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Tribhuvan University (TU), the oldest and largest in the country, is again in the limelight for the wrong reasons. Excessive politics is destabilizing the institution all over again as it continues to be used by political parties to push their partisan interests. On August 29, the main opposition CPN-UML flagged this issue in the parliament, prompting speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota to ask the government to take measures to resolve the chronic problem. In the past three years, different student unions have padlocked TU offices for a total of 300 days. This time, it is the Nepal Student Union (NSU), a student wing of ruling Nepali Congress (NC), which is into the dirty act. Two years ago, NSU cadres had thrashed Assistant Professor Prem Chalaune. A case has been filed at Kathmandu District Court against those involved but the coalition government is trying to withdraw the case. Concerns over the security of TU teachers, who continue to face various threats, are growing. Clearly, university classes cannot be run in an atmosphere of insecurity. All political parties and student unions are equally responsible for the current state. Excessive politics is weakening the institution, degrading the equality of education, and boosting corruption. It is not only the unions; whichever party comes to power, they routinely interfere in the university’s functioning. For far too long, student unions have behaved like a law unto themselves, often with robust backing of their mother parties. Top political leaders cultivate them largely to be used to heat up the street during political protests or to hound their opposition. The student unions have little interest in actually helping improve the quality of education. The government should take immediate measures to resolve the ongoing problems and ensure complete security inside the university. Unions should in all cases be barred from disruptive activities like padlocking university offices, and their members must be punished when they threaten teachers and administrators. The unions should be helping with the university’s development as a learning environment for teachers and students alike. If not, they can be done away with.

Sharmila Lama, 39 lives in Manikhel, Mahankal Rural Municipality, which lies in Southern Lalitpur. She lives with her daughter, now 18 years old, who is her only child. She lost both her parents and her two brothers in a devastating landslide when she was just 11. She moved to Lalitpur after getting married. Her husband left for foreign employment soon after her marriage, when her daughter was just six months old. Tragically, her husband went missing just three months after leaving for Malaysia and she never heard back from him. All she was left with was a huge loan taken for her husband, and an infant to feed and take care of. All this with no income was indeed unimaginably challenging for Sharmila. Sharmila started to work as a housemaid in Kathmandu which did not provide her with enough money to look after herself and her daughter. Then she decided to move to Kuwait for employment, leaving her young daughter with her relatives. “Leaving my daughter back in Nepal was the hardest decision of my life, but I had no choice!”, says Sharmila. She further adds, “On top of that, life in Kuwait was not easy at all. The work was extremely difficult, and I could not save enough money, despite the hardship. After six years in Kuwait, I realized that it is better to do something for a living in my own country. I also realized that it is better to become a merchant than serving other merchants abroad”. She returned from Kuwait, determined to do something on her own, but things were not so easy. She started small-scale vegetable farming but that was not at all enough to handle her family expenses.  She struggled for years just to live hand-to-mouth until one day back in 2017, a field staff of FWEAN, FCA’s implementing partner NGO, visited her and informed about the ongoing FCA project that supports women like Sharmila to establish their businesses. She showed interest and chose to start a bamboo handicraft business. At first, she received 28-day “Start and Improve Your Business” training for bamboo handicraft production. Soon after completion of the training, she started making bamboo products like baskets and cup holders from her newly gained skill. Later, she also received a 22-day refresher training to further enhance her skills. The project staff facilitated for her to become a member of a FCA established and supported women’s Cooperative from which she could access a loan of Rs 200,000 for her initial investment to buy raw materials and tools. The support from FCA was not just limited to this. Like thousands of other women in Nepal, FCA linked Sharmila to the market and buyers from different places. This was done by selling her products from a product outlet in Chapagaun, Lalitpur, established and run with FCA’s support. She has also sold her products and found long-term buyers in business expos organized by FCA’s partner FWEAN. These expos are organized each year at local as well as national levels. Her products were also sold in a virtual expo conducted online during the pandemic. Her products can also be bought from winbiz.com.np, an online business portal run by FWEAN.  Sharmila makes 19 different types of products now, which include food baskets, cloth racks, laundry baskets and so on. After fully paying back her loan, she took another loan of Rs 700,000 which she is paying back as monthly installments without any problems. Her products are in high demand now, especially after she was linked with new regular buyers in the trade expo. Now she plans to train and hire some women to work for her, as it is now getting difficult to meet demands from her buyers. As a backup support, Sharmila also started to do some small-scale commercial farming of asparagus and tomato; she has received commercial farming training and tomato tunnel support from FCA’s ongoing project.  Sharmila’s livelihood has drastically improved in the past years. She was able to construct her own house in 2021; her daughter Rupa is studying bachelor’s degree in Computer Science in Chapagaun and is working part-time as a salesperson in the product outlet established with FCA’s support. She receives a monthly stipend of Rs 10,000 which she utilizes as her pocket money.  Sharmila told FCA staff members during her household visit, “I cannot even explain how much my life has changed in the past few years. FCA, Women’s bank of Finland and FWEAN are like my mothers, who gave me a new life and a reason to live. I can never thank you enough. Who does all these things? I mean, right from giving training, providing an opportunity to take loans, supporting for starting a business, making connections to the market. If possible, please pass my sincere thanks to everyone who is behind providing support to women like me”. FCA has been working in Southern Lalitpur since 2009. The projects are funded by Women’s Bank of Finland and implemented by NGO partners SOLVE Nepal and FWEAN. SOLVE does all the work related to cooperatives and women’s social empowerment, while FWEAN supports women for entrepreneurship development and marketing. There are 12 women-led and owned cooperatives running in Lalitpur with FCA’s support (29 in Nepal). The support includes right from the establishment, building construction, operational and financial capacity building, capacity building of executive members, support in procuring essential assets, and providing grants for various initiatives of women, for instance, Local Women Economic Development (LWED) project for women’s skill enhancement and establishment of their own enterprise. There are currently over 4,500 women directly affiliated with FCA supported cooperatives in Lalitpur who are making regular savings and accessing loans for doing their own business. FCA has also been supporting social empowerment of women and facilitating their participation in development processes. 19 women who are members of FCA-supported cooperatives are recently elected and now serving as municipal and ward level representatives in Lalitpur. 

Of the total students enrolled in Grade 1 almost ten years ago (i.e., in the school year 2008), only 58.4 percent of students reached Grade 10. This illustrates that nearly 41.6 percent of children either repeated or dropped out without completing secondary education. In other words, only One child out of every Two children enrolled in Grade 1 reached up to Grade 10. 459,275 students appeared in the SEE in 2075 BS, 325,330 of them were from public schools. In the same year, around 41 percent of private school students had A/A+ Grades while only about four percent of public school students had A/A+ Grades. Despite the higher enrollment rate, Public schools have been able to produce only one academically sound student for every 10 similar students out of Private schools. Free public education is the only option for the majority of these children who come from lower economic status. Without a quality education, children cannot access better life opportunities and are forced into low paid jobs, unsafe working conditions in foreign countries and get caught in the vicious cycle of poverty. Also, failure to access quality education limits their power and choices in making reproductive decisions, securing financial independence, ensuring personal safety and exercising their fundamental rights and voices.  Teach For Nepal works toward the day when every child in Nepal attains an excellent and equitable education. TFN annually finds and nurtures leaders who commit to expanding opportunity for under-resourced school students in rural Nepal, beginning with at least two years teaching Fellowship in a public school. Teach For Nepal Fellowship is an opportunity for brightest and most promising Nepali youths, who have graduated from best universities and workplace from Nepal and abroad, to serve as full-time teachers. Annually 100s of outstanding graduates apply for the Fellowship of which, only 7-10 percent of applicants are eligible to become a Fellow and enroll onto the program from a range of diverse academic backgrounds. Through two years of teaching and working with key education stakeholders, Teach For Nepal Fellows are exposed to the grassroots realities of Nepal’s education system and cultivate the knowledge, skills, and mindsets needed to attain positions of leadership in and beyond education, working collectively to build a vibrant movement for educational equity across Nepal.  As of today, Teach For Nepal has 68 Fellows directly serving 6000 public school students in six districts. Similarly, the TFN Alumni has a community of 375 members of which more than 60 percent continue to work in the education sector or the larger development sector post their Fellowship. Every year around 60-70 outstanding graduates join TFN with a mission to drive change through TFN which was founded in 2012, as a social enterprise that works to improve quality education in public schools of the country.  Transforming the nation, one classroom at a time For many children, the Fellows are their first encounter with an engineer. It is the first they see a woman with a bachelor’s degree in sciences. And the first time they meet either somebody visually impaired, or a Dalit, with a bachelor’s degree. Living and working in the community as teachers in public schools, Fellows embark upon a leadership journey that roots them within the contextual reality.  At the same time, through training, workshops, and conferences, Fellows deepen their understanding of the larger contexts that impact national and international policy and programs. In two years, Fellows make a significant impact in raising classroom achievement and influence the community towards positive change. Greater access to national and global opportunities for higher studies Fellows help students secure scholarship opportunities to pursue higher education in both local and global schools. To date, six female students have received prestigious scholarships for IB education at United World College, a network of international high schools, in Germany and India. Some are now pursuing fully subsidized university degrees, including in the United States. Over 30 other students are on scholarships studying in some of the best private colleges in Kathmandu.

“Animal health and human health are interconnected,” said Kamala Poudel, a dairy producer and member of Bihani Dairy Cooperative, a Heifer-supported women’s cooperative in Nepal. “Healthy animal(s) also means nutritious animal-source food.” In Kamala’s dairy farming community in Kapilvastu, Nepal, where people have historically been limited to subsistence production, inadequate nutrition and little opportunity for enterprise, high quality cattle feed directly translates to more productivity, greater profits and better human health. As a community agrovet entrepreneur, Kamala helps other dairy producers in the area treat and care for their livestock. Now, with the support of Heifer and her women’s cooperative, she’s launched a mulberry fodder business to take her enterprise one step further. “We have planted more than 100,000 saplings this year and hope to sell it in greater profits than the previous years,” Kamala said, referring to the thriving mulberry nursery she looks after with her husband. Mulberry is not only an excellent source of nutrition for livestock, but a great and often under-appreciated source of income for smallholder farmers. With a high market demand and short supply, families like Kamala’s have been able to cash in on the opportunity and make significant profits.  Kamala and her husband bought each mulberry cutting at Rs 2, or about 2 cents, and can sell each resulting sapling at six times that, after nurturing them for just six months. They are using Heifer’s network of cooperatives to sell across the country, and the local government’s Department of Livestock Services has already purchased more than 22,000 saplings from them. “Farmers are beginning to understand the benefits of nutritious fodder like Jai, Barsim, Napier, Mulato and Mulberry,” Kamala said. A prosperous relationship between a farmer and their livestock is one of shared vitality. Healthy animals require routine care and wholesome feed. And resilient families require productive animals, which yields a direct link to nutrition and income more often than not. And her own livestock—five cows, three heifers and two buffaloes—are doing well providing 70 liters of sellable milk each day. “Previously each buffalo would yield only 1-2 liters of milk [per] day,” she shared, “but with improved practices and nutritious fodder, this has increased to 8 liters [per] day.” The manure from the animals is also rightly utilized as fertilizer for the kitchen garden, producing nutritious vegetables for the family. “Today I have my own shop and a large network of farmers who rely on me for quality veterinary services,” Kamala boasts. Already the multiple income sources from her small homestead dairy and fodder businesses have increased their living standard, and with a Heifer-facilitated loan from a local bank, Machhapuchhre Bank Limited, Kamala has plans to expand both enterprises. What powers Kamala? Bihani Dairy Cooperative was formed after members like Kamala joined hands to unite and pursue agriculture enterprises. They identified various challenges while the major challenge was: a need for storage to prevent spoilage of dairy cow and buffalo milk produced in their community and sell it consistently. With the support of Heifer Nepal, the cooperative worked with the municipality to convert a vegetable collection center into Bihani Dairy. Bihani Dairy cooperative not only collects milk but makes resources like feed, fodder plants, and other inputs available to the farmers. Bihani links up Community agrovet entrepreneurs like Kamala with the whole community where the services are localized and delivered to the needy farmers. Bihani dairy cooperative explores how farmers’ dairy can be commercialized through product diversification, packaging and marketing realizing limitless opportunities for the farmers products. Bihani Dairy invests most of the money it earns back into the community, with the rest reserved for further improvements for the business. The group also used some of its funds to create low-interest loans for struggling farmers. Heifer International believes farmer-centered agricultural value chains, like the dairy chain leveraged by the women of Bihani, are a critical pathway to help vulnerable people provide nutritious food for their families and communities while earning a fair wage for themselves. Heifer works with smallholder farmers through cooperatives by localizing the services that ensure access to inputs, access to animal health services, access to finance, access to markets etc. which is key to empower the smallholders as a major contributor in agriculture-based economy. What does it mean for Nepal? More than half of Nepal’s population makes its living from agriculture, yet most farmers only own an acre of land. All agriculture development priorities are targeted to commercialize agriculture which has resulted in government policies that will only benefit the few numbers of well-off entrepreneurs who qualify. The smallholders hardly benefit from the agriculture development and commercialization plan as they cannot qualify with the prerequisites for efficient systems, consistent supply and mass production. But huge results can be achieved in agriculture development in Nepal where 70 percent of the population is regularly engaged in agriculture if the policies are intended to build efficient production and consistent supply through production by mass. Heifer International Nepal has always believed in smallholder women as the powerhouse for agriculture development leading to economic transformation. Heifer is currently working through 255 cooperatives with 300,000+ smallholder’s families where there are women like Kamala in each family.

The tunnel farming in permanent plastic poly houses managed by the Belauri IPM farmers group in Belauri-4 of Kanchanpur has become an example in the area with the produce that has been growing there.  15 members including six females of the group are now involved in the new technology of tunnel farming with the support of the Enhanced Action of Inclusive CSOs for Participation in Climate Resilient Economic Growth (UTHAN) Project of DCA funded by the European Union and working to enhance the actions of inclusive CSOs for participation in Climate Resilient Economic Growth since 2020 in four municipals namely Dullu and Aathabis in Dailekh, and Belauri and Laljhadi in Kanchanpur districts. Khadak Chaudhary, President of the group shares that he has learnt a lot from this new technology and that they are still learning and improvising. “There is a big difference in how we did vegetable farming before and now. This is more organic and healthier, this is all contributing to minimizing threats and adverse impacts of climate change too,” he shares. He shares that this is the first time that vegetable farming has started collectively and that they are very happy with the results. After the group submitted a proposal and got selected, they rented four plots of land from one of the group members. Thereafter they started building the structure and started cultivating organic vegetables. Initially, an investment of NPR 1,162,500 was made by DCA from the UTHAN Project and NPR 3,00,000 by the group. The group members mobilized themselves on a rotation basis. By now, UTHAN Project has supported nine permanent plastic poly houses with drip irrigation sets, mulching and seeds of tomato, cucumber, capsicum and organized vegetable farming training for the group members.  The cucumber that was planted in the first lot grew very well as the group earned more than NPR 87,000 from it. Apart from it, they grew green vegetables like tomato, capsicum, cauliflower and cabbage and they also made money from selling the seedlings of the vegetables. Malika Badayak, another member of the group shares that the new farming techniques have improved their lifestyle in many ways, “With the money we have made selling different vegetables, I have been able to take care of my house expenses, children’s education, and buy new clothes.” The farmers feel that they are now able to take care of the household expenses in a better way and that they have been able to manage with what they are making out from this alone. “This tunnel farming has been very beneficial and effective as the insects cannot enter inside the poly house easily, or else it would be difficult for us to work, and many plants and vegetables were destroyed by them in the open, “explains Malika.  In addition, the farmers are being able to plant seasonal and off seasonal vegetables, they need not plough the field as often as they had to. The introduction of the drip irrigation system has made their life very easy and comfortable as they do not have to carry water from the tap to put in each plant every day, as a result, it saves their time and energy which ultimately helps to reduce the workload for them. Earlier, the members of the group used to cultivate vegetables only in their home gardens, but now, they do it collectively and individually as they have adopted the learnings from here to their household farming styles. “This has taught us a lot. We are now doing agriculture in a climate-friendly way, and we have applied this learning at home. We plan to grow the vegetables in the home gardens of all the members of this group in a climate-friendly way and then to spread public awareness about this technique to other farmers in the village. We want to promote this technology as it is very beneficial and help other farmers avail from it too. We can either do cross learning with different farmer groups or they can join our group,” opines Shiv Prasad Badayak, Secretary of the group. Likewise, Indira Chaudhary, Treasurer of the group explains that the group plans to do more and experiment with different products, “The first season was a success, and we hope that we will make more profit in the coming season. We plan to try growing beans, bitter gourd, capsicum and tomato this time and maybe other different vegetables in the next lot as the plants are much safer here.” The European Union funded UTHAN Project by DCA seeks to enhance the capacity, create an enabling environment and promote participation of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) for Climate Resilient Agriculture (CRA) technologies and practices in selected Palikas of Kanchanpur and Dailekh Districts of Nepal. And this tunnel farming is one exemplary activity to contribute significantly towards carbon emission reduction and generating incomes. The action promotes other climate adaptive and environmentally friendly farming activities while at the same time enhancing the resilience of agricultural systems and people. It involves the application of accessible, affordable, and sustainable technologies, practices, and approaches in managing resources and knowledge bases that support improved farm productivity and profitability.  There are three major result areas targeted by the European Union funded UTHAN Project which are: enhanced capacity of CSOs, promotion of CRA technologies and supporting the establishment of an enabling environment with local governments for the promotion of CRA. Approximately 8,000 farming communities and 80 CSOs are targeted by this three-year-old project.

Dhanamaya BK a resident of Harion Municipality, Sarlahi district is a perfect epitome of women’s leadership working tirelessly to challenge discrimination and create equal opportunities for Dalits through forest governance. The district is located in eastern Chure Terai and the people and biodiversity are highly vulnerable to climate change leading to natural disasters.  This has made life difficult for its residents, including women who are already deprived of equal opportunities to live a better life. Prevailing caste based discrimination against lower caste groups has handicapped them further to access the communal benefits they deserve.  Women among these groups face more discrimination on multiple grounds and have even less opportunities than their male peers. Born and brought up in the same societal construct, Dhanamaya Bishwokarma (BK) also endured numerous forms of discrimination in her village. Because of her poor economic condition, Dhanamaya could never complete her formal education whilst she always had a hope of making a difference in her community.  Twenty five years ago, the forest was bare and degraded. She desires to restore the land and forests. She gets involved in forest management through Pragatishil Community Forest. Since then she worked to restore the land and build bamboo fences. She remembers, “There used to be only river banks around here. With a small child on my lap, I rolled my sleeves up and decided to support my community in building a dam in the village. I felt a firm responsibility to protect my village, so I kept working.” She also encouraged her community to participate in restoring the land. However, the people turn deaf ear to her. The community people never supported her. However, her determination to preserve the forest is so strong that such unwanted utterance did not stop her. Instead it leads her to get more engaged in community and forest based initiatives for climate change adaptation. She participated in various trainings organized by RECOFTC that enhanced her skills, relationships and experience to support her leadership.  Her journey in restoring the forest got new wings when she was elected as the first president of the women led Pragatishil Community Forest User Group (CFUG). It had energized her more to achieve what she has always dreamed of giving back to her community through forest management. Her initial days as a leader of the institution was pretty tough as the members of her CFUG were a high caste group which always came up as a hindrance while making decisions for her group. “I heard people saying why we would listen to a dalit woman’s saying. What would we gain following her footsteps?” Time passed by, Dhanmaya continued her selfless effort and was slowly recognized by her community and started to gain the recognition that she deserved. Now, the community forest users say, without her, the CFUG  functioning is beyond imagination. Working within her community and managing forest resources for the last 15 year was not the limit for Dhanamaya, following her achievements as president of Pragatishil CF, Dhanamaya with the confidence of her villagers and her community, she decided to compete in the first local election or Democratic Republic of Nepal as a ward member in 2015.  Dhanamaya won the election as a ward member of Harion Municipality with majority of votes on her side. The landscape of the political scenario and Dhanamaya’s good deeds eventually got tangible recognition from her villagers.  People who once tried to dominate her as a Dalit now call her as ‘Dhanamaya Ji’. She explains with her tearful eyes, “I did not start working in my community forest to become a leader nor to gain a higher position to benefit myself. It is self-driven work to support my community where I stay. Generating income from forests is secondary, what is more important is to maintain forests for future generations. The forest now protects against impacts of climate change and improves the livelihoods of the community too. I am glad that I could contribute to preserve my forests and natural resources and transfer them for my future generation.” “The society needs more Dhanamaya” echos, former Mayor (2015-2020) of Harion Municipality. She was a shy person when she first came in as elected representative from her community, she only worked within her small group of people, now she is an example within her community. It’s a fairytale for her, but it's not just by luck, she earned it. Dhanamaya continues to lead beyond her community forest.  In the recent local election 2022, she is one of few re-elected representatives in Harion Municipality. As an experienced campaigner, she is now also nominated in the municipal council. ‘The responsibility is greater than ever. I have no room to disappoint my community and my people and I am energized as ever and I think this is just the beginning’  Dhanamaya’s journey has inspired and paved the way for other women from her community to dare to dream and put on the selfless effort to make their dreams come true. RECOFTC Nepal working with grassroots women dependent on natural resources is continuously supporting such a leadership journey to secure land tenure and resource rights, govern and manage their lands and improve their livelihoods. 

Ramita, child champion and chairperson of municipal level child club network from Kalikot. Presently I am studying in grade 12 at Shree Mahadev Secondary School. I have a huge family of 11 including father , mother Amrita  with six siblings, a sister-in-law, and a baby nephew. My mother is a member of the executive committee in Subhakalika RM and my father is a farmer.  As a child, I was very shy and introverted. I did not have many friends because I did not express myself freely with anyone. I was only comfortable with my family. Everything changed in 2019 when I joined the adolescent girl’s group and child club of our ward (number 4) which was formed by Karnali Integrated Rural Development and Research Center (KIRDARC). I did receive so many training and capacity-building programs along with my other friends in the club. The training was mainly on child rights, protection issues, issues of violence against children, Chaaupadi (mal-practice of staying in the shed during a menstrual period), and anti-child marriage campaigns. We have successfully organized rallies on the reduction of child marriage, violence, child labor, and other issues. I took the lead of our adolescent girls group in conducting various activities such as intergenerational dialogue in our community where issues on menstrual taboos, nutrition, personal hygiene, and domestic violence were discussed. Soon after a year, I got promoted as chairperson of the Palika level child club network and eventually became a child champion. Later in 2020 I received important training in Child Journalism and Media and got the opportunity to work as a child journalist. Applying the learnings of the training, I took interviews and wrote news on good initiation of the children on tree plantation for Community Information Network (CIN). As a child champion, I was provided with a tablet by the project to showcase videography on the impacts of Child marriage and a voice recorder to collect original audio voices of the community. I am advocating for the proper reporting mechanism for child marriage cases, violence-related issues, sharing the news with different stakeholders, and Community Information Network (CIN) via an online platform. I also participated in 5-days virtual training on life skills through this tablet. With the support and coordination with WCRC, police, KIRDARC, and the child club network, I was successful in stopping four child marriage cases formally. Our child club network also has conducted 16 days of activism regarding women’s violence. The bi-monthly meeting is conducted every month in Palika where work achievements, challenges/solutions, and action plans are developed accordingly. During the rise of the covid pandemic, our child club network conducted a door-to-door cleanliness and sanitation program to make people aware of safety measures and precautions against coronavirus. As a child champion and anti-marriage child campaigner, I have been advocating for the rights of the children, protection issues, the child marriage impact, and the Chaupadi system. In the recent historical event in December 2021, three wards of Suvakalika Rural Municipality of Kalikot, wards number 6, 7, and 8 were declared Child Marriage Free Zone. I got a golden opportunity to express my gratitude and share the achievements of our work as I received a special invitation from Palika at these declaration events. In the event, I urged and encouraged my peers to increase their participation/leadership in the local level planning process like myself. I provided my recommendations that the strategies developed during the declaration should not be limited to paper only but also implemented well as it is our common responsibility to adhere to this declaration. I was the first young girl ever from Palika to receive such an invitation. I was obliged as it was a matter of great honor to me. I, along with my other fellow child champions and members of the Palika level child club network, was actively taking part in joint monitoring to make these declaration events successful. We provide our recommendations and ensure that the budget is well allocated in the sector of Children and Women. In the current year, Subhakalika RM has allocated the budget for NRs. Ten lakhs and sixty thousand ($8875.39) by ward in the children sector and established a child emergency fund from the same. Never had I thought that I would be the person that I am today. I feel very proud of how far I have come and what I have achieved so far that I cannot express in words. I have become so outspoken and my interpersonal communication skills have enhanced. If I were the same Ramita from three years ago facing you, I would have freaked out right now and probably ran away covering my face with my shawl. Even though I have been actively working in multi-positions right now, I want to keep continuing my studies together. Girls younger than my age get married early and regret it later in their lives. Boys younger than me go to India leaving their schools behind to earn money. Therefore, I want to pursue a career in Law and study Bachelor’s in Law (LLB) after completing my +2 as I dream of advocating for the rights of children, adolescents, women, people with disability, and other social issues. I want to be the voice of the unheard, poor and marginalized community about child rights and the impacts of child labor and early child marriage on their future, their dreams, and individual health. Presently there are 38 child champions like Ramita in different Palikas where KIRDARC is implementing the project. All of them have participated in Child Journalism training and also 10 child champions are provided mobile tablets along with preloaded multimedia content for awareness-raising and pre-installed virtual meeting platforms/apps. A Code of conduct is signed by each of them to use it wisely. The online safeguarding tool (Safe Kids of Kaspersky) is linked. Child champions, adolescent groups, and child club members are the heroes of the project. The project has equipped them with child journalism training, awareness-raising training as well as regular meetings. etc.

The dZi Foundation (pronounced ‘zee’) was founded in 1997 with the vision of empowering local visionaries and communities to reach their true potential by implementing sustainable development programs. The organization follows a model of community-led development that emphasizes local control over project plans and outcomes in these extremely needy areas of eastern Nepal.  We are invited to work in our partner communities, and we commit to working together by providing financial, technical, and managerial support until we have achieved our shared goals. Community members lead the development of projects at every step, ensuring the sustainable use, maintenance, and continuation of completed projects after the support ends. Over the past two decades, the dZi Foundation has grown to become one of the most dynamic and well-respected organizations working in the Himalayas and has attracted international attention for our work. Here, among a plethora of success stories over the years, we share three stirring accounts of our work in our partner communities: In April 2021, the Covid-19 pandemic led to a nationwide lockdown in Nepal. The Delta variant was spreading throughout the country and communities acted quickly to protect the most vulnerable residents and limit transmission. For over four months, schools were closed.                While millions around the globe had adapted to continue their education virtually, dZi’s rural partner communities were dealing with a much more complicated reality. A lack of access to computers, the internet, and even a reliable cell phone signal made virtual classes unrealistic for students. But as local science teacher Binod Dahal witnessed, students were beginning to lose their academic progress and the educational disparities between urban and rural Nepal were growing even larger. Binod knew he needed to do something to support his students, and quickly. That’s when dZi introduced the Ideas Fund. Created by dZi’s Quality Education program, the Ideas Fund invites teachers in our partner communities to submit grant proposals for creative ways to engage students who have limited access to technology. Binod submitted his proposal, and soon after, heard that dZi had selected his proposal for funding! He had a vision of small groups of students safely gathering in their neighborhoods to study, share knowledge, and create the sense of community that felt so absent during the lockdown. Binod trained eight older secondary school students to conduct classes for younger primary school students.   In a time when traditional teaching methods couldn’t serve students’ needs, dZi knew that local teachers were best suited to find a solution. With dZi’s support and Binod Dahal’s creativity, we created a student-led teaching program that provided educational assistance and a sense of community to 120 students during Nepal’s Covid-19 lockdown. Making a long-term commitment to Khartamchha’s prosperity  “We are one of the most remote villages in the region,” says 41-year-old Gururaj Rai of Khartamchha.  Khartamchha is a new community that dZi will partner with this year. Nestled in the foothills of Eastern Nepal, Khartamchha grapples with a variety of challenges, from unsafe drinking water to the need for earthquake-safe schools.  Central to the dZi Foundation is our holistic approach—we are invited into every community we work in. From our first day, we team up with residents to ensure we provide what they need to grow their skills, capacity, and resilience. Gururaj looks forward to the support of dZi’s agriculture program. “Our farmers have been using traditional methods of farming,” he says. “We do not have much innovation in the kind of crops we grow.”   He says he welcomes a partnership with dZi so his community can build a brighter future by learning how to grow cash crops such as ginger, garlic, turmeric, and kiwis. And he envisions dZi’s impact throughout the community—from bolstering food security, to building new taps for safe drinking water, to constructing new earthquake-safe schools to improve education. In the recent election, Gururaj was elected the Vice President of the Kepilasgadhi Rural Municipality, the municipality where Khartamchha lies. As an elected official in the local government, Gururaj looks forward to building a strong partnership with dZi for Khartamchha’s prosperity.  Sometimes a bridge is more than a bridge.  Deep in the mountains in the district of Bhojpur is the village of Chyaksila. For years, the only way for children to get to school was to cross a fast, rushing Ghattekhola river. One of the grandfathers in the village would build a wooden bridge so the kids could cross safely, but it was washed away every year during the monsoon rains.  The grandfather would rebuild the bridge, again and again, only to have it torn apart by the river’s dangerous currents. The thing this grandfather wanted most was to send his grandchildren and their friends to school—was an ongoing source of fear. That’s where dZi came in. We listened to the community’s needs and worked together to build a permanent, safe bridge across the river, connecting an isolated neighborhood to the village’s school. All the people in Chyaksila are so grateful for this new bridge. That grandfather, and all the village’s 60 or so families, can now endure the monsoon a little easier, knowing their children are safer and have access to education.