Submit your Article

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.

Rinku Sada dropped out of school when she was 10 and never thought of going back again. Being a Musahar girl, she faced several barriers to learning, including discrimination from teachers, making her school experience far from positive. Now 12 years old, Rinku is back in a classroom and is a student in grade five, at a local school near her village in Bhokraha, Sunsari. This time, she is determined to continue and is hopeful about being the first in her family to complete schooling.  Rinku is one of 7,600 graduates of Street Child of Nepal’s ‘Marginalized No More’ program. Funded by UK Aid’s Girls Education Challenge, this programme worked with adolescent out-of-school Musahar girls in Mahottari, Dhanusha, Siraha, Saptari and Sunsari in Eastern Terai. Like Rinku, many of our students were first in their families to enroll into school, but were compelled to drop out. Reasons for this, as cited by them, were economic struggle, discriminatory practices against Dalits (especially girls) in school, learning challenges and safety concerns during their journeys to and from school, amongst others. Despite being in their teens, some had never been to school before. Half of the girls could not recognise a single letter in Nepali when they first joined our programme. Street Child of Nepal is an INGO that has been working in Nepal since 2015. Our purpose is to see all children safe, in school and learning—especially in low resource environments and emergencies. Following on from our emergency education response for Nepal in the aftermath of the earthquakes in 2015, we have worked with over 58,000 children in some of the most underrated and underserved communities in the country. Marginalized No More, our flagship programme which ran from 2019 to 2022, is a key milestone in our progress towards fulfilling our purpose. Musahars are recognised as one of the most marginalized ethnic groups in South Asia, because of their “low-caste” and “untouchable” status. As a result of generations of oppression and discrimination, the Musahars rank the lowest in nearly all socio-economic indicators on the Human Development Index (HDI), amongst all groups in Nepal. This marginalization impacts Musahar girls first and foremost, with a very low number being literate and many being out of school at an early age. With strictly limited life opportunities, these girls and their families opt for early marriages, wage labor, and often into bonded labor to support families in paying off large debts. Education is a lesser priority due to everyday hardships that the community endures. Street Child of Nepal’s team of researchers collaborated with Musahars, Musahar women in particular, to carry out an ethnographic study between 2016 and 2018, before launching Marginalized No More in 2019.   Foundational literacy and numeracy for out of school girls was one of the main ambitions of the programme. With partner AASAMAN Nepal, we delivered free, intensive learning using interactive, play-based pedagogy that was uniquely tailored for this group of girls. Students were assessed and assigned to an appropriate learning group with their peers for tutoring and support. Bespoke vernacular learning materials and resources were made accessible to assist their progress. The classes were run in familiar community spaces by locally hired and trained educators, many of whom were Musahars themselves. Often perceived as being “uneducable”, Musahar girls demonstrated a good pace of progress towards their learning goals within the first few months. These education sessions were complemented by separate life skills circles that enabled girls’ acquisition of knowledge on child rights, gender-based violence, local/regional support services, etc. As well as supporting girls back into education, the programme aimed to establish these girls are informed citizens and decision-makers. At the beginning of 2020, as the world grappled with Covid-19, Musahars and other disadvantaged groups like them were at the center of a fast-evolving humanitarian crisis. For Musahars in particular, their vulnerabilities were exacerbated and threatened their survival. Musahar girls bore much of the brunt of this impact. They were at an even greater risk of being subjected to domestic abuse, survival sex, transactional sex and dangers of exploitation, as households struggle to make ends meet due to excessive economic strains.  Strict movement restrictions meant that classes had to be stopped abruptly. However, despite the challenges, together with our excellent local partners AASAMAN Nepal, Janaki Women’s Awareness Society (JWAS) and Group of Helping Hands (SAHAS), we initiated weekly well-being checks through phone calls. This was a medium for girls to raise any urgent concerns. Psychosocial counseling and needs-based referrals were conducted based on these checks throughout the lockdown periods. As many families faced the risk of starvation during the strictest forms of lockdowns, we also liaised with Musahar organizations and assisted over 5,000 Musahar households with essential food packages as a priority.  Our education team eventually launched our distance teaching and learning programme in July 2020. This was designed to reach learners in the most remote and low-resource environments through the use of simple audio-assisted learning sessions. This method encouraged self-learning, with phone support from educators as needed. As the COVID-19 scenario evolved in the last two years, we continued to adapt our learning approach to ensure best outcomes for Musahar girls. As a result, following completion of the learning programme, girls have achieved notable learning gains – most girls are now able to read paragraphs and stories fluently, as well as perform basic mathematical operations. 3,100 of these girls are now back in schools while 4,500 girls have successfully set up their own small enterprises in their communities as part of our livelihoods support programme. Most importantly, the girls’ and community’s positive engagement and achievements have countered damaging assumptions that “Musahars cannot be educated”.  As the impact of the pandemic continues to intensify existing inequalities, and exaggerates inequities, the need to educate and protect the most vulnerable children remains more critical than ever. Street Child of Nepal remains committed in its efforts to enable children to be safe, in school and learning. 

Plastic pollution is one of the leading sources of environmental pollution, which poses a huge challenge in maintaining a more sustainable environment. Amidst the challenges, even the smallest efforts to refrain plastic from entering the landfill can be a huge help for the environment and the community. Although there are a lot of challenges in plastic issues the environmental impact of PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) bottles and its phenomenal capacity-to-weight makes it the best quality recyclable plastics with a low carbon footprint.​CREASION is a leading national organization working towards establishing a measurable, verifiable PET waste recycling mechanism in Nepal through its project, Recycler Saathi supported by The Coco-Cola Foundation. Since 2019, the project has collected more than 4,000 tons of used PET bottles (around 400 Trucks) for recycling from five provinces of Nepal and has directly worked with more than 4000 waste workers.   Nepal’s waste management infrastructure lacks the capacity to capture and recycle all the plastic waste we generate. We currently rely on local government and the private firms to manage our waste which has caused a gap to tap the additional waste collection that is being generated in the country. Ensuring that waste is correctly collected and managed, protects the environment from plastic pollution and ensures that recyclable materials make their way to the appropriate destination, where they can be progressed into new usable raw materials and products. Along with recycling, Recycler Saathi works in the formalization of the waste ecosystem in Nepal and the livelihood enhancement of the waste workers. By screening the needs of waste collectors and balers,  Recycler Saathi carefully plans and customizes various activities for them. As part of the intervention to ensure good health of our waste workers, Recycler Saathi has organized ten health camps, twenty occupational safety training sessions in the past years along with the distribution of the insurance to the waste workers. Further, to enhance the working efficiency of the balers, capacity building training for them has been organized frequently.One of the important parts is also the behavioral aspect for the waste management. Besides recycling of waste PET bottles, one of the major interventions of Recycler Saathi is advocacy and awareness as well. The drivers of change are children and youth to whom they have been providing awareness and practical sessions on recycling through various programs and activities.  Recycler Saathi has launched Waste Smart Clubs for the  students to receive exposure to and well-rounded knowledge about the waste management scenario. There are a total of 20 waste smart clubs in 20 government schools in Chitwan. In close collaboration with Recycler Saathi, Waste Smart Clubs are exposed to recycling practices as well as made aware about the need to recycle. They are taken for site visits and shown the process of baling, vertical gardening, organic farming and so on. Recycler Saathi has also developed training modules for the local governments for the training on waste management. Till now, the team has given training to 200+ local level elected representatives to date. With a strong value chain, stakeholders’ engagement and the diversion of plastics to the supply chain from landfills and water resources, Recycler Saathi aims to recycle the plastics in Nepal that will help attain the Net Zero Emission by 2045.

Every year, GWT builds two major school projects (16 to 18 classroom builds), over ten school extension projects (2 to 3 classroom builds), about half a dozen major school refurbishment projects and over seventy minor school refurbishment projects. Since 1989, GWT has completed 2,845 such projects across Nepal benefitting 224,522 students. Nearly 1,000 children attending Shree Saraswati Balkalyan Secondary School now face a brighter future. The secondary school, located in the Jhapa District of Nepal, has been completely rebuilt by GWT. Students can now learn in 24 new and improved classrooms, fitted with desks, benches, and bookshelves. As part of the building project, GWT constructed gender-separated toilet blocks and an incinerator. Our team also refurbished the school’s library and canteen and supplied new classroom furniture. Before construction was carried out, the walls of the school were aged and cracked following damage during the devastating earthquake of 2015. The rooms were small and overcrowded, with up to 56 students crammed into one classroom at a time. The roofs had given way and leaked during the monsoon, making it an unsafe environment for the children. Prem Kumar Rai was one of the first students who attended Shree Saraswati Balkalyan when it was founded in 1980. Now, he teaches at the school.  “When the school was first established, the population was very minimal around the area,” he said.  “Our classroom walls were sheets made of bamboo…there was no roof. Whenever we saw thick dark clouds in the sky, the school would have to close.” Although the school had made small improvements over the years, like installing CGI (corrugated iron) roofing, the infrastructure was worn down over time and by Nepal’s unpredictable weather. The new school buildings constructed by GWT will give hundreds of students a safe place to learn, where they won’t have to worry about leaking roofs, dilapidated desks, or cracked walls. “I cannot express how happy I am [with the school],” said Prem Kumar. “The new building will provide an excellent environment.” “These classrooms will motivate students to attend classes and study. This will help the overall development of students: social, mental, cultural, and educational development. This will help them achieve it.”

Life wasn’t at all easy for Kamala Devi 45 years ago, when she was abandoned by her husband. A young girl, barely 18, pregnant and with no husband is not an easy status in a village. She went through trauma, faced financial struggles, heard false accusations and was shunned by the community because she was a single woman with a child. She had no option but to return to her mother’s house in a nearby village.   Kamala is 65 today. Her story has changed and is worth a celebration. The village is proud of Kamala. Thanks to the Saksham (Able) project of UMN. During 2020, a group of ladies from those who were poor, marginalized, of minority groups, people with disability and single women were selected and organized in a group for the project’s Civic Education classes. Kamala was selected too. Kamala learned so much in these sessions and flourished as the chairperson of a woman’s group.  Recently, she successfully led and completed the drinking water construction project within the given time frame. Such projects are commonly led by men in her village, but the village ward office and the group members encouraged her to lead this project. Though it seemed like a daunting task at first, she took up the challenge and worked hard towards its success. None of the women from her group had ever been involved in a community project such as this in the past. She feels happy, confident and proud of her achievement and hopes to spend the rest of her life in community development work. She is also encouraging other women to initiate and lead in community projects. It is encouraging and rewarding to see women like Kamala build their confidence, get involved in village projects, and to see them shine as leaders. There’s no more shame for Kamala; the villagers thank her for getting drinking water to their houses.