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Sita Ghimire (28) lives in the village at Kiranchowk, Gajuri Rural Municipality-8, Dhading. Hers is one of the many families that was affected by the 2015 earthquake. Her family were left to live in a temporary hut as their house completely collapsed. They also did not register for grievances for housing grant as they were not aware about it. The house and a small patch of land were the only property that Sita’s family owned. With the support of DCA, she was connected to the local government from where she was eligible to receive the housing reconstruction support.

Finally, her family was able to rebuild their house and have a roof of their own. However, her needs did not end there as they did not have a regular income to take care of their requirements, major one being her daughter’s education. “One of the main concerns for me and my husband was to have a roof for us and our daughter. It meant that we had a home to stay, security and also a sense of family dignity, but once we could manage that we realized that we had greater responsibility taking care of her education too. The money we earned was not enough to even to rebuild our home completely, let alone provide for her education,” she further adds.

Identifying the gravity of Sita’s needs and situation she was identified and approached for a month-long soft toy/doll making training organized by DCA in collaboration with Dhading and Gajuri Rural Municipality. The objective of the training was to improve the livelihood of vulnerable families who, like Sita, were looking for alternative opportunities for skill and income. Sita learnt many new things in the training as she has never tried doll making before. She learnt cutting, designing, and filling to make different kinds of dolls and upon completion of the training she started making soft toys to sell in the market.

“Whenever I have free time, I make toys as they fetch good prices in the local market. There is a high school near my home, so the students from there mostly buy my toys which has helped with my sales,” informs Sita. “The money I save is being used for my household expenses, buying materials for toy making and my daughters education. I am very encouraged with the result, and I hope to grow this business as it helps me with income and at the same times brings smile in the face of my customers,” she gladly says.

Being a development and humanitarian organization, DCA (a Danish INGO) was active from day one after the 2015 Earthquake to reach the neediest population in hardest hit areas of Nepal. The immediate response started in Lalitpur, Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Dhading, Lamjung and Gorkha Districts, followed by early recovery interventions. In order to have a longer-term development impact and building back better from the devastating earthquake, DCA’s effort continued during the reconstruction phase with the expansion of support to more than 30 earthquake affected districts of Nepal.

The major areas of interventions were on livelihood enhancement in both on and off-farm sector, vocational skills, knowledge and awareness on disaster risk reduction, building the capacity of local government on disaster preparedness, gender issues during and after crisis, among others. Dhading remained as one of the most focused districts, where the support ranges from livelihood, disaster risk reduction, local governance, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), market systems strengthening and tailored support as per the need for the most vulnerable communities in the district, who were pushed back by the earthquake and further challenged by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Following the earthquake in 2015, Caritas Nepal worked to improve lives and uplift people through its various disaster recovery programs. It implemented Nepal Earthquake Recovery Program and Gorkha Earthquake Recovery Resilience Program to facilitate holistic recovery in 16 earthquake affected locations in Dolakha, Sindhupalchowk, Kavrepalanchowk, Sindhuli and Dolakha.

More than ten thousand households were trained in livelihood recovery concerns and were provided inputs, and they are re-establishing and improving their livelihoods. The livelihoods pursued are in the sectors of agriculture, livestock raising, and poultry raising. Eight cooperatives have been strengthened and they are providing microfinance services to 6047 households. Soft loans are being provided by the cooperatives to their members to help them pursue economic recovery activities.

Disaster mainstreaming was done in all intervention sectors. Local disaster management committees were formed in eight locations and plans (LDRMP) prepared in two locations. Caritas Nepal facilitated ‘Surakshit Awas Afain Banau Aviyaan’ through which it provided full shelter support package. It included housing grants, social mobilization and technical support. The full shelter packages have reached more than 500 houses in Orang, 600 houses in Bulung, 435 houses in Kalika, and 200 houses in Thokarpa. There are also many beneficiaries of the program in Balthali and Chandenimandan.

The house construction effort was led by 1341 masons trained by Caritas Nepal on earthquake resistant construction and 192 people trained to become masons. When the earthquake struck, Sanjay Tamang, who then studied in the fourth grade, lost both of his parents. His house at Bigu, Dolakha, was also destroyed. Now he has an earthquake resistant stone mud masonry house to live in. He is now living with his grandparents. After such great loss, the new house has given their family hope.

Caritas Nepal has also strengthened the social spirit by introducing other programs to vulnerable groups. Within three years after the earthquake, a total of 2,467 earthquake affected households (12,335 people) had improved access to safe drinking water from 49 drinking water systems constructed by the local User Groups with the financial support of Caritas Nepal. In addition to this, Caritas Nepal also implemented programs that helped provide funds for referral support to more than two hundred people suffering from psychosocial trauma.

Jhari Prasad Mahato, 50, lives in Gulmeli neighborhood of Madi Municipality, Chitwan. But life hasn’t been easy for Mahato as he faces many difficulties pertaining to his livelihood, especially due to the flooding of local rivers. The Rakteni River, which flows near his neighborhood, gets flooded every monsoon. A few years ago, Jhari Prasad harvested the paddy on his 15 kattha land and was drying it when the flooded Rakteni washed away his whole produce at nighttime.

Similar is the story of Mohan Sah Kanu, 69, who lives in Madi-3, Naya Ratani neighborhood. Kanu, an active member of the local community disaster management committee, grows paddy, wheat and beans. In the past, he has had bitter experiences like sleepless night because of floods in the local river, which washed away his produce ready for harvest. To address this problem, the Government of Japan provided financial assistance of $442,839 equivalent to approximately 50.36 million Nepali rupees, to Shapla Neer Citizens’ Committee in Japan for Overseas Support, an international NGO based in Japan, to work with a Nepali partner NGO, Rural Reconstruction Nepal (RRN), to implement a disaster risk reduction (DRR) strengthening project in Chitwan District.

The grant assistance is being used to strengthen community resilience to disasters in Madi Municipality, one of the flood prone areas, located in Chitwan District under the One River, One Community program. The project has been working in close coordination with local government, stakeholders, and communities and undertaking different activities, including support for capacity development of local government and communities, and establishment and maintenance of disaster reduction infrastructures. The project is also developing capacity of local bodies such as the Local Disaster Management Committees (LDMCs), Ward Disaster Management Committees (WDMCs) and Community Disaster Management Committees (CDMCs) on disaster risk reduction and facilitate the cooperation between these committees and other stakeholders.

 It is supporting the establishment and maintenance of infrastructure such as river widening, gabions and embankments as well as retention walls and drainage systems. The communities are maintaining these structures in cooperation with the local government. Following the implementation of the project, local residents are heaving a sigh of relief. “We can sleep well now. We harvest our agricultural production safely. It makes us happier. There is no damage of household properties including pets,” says Kanu. The house of Madhuri Sah, Madi-5 Basantapur neighborhood was fully damaged by flood of Rakteni River twice within a 10 years period in past.

Many times, her house was safe from flood but household properties and utensils were swept way. The same condition had to be faced every year in monsoon. The project adopted the concept ‘One River, One Community’ covering 14 neighborhoods of river corridor from its up-stream to down-stream area. In the one-and-half years of the project, 2,583 meter long mud dam in river corridors have been built and 40 meter river span in down-stream and 20 meter wider river span in mid-stream area have been widened. A 2,550 meter long gabion embankment has been made in the high risk area of river corridor whereas, a 65 meter long stone masonry wall has been made in the most high risk area of river corridor.

‘One River, One Community’ is a concept to work focusing on a single river and covering entire neighborhoods of that river corridor. Entire neighborhoods from up-stream to down-stream area are considered as a single community. During the time of monsoon, river flood damages from up-stream to down-stream’s neighborhoods. So, to reduce damages of one risk spot, it is found scientifically that the risk is caused by any other area’s landscape. It is important for infrastructure’s design to cover the entire neighborhoods from up-stream to down-stream area of the river corridor based on the flood occurrence mechanism.

It is not only about making infrastructures, but also improving capacity of community people for disaster risk reduction and management. This concept aims to foster the relationship between communities of that river corridor for helping each other. The community played a vital role during construction through their labor and monitoring which have been greatly appreciated.

Nepal Maharishi Vedic Foundation works in affiliation with the International Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education (IFCBE) to introduce highly effective non-sectarian programs that improve educational outcomes, reduce stress and antisocial behavior, increase creativity and intelligence, and unfold the inner happiness of students and teachers of all cultural and educational backgrounds.

The International Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education (IFCBE) is a nonprofit, educational organization that provides practical, scientifically validated educational programs, technologies, and consulting services for new schools, existing schools, and after-school organizations. IFCBE offers Consciousness-Based Education(CBE) to enliven the full creative potential and inner happiness of every student and teacher, eliminate stress, and enliven total brain functioning. The key technologies of this program are the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs.

The Consciousness-Based education program is non-sectarian, and is easily integrated into any public or private school without making extensive changes to the existing curriculum or schedule. When students regularly practice the Transcendental Meditation technique, they begin to learn more easily, think more clearly and creatively, sit and focus on their schoolwork more calmly and enjoyably, and solve problems with less effort. Just as watering the root of a tree improves all parts of the tree—its leaves, flowers, branches, fruits—so this Unified Field technology (Transcendental Meditation), enlivens the Universal Field of Natural Law which nourishes and enlivens life everywhere for the peace and prosperity of everyone.

Regular experience of the Transcendental Meditation program has been shown to dissolve deep-seated stress in the individual, bringing marked reductions in hypertension, stroke, heart disease, and other stress-related illness. When practiced collectively in groups, this same program has been shown to effectively reduce societal stress, and tensions, causing associated reductions in crime and social violence, and an upsurge of peace and positivity throughout the population.

Specifically, published research confirms that collective practice of the Transcendental Meditation program and the advanced TM-Sidhi program, which includes Yogic Flying, by groups of several hundred to several thousand trained experts quickly neutralizes acute societal stress—including the ethnic, religious, and political tensions that fuel violence and conflict. Violence and conflict are thereby averted as tensions are calmed and as the enmity in an adversary is naturally defused.

Accessing and stimulating the most fundamental level of creation—the Unified Field—generates powerful waves of unity and coherence that permeate the collective consciousness of the whole population. The immediate, practical result is markedly reduced crime and social violence, and improved positive trends throughout society. These trends have been extensively researched and are a new phenomenon in the history of the social sciences.

Ipas works globally with a vision that every woman and girl has the right and ability to determine her sexuality and reproductive health. It seeks to expand the availability, quality, and sustainability of abortion and related reproductive health services, as well as improve the enabling environment for the services. Ipas believes that no woman or girl should have to risk her life or health because she lacks safe reproductive health choices. Access to sustainable and safe abortion comprises of various factors and actors cutting across the standalone health lens.

These actors and factors based on the principle of human rights from the onset of programs, policies, and projects formulate a sustainable ecosystem. The introduction of the human rights-based approach to health aims to realize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (right to health) and other health-related human rights through the interrelated and essential elements of availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality (AAAQ).

To achieve balance and ensure a committed, responsive system for abortion care, Ipas is implementing a project called ‘Strengthening the Safe abortion Ecosystem in Nepal’ in line with Ipas Sustainable Ecosystem Framework, a dynamic condition by local stakeholders addressing multiple components to truly meet women’s safe abortion service needs keeping women centered care in the center of the program.

Intertwined with the programming components are the existential gender and social norms which might act as restraining or driving forces for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services. In addition to the prevalent social norms and knowledge among women, there are “other” factors or actors which might hinder the efforts to increase utilization of SRHR services by women and girls. It was felt important to understand the impact of such forces which are interlinked to the smooth implementation of program and increase access to services.

For this, Ipas used Force Field Analysis (FFA) and Social Norms Analysis Plot (SNAP) approaches to identify the associated social norms and other factors on selected program districts. The FFA provided the overall power structure and the position (agency, structure, or relations) where the power is stored to understand its navigation towards the positive or negative side for SRHR and safe abortion. SNAP helped to analyze how this power influenced the continuity of the harmful social norms.

In simple terms, by creating an inter-connectivity between both the tools, FFA helped Ipas develop a strategy regarding who and how it should work with, while SNAP helped us dissect the social norms that are inhibiting or driving these forces of power and implement the demand side activities and messaging. Two clusters from the interventions Palika of Province Lumbini and Sudurpaschim were selected. The clusters were selected based on the principle of social inclusion (marginalized and vulnerable areas) geographically remote and hard to reach for services.

The FFA was conducted with community women and girls of reproductive age whereas SNAP was conducted with the same participants from FFA along with the Men and Boys group 4 FFA and 3 SNAP tools were used in each selected areas. The findings of the study were crucial in identifying the areas of gender and social norms integration and guiding the pathway of the programs.

I am a former drug addict. But that’s my past. I have now started a new life thanks to Narconon Nepal Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Center. I currently work as the head of administration of this center and have been away from drugs for more than five years. At times, I don’t want to even remember the old days. I understand that I have to move on now. Back in the days, my drug addiction brought nothing but sorrow, tears, failure, guilt, anger and pain to me and everyone around me.

I had completed by Masters’ degree, taught at colleges and worked at financial institutions. I even cleared the bank exams. My family was proud to see all this, but deep inside only I knew that I was a drug addict. I thought I could manage my life even with drugs, but things didn’t go as planned. I was unable to sleep due to the drugs. In a short time, I lost weight, and I couldn’t even carry on with my daily life. Mentally, I felt numb, and it was very difficult for me to take decisions. My behavior and wrong decisions caused a lot of pain to my family. My intellectual skills also waned as I couldn’t make the most of my education and experience.

I felt stupid and continued to push my life towards death and darkness. Luckily, I came to Narconon Nepal. My family did not know about the correctional center. Now they understand that a correctional center is for those who want to get rid of their addiction just like hospitals and clinics are for those who want to get rid of their ailments. My family selected the world famous Narconon method and admitted me to Narconon in Budhanilkantha.

Narconon centers are located in 42 places in the world. There are eight main stages in the Narconon program, developed by the American philosopher L Ron Howards. The first step is to handle learning problems and physical ailments. In the second stage, you read in depth why you should not take drugs. The third part of the six-month course covers how to control the body and the mind. The fourth deals with how to get rid of drugs; the fifth teaches how to recognize and leave bad friends, and the sixth deals with how to be honest and ethical. The seventh step is about how to study effectively and the eighth is on how to improve your life.

After completing the six-month course, you will have taken complete a three-month internship to practice returning to society. I completed the Narconon training well. I increased my ability to say no to drugs forever.

This is my new life and I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Narconon Center and my family for giving me a new life. I will not take drugs again in this life because a drug-free life is more fun, dignified and happy than one with drugs. I apologize to my family, society, workplace and country for my mistake. Now I have dedicated my new life to the task of giving new life to people in trouble.

Bishal Bhattarai is the head of administration at Narconon Nepal Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Center

Jalbarsha Rajbanshi, a resident of Jhapa feels her life has been transformed after she actively participated in programs organized by Jagaran Nepal. Rajbanshi, 37, has been actively participating in activities organized by Gauradha Women Empowerment Group since its establishment. She has managed to continue her study even after her marriage and has even completed her bachelors’ degree.

Born to a normal family, she has worked hard after being involved in WEG. As a result, in less than two years, she has made herself a role model for many women from marginalized communities in her rural municipality. She says, “Because of Jagaran Nepal and its local partner organizations, I got involved in many leadership training programs that have inspired and encouraged me to do better. Through such training, meetings and interaction programs, I learned key leadership skills, especially public speaking. I can now deliver speeches confidently in my community.”

According to her, she gained knowledge about many issues, especially related to politics, economics, women rights through the programs conducted under this project. She says, “Jagaran Nepal has helped transform my life drastically. I was confined to my household chores but after gaining knowledge about the importance of women’s participation in politics, I have been politically active in my community and I believe that political empowerment is necessary tool to bring changes in the lives of women. It provides power to make decisions”.

With hard work and dedication, she was elected as a woman ward member (non reserved seat) in local level election and also won the position of executive member of Gauradaha Municipality. Rajbanshi says that if one is willing to work hard, one can achieve the desired goals. Her work has been appreciated by her community. She is thankful to Jagaran Nepal for conducting such a project that has been able to bring changes in her and many women’s lives. She expresses her commitment to fight against malpractices in the community and contribute to raising awareness for economic and political empowerment of the society, especially women.

The village of Bhawang is home to 45 families. Located in the district of Rolpa, one of the most isolated parts of Nepal. As a result, supplying water to residents there posed some considerable difficulties. Over a decade ago, another organization had attempted to build a water project for Bhawang, consisting of three communal taps. Unfortunately, the taps they built didn’t work all year round, meaning villagers would have to walk for hours to collect potentially dirty water from communal wells and other sources during the dry season.

Following a request for help, Gurkha Welfare Trust built separate taps for each of the 45 homes, providing clean water to everyone. Before the trust began gathering materials and building the pipes and taps, it met representatives of the community to educate them about sanitation and provide tips on how to keep the water source free of contamination and prevent the spread of disease. This is a procedure that the trust applies in the community before the construction phase.

The training also included small changes around the community including waste management and the construction of proper shelter for domestic animals to limit cross-contamination. At first, people were unsure about the new drinking water system; if their current system of three taps didn’t work, then how could the project build 45? To empower the community to take responsibility for their own project after the team leaves, the trust set up a village committee, including a chairperson, secretary and a village hygiene worker. A committee like this helps ensure the sustainability of the project.

Khadga Bahadur Chhetri, the village committee chairperson says, “When construction began, villagers were skeptical about the project. But their doubts disappeared once the taps were complete and the water started running.” The villagers are delighted to have access to clean water right at their doorsteps. Gothi Khatri, a resident from the village, is particularly appreciative of the quality of our work: “We are getting fresh water even in the dry season, I hadn’t imagined this would be possible. There is enough water to drink, wash and maintain cleanliness around the house.” “My daughter Rupa suffered a head injury when she was nine and she is mentally impaired. She can’t use her right hand properly and I need to look after her all the time.” “Before, we had to walk about 30 minutes downhill and walk back an hour uphill to fetch water and I used to be worried as I had to leave her home unattended.” “Now, I don’t have to worry because water is available right on my doorstep.”

Dinisha, an eight-year-old student, now has more time to focus on her school work. “I can now do my studies as well as help my mum in household chores. With a tap near our house, we don’t need to spend time in fetching water; I have more time for studies.” Mother of two, Rupmali Dangi no longer has to bring her young children along on dangerous journeys: “My husband has gone to Malaysia and I have an eight-year-old son and a two-year-old daughter (Bhumika).” “In the past, my daughter was small, I could not leave her alone in the house, so I used to carry my baby, walk half an hour, collect water and carry them both back uphill for an hour. “ “Now I don’t have to, I have a tap right in front of my house.”