bag, HELP has facilitated the distribution of over 20,000 School Bags to Nepali children across 20 districts in Nepal. The programme aims to support children in disaster affected areas in accessing education and to support schools in far-flung communities to reduce the dropout rate. This year HELP marks the 10th year of partnership with School in a Bag.    HELP has also built and handed over the two communities building in the last two years; one at Melchaur in Chautara-Sanghachowkgadi Municipality and another recently at Parangtol village in Melamchi Municipality.   HELP is also well placed to act immediately and effectively during the emergencies on the strength of its strong local network. For example, in response to the massive flood that affected Helambu and Melamchi valley last year, HELP initiated and coordinated a “solar light campaign” to support the flood victims. Scores of supporters from Nepal and abroad joined in to donate and deliver solar lights for more than 1,250 families in Helambu, Paanchpokhari and Melamchi area within a month. 

Good Neighbors International (GNI) is an international development and humanitarian organization that responds to the call of the neglected, vulnerable, and marginalized beyond the barriers of race, nationality, religion, ideology, and geographical distance. GNI empowers people in 40 countries across the world through social development activities and places particular emphasis on economic development in order to break the vicious cycle of poverty that people in developing countries suffer from.    In Nepal, GNI has been working since 2002 for improving the lives of poor people, especially children through child protection, education, income generation, health services, water, sanitation and hygiene, disaster risk reduction/climate change adaptation, and advocacy programs. Currently, GNI Nepal serves marginalized, vulnerable, and poor children, families, and communities in 22 districts across Nepal.   Inclusive Rural Development Project in Nawalparasi (IRDN)   Nepal is a country dependent on agriculture. It is endowed with a fertile strip of flatland called Terai and houses 66 percent of the country’s total population. Out of the 77 districts, Nawalparasi Bardaghat Susta East and West in Terai are good examples of districts having fertile stretches and boundless possibilities in agriculture. However, due to the absence of modern technology, and agricultural knowledge and skills, farmers relied on traditional and subsistence farming.   In order to support the farming communities in these two districts, Good Neighbors International Nepal implemented a three-year Locally Initiated Projects (LIPs) in collaboration with SAMAHATI, a local partner, under the Inclusive Rural Development Project in Nawalparasi (IRDN) funded by Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).   IRDN was designed based on the principle of ‘Saemaul Undong’, meaning ‘New Village Movement’. Introduced in South Korea in the 1970s, it is a successful community-based integrated rural development program that is regarded as the Korean development model for sustainable development. It contributed to achieving remarkable socio-economic development and closing the developmental gap between urban and rural Korea within over a decade.   The overall goal of the Project was to enhance the quality of life of people through socio-economic empowerment by increasing household income through the promotion of commercial agriculture and livestock, economic infrastructure development as well as youth and women employment. Under the IRDN, 26 projects were implemented in two districts viz. Nawalparasi Bardaghat Susta East of Gandaki Province and Nawalparasi Bardaghat Susta West of Lumbini Province. It covered 13 wards of four rural municipalities (Susta, Pratappur, Sarawal, and Palhinandan) and two municipalities (Sunwal and Madhyabindu).   Achievements 

• 580 vegetable farmers trained in commercial vegetable farming and provided farming machinery and equipment for commercial agriculture, and constructed a market center
• 124 crop farmers provided 18.16 metric tons of high-quality rice and wheat seeds, farming machinery and equipment, necessary training, and installed deep boring systems for irrigation.
• 149 banana farmers provided banana saplings, farming machinery and equipment, necessary training, established banana nurseries and constructed a collection center.
• 1,336 dairy farmers supported dairy farming and production and established milk collection centers.
• 123 fish farmers provided technical support in preparing fishponds, necessary training, installing bio floc and fish aerators, constructing shallow borings, fish nurseries, fish nets, and filling their ponds with fingerlings.
• 287 shallow and 21 medium-size borewells were installed to irrigate dry areas in Sarawal and Madhyabindu. 317 user committees formed.  
• 267 youths provided with various skills development training and supported to become entrepreneurs.

• 20 local women provided with mask-making training
• 13 health facilities provided with health materials
• 3,372 Covid-19-affected households of 13 wards provided with food items
• Handwashing stations installed at 24 schools, 13 health facilities, and 19 local offices
• 275 community members supported the revival of their businesses.

Suwa Sanjyal, 79, from Sanyalbada of Kankasundari Rural Municipality-8, Jumla got married at the age of nine. She and her groom were strangers when they got married. It took her almost five years to realize that they were husband and wife. In the meantime, she was pregnant. However, due to early pregnancy, she lost four of her newborns. Now, she is surviving with her two sons and two daughters.    “It has been a long time since I got married. I was happy that I was wearing new clothes and jewelry on my wedding day, unknown about the fact that from that day onwards my life would change. It was a customary tradition for getting married at an early age. During those days, society was not broad-minded like today. There was no medium to raise awareness related to adverse effects of child marriage,” recollects Suwa.  Suwa remembers the tradition of marrying at the age of seven, in which nine years was considered late.  “I had to face social stigma for marrying off late. We had no access to information. There were no schools or any other opportunities. In such a situation, the law regarding child marriage was beyond our imagination.  We only had the option to follow our ancient rituals and be involved in agriculture,” says Suwa. She further adds, “Now, I have realized that I lost my babies due to early pregnancy. There were no one to advise us that child marriage and childbearing is life-threatening to both mothers and her babies,” says Suwa.   Suwa, despite her old age, is an activist who walks around in her community and narrates her story. She advocates about the adverse effects of early marriage and motivates others to marry only after reaching a suitable age.  Likewise, Amar Bahadur Shahi, 45, of Sinjha Rural Municipality-1 is also one of the activists who has been advocating against child marriage. Being a child groom himself, he is aware of the challenges that a young groom has to encounter and now is committed to prevent child marriage of future generation.  Amar got married at an early age of 15. “I had to shoulder the responsibilities of generating income for the family. In an environment where there were not many opportunities, I worked    hard so that my family could have two times meal every day.  It was during such times that I realized the unprecedented situation that child marriage brings in our lives. Now, I am determined to marry off my children only after reaching the age specified by the law of the country. In addition to this, I am also committed to stop child, early and forced marriage in my community,” says Amar.  Suwa and Amar are the representative characters who themselves were once a child bride and groom; now advocates to end Child, Early and Forced marriage (CEFM) in their communities. Plan International Nepal with the support of its partner organizations have been conducting various programs to raise awareness in the communities about harmful traditional practices. Suwa and Amar learnt about consequences of child marriage, child rights, importance of education after attending Preventing Child, Early and Forced Marriage (PCEFM) project. They go door to door to ensure that all the children, especially girls' children receive education and are not forced to marry early.  Plan International Nepal has implemented the PCEFM project in 10 local levels of Jumla, Kalikot and Bardiya districts with the objective of reducing the prevalence rate of child marriages to support the government’s commitment to achieve Sustainable Development Goals 2030. The overall goal of the project is to end child marriage so that all the children enjoy their rights to reach their full potential. The objectives of the prorgamme is achieved through various programmes like keeping girls in school, access to quality information about Sexual and Reproductive Rights, engaging Champions of Change as an influencer in the communities as an advocate to reduce the child marriage.  The project was successful to reach 7,214 participants. Likewise, it has prevented 28 cases of child marriages in different communities. In addition to this, at the Federal Level, we have been doing regular engagement with parliamentarians through Human Rights, Law and Justice Committee and Woman and Social Committee to influence timely promulgation of revised version of national strategy and cost action plan in preventing CEFM. Moreover, we have been also engaging in child rights monitoring through the Universal Periodic Reporting process and UNCRC reporting process with wider CSO engagement at national and local level for prevention of CEFM.

The Beacon Project is a long-term partnership between the UK water company Anglian Water and its Alliances (AWA), WaterAid Nepal, the Nepal Water Supply Corporation (NWSC), and the Ministry of Water Supply (MoWS) and Lahan municipality. First initiated in 2016 and then put into action in 2017, the Beacon Project aims to achieve sustainable municipality-wide safe water and sanitation for all and to create a model that can be replicated in other municipalities and NWSC branch offices throughout Nepal. This project is a collaborative effort where each partner brings their specific area of expertise to co-create a dynamic and impactful project. Anglian Water and Alliances (AWA) provides partial technical and financial support for the NWSC’s Lahan branch to introduce standard practices and technological innovations in close coordination with WaterAid Nepal. WaterAid Nepal facilitates the implementation of activities on the ground, working closely with NWSC Lahan, the Lahan municipality and a local partner non-governmental organisation (NGO) Dalit Jana Kalyan Yuba Club (DJKYC). The combination of capacity building and hands-on implementation support is transforming WASH services in Lahan towards a model that can inspire and guide the other 23 NWSC branches—achieving the right to water and sanitation for all. The Beacon Project’s intervention in Lahan has made a lasting impact in the Dalit communities. So far, the pipe network has been extended by 11543 meters through financing from the Beacon Project to serve eight Dalit communities Dinabhadri, Maa Santoshi, Biharpur, Sahanitole, Champapur, Lahangoth, Ashnaha, Safitole. 160 taps have been constructed, benefitting 960 people. Work is also underway to extend a piped water network with community connections in all ten wards this year. Availability of good quality water close to homes has resulted in greater personal safety by reducing the need to make long or risky journeys to collect water. Women and girls no longer must queue for hours, and the disputes that had become part of daily life have disappeared. With improvements to drinking water and the knowledge of safe water handling, sanitation, and hygiene, they are now reporting lower incidences of disease and lower expenditure on health. Promotion of good hygiene in the communities has led to better solid waste management. Earlier, rubbish was dumped by the roadside and left to decay, this is now collected in cement rings placed by the municipality in common disposal sites, which they periodically empty. Frequent training on sanitation and hygiene have prompted the communities to clean their houses and community areas. Children can now be seen regularly washing their hands and bathing.  The important steps taken across different aspects of water supply in Lahan in response to various physical, technical and resource-based challenges are listed below. The progress made since the beginning of the Beacon Project and the lessons that have been learnt along the way indicate the importance of working on the technical issues, as well as strengthening coordination, monitoring and accountability to achieve sustainable results.  Water resource planning  Strategic planning for water resources in Lahan is becoming increasingly important as more households are being connected to the network and the population is forecast to grow significantly. The Beacon Project has supported two hydrogeological studies undertaken by students from Tribhuvan University, as well as initiating groundwater monitoring and helping to improve collaboration between the different stakeholders—which will be essential to aid the development of an integrated water resources plan.  Borehole drilling and CCTV surveys  The NWSC water supply system currently relies on groundwater abstracted from deep tubewells. However, NWSC have encountered problems with boreholes failing due to the ingress of fine sand, which has led to high turbidity in the network and ultimately caused the boreholes to silt-up. The Beacon Project has supported the better protection of existing boreholes, along with the decommissioning of old boreholes. It has also assisted NWSC to develop a new technical specification for drilling—which has been endorsed and rolled-out across all 23 branch offices.  Water quality monitoring  Water quality monitoring was previously undertaken on an ad hoc basis due to lack of resources. Surveillance has now improved, with samples from the boreholes being tested monthly, field test kits being provided for NWSC staff to monitor basic parameters on a regular basis, and the installation of sample taps by NWSC at each borehole according to a specification provided by Anglian Water. A Water Safety Plan team has also been established and trained, and NWSC has allocated a budget to recruit a dedicated water quality chemist for the Lahan office.  Water treatment  To reduce turbidity, improvements have been made to the sedimentation tank and both this and the overhead tank are now flushed out on a regular basis. Manually emptying chlorine powder into the sedimentation tank has been replaced by a simple chlorine dosing pump, while designs have been prepared for a permanent inline chlorination system, which will be installed in the next three months. To ensure the new chlorine dosing system is sustainably managed—the past failures of the original systems should be taken into account.  Reducing non-revenue water  One of the early successes of the project was supporting the NWSC staff with training and equipment to detect and repair leaks in the pipeline. As of October 2020, 286 leaks had been repaired in Lahan and every tap at the public tap stands had been replaced. Improved protocols have also been developed for installing and commissioning new pipelines to reduce the risk of future leaks. Sustaining this progress requires thinking through how to incentivise prioritizing the reduction of NonRevenue Water (NRW). Network design (Hydraulic model and DMAs)  Information on the network was often incomplete and sometimes inaccurate, so the Beacon Project supported NWSC to conduct a drone survey to build up an accurate geographic information system (GIS) map, and customer connections were physically checked and tagged. Based on this map, a detailed hydraulic model has been developed, which shows where improvements are needed to ensure adequate pressure is maintained throughout the network. This has also facilitated plans to introduce District Metered Areas (DMAs)—which will allow NWSC to test and achieve continuous water supply within a specific area, in isolation from the rest of the system. Extension to Dalit communities  One of the key aims of the Beacon Project is to ensure that services reach the most marginalized and vulnerable communities of Lahan. A significant achievement of the project has been the extension of the piped network to four Dalit communities—who previously relied on inadequate and unsafe water points. 

Tension ran high in Tribhuvan University in Kirtipur on Sunday. A large number of security personnel have been deployed in the area when two student groups clashed after the University organized a press conference. In the meantime, a group of students hurled stones at the press conference venue. Yogendra Rawal, Secretary of Nepal Student Union, student wing of ruling Nepali Congress, at the Tribhuvan University, said that NSU cadres Bhuwan Joshi and Ishwor Bhandari were critically injured in the incident. NSU students staged the demonstration demanding action against the professors who asked questions similar to the previous years while the All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU), the student wing of main opposition CPN-UML, warned of opening the padlock. University Vice-Chancellor Prof. Dr. Dharmakant Baskota said that there is panic among the teachers and there is no working environment.

The two border points—Tatopani and Rashuwagadhi—towards China have been closed for the past two weeks. Director General of the Customs Department Kamal Prasad Bhattarai said that China closed the two border points without informing the Nepal government officially. Though China has not given a specific reason to close the border points, the northern neighbor might have closed the border due to a surge in Covid-19 cases, he said. Bhattarai, however, said that the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies was informed verbally about the border closure. According to statistics, around 25 percent of the commerce passes through these border posts. The border closure will add more pressure on traders at a time when the biggest festivals are round the corner, Director General Bhattarai said. The government is in a dilemma on how to approach China to reopen the border for two-way trade as the northern neighbor had closed the border points one-sidedly. “We have talked with the concerned ministry to open the border. The officials have told us that they will take the initiatives to resolve the problem,” he said, adding, “We cannot do anything.” Nine border points of 10 districts have been opened for trade between Nepal and China. Tatopani and Rasuwagadhi, however, were the only border points which were in full operation. The container trucks with goods worth billions of rupees have remained stranded at the border points. China closed the Tatopani border point on August 10 and the Rasuwagadhi border point on August 14. The Tatopani-Khasa border point, which remained close for four year following the devastating earthquake of 2015, reopened on May 29, 2019.