Nepal

Blog Post:  Posted April 29, 2010, 2:05 pm by Jenny Hanley

Making Disaster Risk Reduction a reality

Country: Nepal

Topics: Emergencies

Prior to attending Mercy Corps’ five day workshop on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in Nepal, I had never heard of the Hyogo Framework for Action, a legal framework that demonstrates a commitment made by 168 countries to support DRR. Along with 11 Mercy Corps staff from nine countries around the world — including China, Haiti, Tajikistan, Georgia, Myanmar, Niger, Indonesia, East Timor and host country Nepal — we gathered in Kathmandu to learn from one another regarding the current DRR programmes that we implement, how to improve our capabilities and the international standards/commitments for DRR.

Why are and should Mercy Corps staff be interested in DRR? It’s simple. Mercy Corps works with communities in countries that are vulnerable to disasters, that have limited capacity to respond and are therefore at increased risk.

According to the Centre for Research of the Epidemiology on Disasters, the world is facing an unprecedented scale of disasters. Nearly 25 percent of the world’s landmass and nearly 75 percent of its population is at risk and as such we need to protect the most vulnerable. The investment must be made in preparing communities to respond to disaster before it happens, in order to increase communities’ resilience and reduce their vulnerability. In order to protect the development work which the international community and Mercy Corps is engaged in, we should prioritize and support DRR efforts.

The DRR workshop provided a forum for representatives from Mercy Corps country teams to talk about the disasters which affect their communities:

• Nepal is vulnerable to landslides and earthquakes;
• Communities in Indonesia suffered the devastating impact of the tsunami and continue to be susceptible to earthquakes and landslides;
• Myanmar was hit by one of the worst cyclones in history;
• Niger is affected by drought and subsequent food crisis;
• Georgia and Tajikistan are suffering the affects of climate change, with increasing incidents of landslides and flooding; and
• China and Haiti have both recently been hit by earthquakes

Although these disasters vary in magnitude, they have all caused widespread devastation to communities — destroying infrastructure including roads, schools and hospitals, as well as damaging livelihoods and causing loss of life.

Mercy Corps is engaged in DRR by preparing communities, mitigating the risk, advocating and integrating DRR into our development programmes. The opportunity for Mercy Corps country staff to engage in DRR and visit our DRR programming in Nepal will equip field and HQ staff with the knowledge and skills to integrate DRR activities into their own country programmes and better support the communities we work for.

Posted February 24, 2009 by Jarrod Fath

Nourishing Opportunity

Country: Nepal

Topics: Agriculture, Economic Development, Financial Services, Food/Nutrition, Livelihoods, Rural, Women's Empowerment

Phoolmaya Shrestha is known by the kids at the nearby school for her wonderful chakpati, a snack made of dried, puffed rice, spices, oil and vegetables. At snack time, they run to her small roadside stall perched on a cliff in the hills of eastern Nepal. It sounds idyllic — and the landscape is indeed magnificent — but this is one of Nepal's poorest places and Phoolmaya is selling chakpati just to keep her family afloat.

Her home is Ilam district, an area just over the border from India's famed Darjeeling tea region. Ilam district grows wonderful tea in its own right — in fact, tea is one of the area's primary sources of income. But if you are not a tea estate owner, there are few opportunities to cash in and so making a living is a constant struggle.

Many residents work many small jobs to make ends meet. To supplement her husband's small income as a security guard, Phoolmaya grows rice and corn for the family to eat, sells a little ginger and tends her small store whenever she has a chance.

For a long time, she was also interested in buying a dairy cow. Phoolmaya knew that a cow would provide extra income, as well help satisfy their nutritional needs. She tried for a while to take out a commercial loan to buy a cow, but had no success.

The women's lending group that she was a part of could never mobilize the savings to lend her enough to buy a cow. And her husband was repeatedly rejected by the local Agriculture Development Bank because he did not have enough collateral.

And then Phoolmaya heard about Nirdhan Uttan Bank, a Nepali micro-credit lender supported by Mercy Corps and the Whole Planet Foundation, through friends and relatives. She was nominated by her lending group to be the first person to receive a loan and purchased a pregnant cow.

Just ten days later, the cow gave birth and is now producing ten liters of milk per day. The income from the morning milking covers her loan repayments, and she also has a few hundred rupees to spare. The milk from the night milking is consumed by the family or sold for additional income.

At the end of the year, her loan will be paid back — and she plans to raise the new calf, so she will have two dairy cows.

It may seem like small change, but it's an opportunity. And, here in eastern Nepal, every little bit helps.

Posted December 8, 2008

Helping Poor Farmers

Country: Nepal

Topics: Agriculture, Economic Development

In Nepal today, more than half the population has no access to even the most basic financial services. In rural areas, farming families are trapped in cycles of debt and are often forced to sell their crops at below market rates, further slipping into poverty. Even when financial services are available, the products rarely suit the unique needs of farmers.

Mercy Corps, with generous support from the Whole Planet Foundation, is teaming up with Nirdhan Utthan Bank, a Nepali-owned microfinance institution, to help farmers escape this vicious cycle by providing them with tailored financial products such as loans to help them escape debt and climb out of poverty.

With a grant of £187,200, Mercy Corps and Nirdhan Utthan Bank will distribute £2 million worth of loans to 10,000 poor farmers in eastern Nepal over the next three years. In addition to providing the farming community with desperately needed sources of credit, this programme will serve as a successful financial model for providing financial services to remote, rural populations in Nepal and around the world.

Unshackling Potential:

Posted November 26, 2007 by Roger Burks

The Last Girl In School

Country: Nepal

Topics: Children, Economic Development, Education, Peaceful Change

As school began again this year, Anita Chaudhary was prepared to spend back-to-school day as she had for the last few years: at home. She was certain that, once again, she'd watch from the doorway of her family's tiny house as dozens of neighbour children passed by on their way to class.

Her family — mother, father and five children including herself — is perhaps the poorest in the village of Bichpuri, Nepal. Their garden plot, leased from the local landlord, is meagre: perhaps the length and width of an average residential driveway in the United States. The Chaudhary family depends on the vegetables they grow here for year-round sustenance. There is nothing left to sell for additional household income.

Anita's father finds work when he can, mostly as a day laborer for local farmers during planting and harvest seasons. At other times of the year, it's nearly impossible for him to earn a regular wage: as a member of the area's Tharu ethnic group, he is looked down upon, an outcast.

Today, as always, 12-year-old Anita was up by 6 A.M. to help her mother with the morning chores: feeding the cows, washing the dishes and cleaning the house. Her father had left before sunrise to seek work for the day. But instead of tending the garden, by 7 A.M. she is dressed in a crisp, clean uniform, on her way to a morning study group. From there, she would walk with her friends to school in the neighboring village.

It turns out — thanks to her fellow youth in Bichpuri — that this year would be unlike any other for Anita. This year, she wouldn't be the one left behind.

Seeing a need

For the past few years, many members of Bichpuri's village youth council had walked by Anita's house on their way to school and seen the lonely girl standing there, glancing from her doorway.

"She was the only person her age in the village not attending school," said 21-year-old Uday Raj Chaudhary, president of the council. "Everyone should have the opportunity to learn. So our group met and decided to do something."

Uday and the other 48 members of the council — whose ages range from 16 to 30 — discussed the situation, pooled their own money and sent representatives to speak with Anita's family. They offered to pay the 500 Nepalese rupee (£4) enrollment and 300 rupee (£3) monthly tuition, as well as the cost for uniforms and other fees. Anita's mother and father happily accepted.

Public school in Nepal is supposed to be essentially free of cost. However, a lack of government resources has led to overcrowded classrooms and an unmanageable teacher-to-student ratio. The school that Anita attends has 500 students, but only 15 teachers. As a result, communities bear the cost of hiring additional teachers for local schools — fees that are often passed on to poor families who can't afford to spend any more.

Children in many neighboring villages aren't as fortunate as Anita and remain at home as she once did.

Better late than never

Anita attends school from 10 A.M. to 4 P.M. six days a week, Sunday through Friday. Her classes include social studies, history, Nepali language, and science. Her favorite course is math. Why?

"Because I'm good at it," she smiled, shyly.

She missed three years of school, so Anita is in third grade, in class with nine- and ten-year-olds. Nevertheless, she is making the best of her opportunity.

"She is a very hard worker," said Uday. "She also helps other students with their work."

Helping is something that Anita aspires to make a career: she wants to continue in school and become a nurse.

"I would like to stay here in my village and care for the people here who fall ill," she explained. "I am happy to have the chance to go to school now. I'm glad that my friends here put their trust in me, and I will always remember their kindness."

Unshackling Potential:

Posted November 26, 2007 by Roger Burks

Optimism and Action Transform a Village

Country: Nepal

Topics: Peaceful Change, Education, Economic Development

7:00-8:00 A.M. - High school study group
6:00-7:30 P.M. - Pre-school children’s learning group
8:00-9:00 P.M. - Adult literacy class

In the classroom just beyond, a couple dozen children — aged three to seven — sit and learn about the alphabet, numbers and reading. Even as the sun is setting, they sing songs and play word games by flickering lantern light.

But this isn't a school; it's the half-finished second story of a modest house in the village of Bichpuri. And the teachers are young themselves, most of them between 16 and 22 years old.

The teachers, who also created and organise classes here in Bichpuri, are participants in the Youth Initiative and Reconciliation Initiative supported by Mercy Corps and its local partner, Backward Society Education (BASE). They are part of a network of more than 30,000 youth in 820 villages with one goal: education and opportunities to create an exploitation-free society in Nepal.

"We want to help develop our village, our people and our country," said 21-year-old Uday Raj Chaudhary, president of the Bichpuri village youth council.

They're making sure that no one is left out, from the youngest to the oldest. And they're paying for that change largely from their own pockets.

Trees for literacy

The youth in Bichpuri, a small village nestled in a forest several kilometers from the main road, originally started afternoon classes to help them in their own schoolwork. These study sessions helped many of them to become among the first generation of the Tharu ethnic group to graduate from high school.

They wanted to give back. So now they're sharing that learning with everyone.

"Practical education — like the classes we're teaching — is a way to help the Tharu people get out into broader society," said Chaudhary, who is enrolled in business classes at a local college. For adults — those in the class range from 25 to 50 years old — practical education means learning about rights, such as voting, as much as it does mastering the essential skills of reading and writing.

Classes aren't free in Bichpuri: the high school study group costs 175 Nepalese rupees, about £2, a month. This fee helps ensure that students will attend and take their work seriously.

The adult literacy classes cost only 100 Nepalese rupees — approximately £1 — for a full 12-month course. Costs for the adult classes, partially taught by a professional teacher hired by the village youth council, are actually much higher than what the students pay.

Bichpuri's youth are picking up those extra costs.

They're cultivating a tree nursery and gardens to earn income for the group's activities, including the classes they're sponsoring. Sales of plants, seeds and vegetables have so far brought in more than 14,000 Nepalese rupees — about £120 These revenues are tracked closely in ledgers, which the council members are quick — and proud — to show visitors.

Equal-opportunity activism

The village youth council, which consists of 26 women and 23 men, holds at least two meetings each month to review its activities and decide what needs to be done to help neighbors lead healthier, more productive lives. On the day I visited, the council had just finished an emergency meeting to make a loan to a poor local family whose infant has pneumonia. With that money, the council most likely saved a life.

Future projects the council would like to pursue — when it has earned more money — include building latrines, sponsoring football tournaments and improving local roads.

The council is also helping a girl from the village — 12-year-old Anita Chaudhary — attend school. Her family is perhaps the poorest in Bichpuri, unable to pay for school fees, uniforms and books. The council has given her a scholarship so that she can finally go to classes.

"Women should have better opportunities in our society," said Uday Raj Chaudhary. "It starts with school. They also participate in our group to have a chance to voice their own issues and concerns.

"After all, we're all in this together."

Unshackling Potential:

Posted November 26, 2007 by Roger Burks

Rising From Violence

Country: Nepal

Topics: Economic Development, Education, Peaceful Change

The attackers came in the blaze of daylight on August 25, carrying a dead body inside the first of a procession of cars. They parked their Jeeps and motorcycles along the side of the blacktop highway, descended from their vehicles and rushed 50 feet into the makeshift village. They lit torches as they neared the simple bamboo-and-thatch huts.

Most of the village's men were away, working as day laborers during the busy harvest season. The women and children were no match for the dozens of young and middle-aged men now in their midst. The strangers set fire to their homes.

Those who didn't run away were pushed, beaten and kicked. There was a mad scramble to find and gather children to flee. The flames were intense, consuming everything each household contained. The smoke choked escape routes and stung searching eyes.

Santoshi Chaudhary, 20, had two children — one two years old, the other only a month old — to carry from the unfolding horror.

"It was a very scary situation," she said, cradling her youngest. "We ran into the sugar cane fields to hide. When we came back — after we thought they were gone — there was nothing left."

In this place, the temporary home of freed bonded laborers, there had not been that much to begin with.

Freed, but evicted

The village of Geti, near the town of Bijaura in western Nepal, is home to about 275 people from the Tharu ethnic group. They're all former bonded laborers whose families worked on the plantations of a government minister for many years. They were liberated from forced servitude four years ago — a full year after the Nepalese government mandated their release.

"We were freed by our master, a very powerful and wealthy man, but he demanded that we immediately leave his farm," Chaudhary explained. "We had no land where we could live."

The families stayed together and, after a few stops in large camps occupied by other displaced former bonded laborers, came to this place: a swath of government-owned land surrounding a small local health clinic. They crafted crude but sturdy houses out of natural materials like bamboo, mud and grass and planted staple crops in small patches between the clinic and the blacktop highway.

For nearly four years, the families in Geti led a difficult but manageable existence. There was no school around for the children to attend, but the men found work on nearby farms. During harvest season, they could make as much as 100 Nepalese rupees a day — the equivalent of £1 It seemed like a lot of money to families that had never been paid for their work.

A local organisation, Backward Society Education (BASE), even came to install seven hand pumps for the village — one pump to supply clean, fresh water for every six families.

But then, in the late summer swelter of August, everything suddenly changed.

Rebuilding from nothing

The strangers burned everything. They injured 11 people, including women and elderly men. The attackers, who represented higher-caste residents of the area, including former landlords of bonded laborers, claimed that their actions were retribution for the death of one of their own in a car accident on the highway that runs near Geti village.

They even brought the body as proof — but proof of what?

In the immediate aftermath, there were no answers. No one in the village was remotely responsible for the accident, but nonetheless they were homeless once again.

Local youth were determined to make amends for that injustice. Within a week of the attack, more than a hundred youth from the Youth Initiative for Peace and Reconciliation (YIPR) programme arrived at Geti village to help the families rebuild. They weren't prompted by either Mercy Corps or its partner, BASE — they showed up completely of their own accord to help.

The youth, particularly those from the Gyanodaya village youth council, helped the displaced villagers gather materials — soil, straw, stone, and wood — to reconstruct their houses. By September 2, they had worked side by side to finish 14 houses.

On September 6, not even two weeks after the village had been completely burned down, all 46 houses had been rebuilt.

What took place on August 25 shows that there is still a long road to acceptance in western Nepal. What happened in the days after that, however, demonstrates that there is reason to hope.

"The youth came when we needed help most," Chaudhary said, "and for that we'll always remember them."

Unshackling Potential:

Posted November 26, 2007 by Roger Burks

Change Begins Within

Country: Nepal

Topics: Economic Development, Education, Peaceful Change

More than 20 years ago, a 14-year-old Nepalese student began a movement to free his people — and succeeded. Today his organisation is partnering with Mercy Corps to ensure not just freedom, but opportunity.

In 1984 that young man, whose name is Dilli Chaudhary, founded Backward Society Education (BASE) to stand up for the rights of Nepal's marginalised Tharu ethnic group. The son of a bonded laborer, Chaudhary had personally suffered the persecution of the bottom of the caste system. Thousands of his native Tharu people, among the original inhabitants of western Nepal's lowland Terai region, had been in quasi-slavery to higher caste landlords for years.

Isolation and a lack of understanding about their rights in a broader society kept the Tharu bonded laborers at a disadvantage, trapped within the confines of their landlords' farms. Chaudhary believed that organising bonded laborers and making them aware of their rights would result in empowerment — and change.

He began this epic task through a seemingly innocuous activity: literacy classes for bonded laborers. The classes began with 34 members. Within three years that number rose to 350, and by 1989 there were 80 literacy classes operating in 40 Tharu villages. People were learning that change was possible.

Achieving freedom

In 1991, when Nepal transitioned from an absolute monarchy to a more democratic regime, Chaudhary registered BASE as a legal entity — and, with a large base of Tharu supporters, began the hard work of advocating for the freedom of thousands of bonded laborers. BASE organised peaceful protests and lobbied the Nepalese government, enlisting the assistance of international and local organisations to raise awareness around the region.

Chaudhary's efforts were rewarded in February 2002, when the Nepalese government outlawed the kamaiya system of bonded labour. Thousands of Tharu were released from servitude but then forcibly evicted from the land where they lived and worked.

In an instant, families went from slavery to displacement. BASE and its partner organisations moved quickly to help shelter, feed and care for them, but a relief situation was untenable for the long term. The Tharu would once again have to adapt to an intolerable reality.

Once again, Dilli Chaudhary and BASE responded with a plan: change the Tharu from within by working with humanitarian organisations from around the world.

Confronting continued challenges

In 2006, BASE partnered with Mercy Corps to launch the Youth Initiative for Peace and Reconciliation (YIPR) programme. The two organisations shared a common goal for the Tharu and other marginalised ethnic groups in western Nepal: the creation of an exploitation-free society through peace-building and community development.

Just as the programme's name implies, the chief catalyst for the partnership's work is youth — and the challenges are considerable. Across Nepal, more than 38 percent of the working-age population is under the age of 24. At the same time, Nepal's unemployment rate is at least 42 percent, and the national literacy rate is less than 50 percent.

Because of the lingering effects of lifelong bonded labour, a decade-long conflict and the prejudices of the caste system, the Tharu people are near the bottom of these already-discouraging statistics. For the most part unschooled, they have no ready entry into Nepal's workforce.

There are also cultural details and traditions that continue to keep Tharu youth — and especially women — from finishing school.

"We Tharu see a lot of educated but unemployed people around, so we often jump to the conclusion that school is a waste of time," said Dharma Raj Rana, BASE's education coordinator.

"People also think that education interrupts traditional arranged marriages. Tharu boys and girls are often engaged at age 10 but don't know about those arrangements until they're closer to 18," Rana continued. "Meanwhile, the parents have made all of the financial and other arrangements far in advance. These parents oppose school because it breaks down these systems. Youth become choosy and defiant, they say."

"And women are not as free as men — they have to stay around the house," said Shova Thakali, Mercy Corps' YIPR programme officer. "Parents think that, if their daughters are exposed to broader society, they might ‘spoil.' And so they're forbidden to go to school."

Faced not only with the damages of bonded labour and conflict, but also with the constraints of Tharu culture, BASE and Mercy Corps came up with a plan to convince parents — and to involve both young men and women.

Creating equal opportunity while respecting culture

Through YIPR, Mercy Corps and BASE support youth as they seek to find creative alternatives to being drawn into still-lingering conflicts. This is accomplished through helping youth develop conflict management skills, communicate more effectively, have more positive attitudes, and believe in their ability to help promote peace and take part in decisions which affect their lives. This empowerment enables them to take charge of their future, both collectively and individually.

Since unemployment is one of the area's biggest problems, youth are eager to find and start job skills training. Through learning the tools of a trade — such as computer troubleshooting, electronics, automotive repair, or agriculture — they can prepare themselves to start their own businesses and begin to earn a living wage.

There is a distinct effort in the village groups to engage women in a different range of income-earning activities, such as livestock management, fish farming and tailoring. These activities give young women the opportunity to learn valuable skills without forgoing their parents' wishes.

Mercy Corps and BASE currently work with youth groups in 820 villages across western Nepal, helping more than 15,000 youth find better economic opportunities and rebuild peaceful communities. About 35 percent of participants are young women — a number that both organisations are confident will continue to rise.

It is fitting that a movement started by a committed, idealistic 14-year-old named Dilli Chaudhary is now being led by thousands of eager Tharu youth. Literacy classes — for youth and adults alike — are still very much a part of the strategy to succeed. And, with help from Mercy Corps, BASE is creating a new generation of progress: workers, activists and educators that will not only inspire their communities but change their nation.