Project Title: Enhancing education, healthcare and economic opportunities for vulnerable groups in Nepal
Project Duration: 5 years (December 2023 - 2025)
Project Location: Kathmandu, Kavreplanchock, Sindhupalchok, Dolakha, Okhaldunga
Donors: The Stichting Nepal and Wilde Ganzen Foundation
Components: The Enhancing education, healthcare and economic opportunities for vulnerable groups in Nepal project will be implemented for a period of 5 years in various districts of Nepal. The project consists of the following 10 components:
Component 1: Support to Nepal Orthopedic Hospital
Component 2: Support to Nepali Entrepreneurs to Exchange Knowledge and Skills
Component 3: Community Based Public Health and Education
Component 4: Strengthen Maitri Griha to Support Intellectual disability children
Component 5: Education Support to Children and Adolescents in Kathmandu and Okhaldhunga districts
Component 6: Small Infrastructure Support to Public Schools
Component 7: Didi Project for Women’s Economic Empowerment
Component 8: Strengthen Children’s Home for Education and Healthcare
Component 9: Establish and Run Child Care Center for Carpet Weaver’s Children
Component 10: Capacity building, monitoring, evaluation and reporting
Component 1: Support to Nepal Orthopedic Hospital: Nepal Orthopedic Hospital (NOH) was conceived as a World Community Service Project of various Rotary Clubs of District 7090 of USA and Canada with Rotary Club of Patan and Nepal Disabled Association as local partners. It is Nepal’s first and only charitable, not for profit orthopedic hospital. NOH aims to provide state of the art modern orthopedic health care to the people of all stages of society in an affordable price. NOH also aims to provide charitable service to the needy people as well. Along the years, modern equipment’s and facilities were added to make NOH a fully functional, 100 bedded orthopedic hospital, catering to the ever-increasing demands for quality orthopedic care. In Year 2020, 62,520 patients were served at Outpatient department, 3,174 orthopedic surgeries were undertaken out of which 1,927 patients were provided partial and full charity services. The services of NOH include: (1) Outpatient and Inpatient services; (2) ICU/ Post-operative care; (3) Extended Hospital service (Paying Clinic/Paying surgery); (4) Surgery; (5) All kinds of orthopedic and trauma surgery with state of art technology; (6) Total Hip and Knee replacement; (7) Physiotherapy; (8) Pharmacy; (9) X-ray (CR/DR); (10) Laboratory Services; (11) Orthotics/Prosthetics Services; (12) Social services; (13) Emergency Service (24 Hours); (14) Free Surgical camps (Outreach health camp); (15) ECHO and Cardiac services; (16) Ultrasound; (17) Bone Densitometry; (18) General Physician Service; and (19) Psychiatric service.
NOH’s motto is to provide service to the under-privileged population since the very beginning. NOH believes that patients should not be deprived from receiving Orthopedic Healthcare services due to their poor economic condition. NOH has made every effort to ensure that charity is offered to the neediest. Charity has been granted in an average to 21% of its patients and which comprises almost 20% of our total revenue. In 2020 NOH provided charity worth NPR 5,021,119 in surgeries to ultra-poor, marginalized and poor people from rural areas. After the devastating 2015 Earthquake, NOH contributed significantly in treatment of the victims and catered to about 10% of the nationwide orthopedic injuries absolutely free of cost. As a corporate social responsibility of NOH, NOH has been organising free of cost orthopedic surgeries camps at various rural districts of Nepal. Many orthopedic trauma and chronic cases patient got benefited. The proposed project will support for treatment of children from poor, ultra-poor patient and marginalized and vulnerable groups admitted at the NOH. Similarly, the project will support to procure new comfortable beds for children getting admitted at Hospital. Likewise, the project will support in providing nutritious diet once a day to a children admitted at Children Ward of Hospital. The project will support in hiring a Part-time Dietician at NOH who can make diet plan to the children admitted at hospital. Furthermore, the project will assist to develop fully equipped children friendly 14 bedded children ward with provision of full time teacher.
Component 2: Support to Nepali Entrepreneurs to Exchange Knowledge and Skills: Diyalo Foundation Technology and Innovation Nepal is part of the affiliation Diyalo Foundation. Part of this affiliation are Diyalo Foundation Netherlands & Diyalo Foundation USA. Every entity is fully authorized and independent. These organisations have a common goal and unite in the execution of the programmes. Representatives of the three organisations sit in Diyalo Foundation International Council. In this council, there is equal representation between the parties. The Government of Nepal (GON) is unable to support innovations and lacks the infrastructure to promote technology-based projects in Nepal. The annual investment of Nepal in Science and Innovation is less than 0.5 per cent of its GDP which is one of the lowest in the world. When channeling this investment through the government channel then a substantially less money reaches to the beneficiary group. For Nepali society, solutions to day-to-day challenges are the priority. The geography is diverse with a significant part being mountainous making it difficult to access. Although the city area and many villages have basic infrastructure, a significant number of villages still lack basic infrastructure like electricity, safe drinking water, and health care. Nepali people have nurtured their culture for centuries by helping each other in communities. In this aspect, Nepali society is socially advanced in terms of positive attitudes and bonding with each other. The proposed project builds technical capacity of youths and supports technical projects and innovations. The project will enhance the technical skills of Nepali youths and empower them to implement self-sustainable technological projects to address local community challenges. The project will open ways for collaboration with international universities and other impactful institutions to support the open sharing of knowledge and information. Similarly, the project will develop and foster entrepreneurial and professional skills of young entrepreneurs. It will support young entrepreneurs to enable them to create and implement impactful solutions for their communities. The project will implement strategies to mitigate brain drain by providing opportunities for talented youth to stay in Nepal, contribute to local development, and participate in technological and entrepreneurial initiatives.
Component 3: Community Based Public Health and Education: HEAL Nepal is governed by a passionate team of professionals with diverse expertise. Dr. Pasang Tsering Lama, a medical doctor at Dhulikhel Hospital, serves as the President, bringing medical expertise to the organization's initiatives. Mr. Tashi Lama, the Director, is a versatile educationist, indigenous youth activist, and writer, contributing to education, technology, youth, and social activism. Ms. Kinjo Omu Hyolmo, the Secretary, plays a pivotal role in coordinating HEAL Nepal's efforts. Mr. Kumar Yonjan, an architecture expert, contributes his skills to the organization's projects. Ms. Pema Lama Hyolmo, an artist and culture conservationist, contributes to preserving and promoting local culture. Ms. Pasang Lhamu Lama and Mr. Tenjing Dawa Sherpa, student members, bring fresh perspectives and youthful energy to HEAL Nepal's endeavors. HEAL Nepal's journey is marked by a legacy of impactful initiatives that have touched lives and sowed the seeds of change. From air rescue operations in Sindhupalchowk to the distribution of relief food materials during times of need, the organization has been at the forefront of compassionate action. Beyond physical provisions, HEAL Nepal has championed the cause of education, illuminated lives with access to lighting and shelter, and demonstrated unwavering commitment to the well-being of marginalized communities. The "Community Based Public Health and Education” project will be implemented in the remote village of Sermathang, Helambu - 2, Sindhupalchok, Nepal. This region faces significant health challenges, with poor maternal and child health indicators. The area's inhabitants, marked by limited access to healthcare services due to geographic and economic constraints, are especially vulnerable. The project aims to address these issues by establishing a health clinic and educational initiatives. The project seeks to provide accessible health services to over 3,000 individuals in multiple villages by the end of 2024. The project's holistic approach will raise awareness, offer medical care, improve emergency response, and empower the local community through education.
Component 4: Strengthen Maitri Griha to Support Intellectual disability children: Intellectual disability children have been living a miserable life. They do not have access to education as guaranteed by the Constitution of Nepal. Society still consider them a burden with reports of parenting disowning and abandoning them. On the other hand, in a society people still think this is a bad karma of previous life and consequently, they are suffering. Not giving chance for these children means we are trying to ignore them. While the Constitution has guaranteed an access to education for them in conducive environment, the slow implementation of the laws have diminished the desired result. The proposed project will help these intellectual disability children’s access to education with psychosocial counseling, educational support and income generating support to the families of intellectual disability children. Parents living in rural areas are still unaware about the positive impact of education in shaping their children’s lives. Additionally, parents are ignorant and enforce their children to support them with respect to generating income. According to qualified reports, parents are still unaware about the free and compulsory education for all. The project will endeavor to mainstream intellectual disability children to solve their problems and ensure they are heard. The project will help to increase access to education in conducive environment to destitute, orphaned and abandoned intellectual disability children.
Component 5: Education Support to Children and Adolescents in Kathmandu and Okhaldhunga districts: Government of Nepal’s economic survey report revealed that over two-thirds of the students enrolled in grade 1 get out of the school system by the time they reach grade 12, which is the final year of the school education. The report shows that the retention rate up to grade 12 in the present fiscal year stands at 29.2 percent. The statistics are alarming. The situation has not been good in rural areas of Kathmandu and Okhaldhunga districts. The overwhelming population in the rural areas of Kathmandu and Okhaldhunga districts are poor with no adequate access to basic amenities of life. Children are forced to work to support their family financially. Children and women are not aware of the state programmes aimed at access to education for all. Handful of local elites still dominates and enjoy the resources of the state while the majority of the citizen primarily Dalits and Adivasi Janjatis are still under privileged. The dropout rate is quite high among children from marginalized and vulnerable communities like Dalits, and Adivasi Janjatis. The poverty is said to be the major factor contributing illiteracy and ignorance in rural areas. Though Government of Nepal has been implementing several programmes to retain the drop-out children, the slow implementation of such initiatives failed deliver the expected result. Almost all the dropout students are from community schools.
As per the data, the dropout rate for girls is slightly higher than for boys. In an effort to keep the school dropout rate in check, government authorities have launched various programmes in these districts over the years. However, the drop rate in rural areas has not shown any sign of improvement. Qualified reports state that poor financial condition, food insecurity and lack of awareness among parents are the major causes behind the high dropout rate in these districts. Against this backdrop, the proposed project will contribute to reduce the school drop outs by supporting parents in sending children to school. The project will assist children from poor economic, marginalized and vulnerable groups’ backgrounds. The project will cover their hostel and other educational expenses. In doing so, the project will identify the nearby hostels and will accommodate them to ensure their unhindered access to education. During the weekend, children will be encouraged to visit their parents and enjoy their weekend.
Component 6: Small Infrastructure Support to Public Schools: Education Rules 2059 BS/2002 AD (sixth amendment 2067 BS), Schedule 3, states ‘infrastructures for establishing a school’. Under this law, height of a classroom should be nine feet; per student area should not be less than 0.75 square meters in pre-primary and primary schools and one meter in case of lower secondary and secondary schools. A classroom should have a minimum of 22, maximum of 44 and 33 students in average. Apart from these pre-requisites, it also states requirements like good hygiene in and around the school environment, provision of furniture according to the number of students and separate toilets for boys and girls. Library, teaching materials, spacious school compound surrounded by a wall along with sports materials, science lab equipment as per curriculum and first aid among many others. However, many schools do not meet the requirements as per the Education Rules. The major thrust of schools lies on how to construct classrooms to accommodate students and how to keep the building safe from rain and wind only. The concept of seismic resistant infrastructures having children friendly, gender friendly and disable friendly features are not in their mind at present and have not included in the process of designing and developing physical facilities in school. There is need to build resilient physical infrastructure to reduce the risk of natural calamities, including earthquakes. In order to improve the quality of education, basic infrastructure development, improvement of learning environment, management of learning materials, arrangement of suitable classrooms and seating, qualification and capacity development of teachers in line with the prescribed competencies and standards. The proposed project supports in restoring access to education for children disrupted by the 2015 earthquakes and the COVID-19 pandemic and provides safe and relevant learning environments. The project will assist public schools to construct the following items: Main entrance, Boundary wall, Playground, Class rooms, Furniture, Floor, Toilets, Staircase, Roofing, Door/Window, Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facility, Good and safe laboratory, and Sports materials for all age children.
Component 7: Didi Project for Women’s Economic Empowerment: The project will take place in the Rolwaling valley situated in Ward 9 of Gaurishankar Rural Municipality in Dolakha District. The project will specifically cover the small mountain villages in the upper part of the Rolwaling valley. These include the Beding village, at 3800m, and Na Village, at 4200m. In addition to it, the project also covers settlements (Dongang, Kyalje, Surmuche, Riku and Simigaon village) in the lower end of the Rolwaling valley. This valley is inhabited by the Sherpa community who live an agro-pastoral lifestyle. Besides, the male family members of this community are engaged in trekking and mountain climbing – a seasonal job. On the other hand, young girls and women most of them who have not attended a formal school – they rely on potato cultivation and run small tea houses in the valley. The Sherpa community of Rolwaling are Buddhist and they strictly abide by their community values of non-violence, refraining from killing animals and preservation of the rare medicinal herbs and preservation of their culture. Against such backdrop, the project aims to educate, provide skills and support the targeted beneficiaries (young girls and women). The ‘Didi Project’ is a consistent effort to empower and support the Didis – young girls and women – of the Rolwaling valley by providing them education, skills in hospitality tourism and material support. The project will ensure that the Didis will be able to become economically independent, strong and knowledgeable.
Component 8: Strengthen Children’s Home for Education and Healthcare: The Government of Nepal (GON) has made commitments on several international child right conventions and protocols. GON has also made child rights policies, acts, rules and regulations, directives, plans, and programmes to address these issues. They include elimination of child labor, protection of the children at high risk, primary education for all children, improvement of health of the children through nutritional and productive health intervention, and safe and decent living standard. Despite having several policies and programmes for the protection of child rights, many studies have found severe shortcomings that mainly include: (1) High morbidity and mortality rate of children; (2) High drop rate from schools; (3) Growing number of children with malnourishment; (4) Children working in high risk areas; (5) Use of children by armed forces; (6) Growing number of abandoned children; and (7) Child abuse from family, community, and society. Similarly, the leading factors in the shortcomings found in the child development sector in Nepal are: (1) Insufficient resources; (2) Lack of good governance/unstable governance; (3) Widespread poverty; (4) Lack of awareness and illiteracy; (5) Geographical complexity; (6) Ineffective governmental and non-governmental institutions, and (7) Lack of fair commitments from state and non-state institutions. Likewise, female children are regarded as social burden. They are deprived of education, health, nutrition, and social security in comparison to male children. Female children are most vulnerable to human trafficking. The proposed project has been designed to minimizing these gaps found in child development sectors and addressing some of the factors causing those gaps. The project is committed to rescue female children from these types of social problems by providing quality education, adequate livelihood and healthcare facilities.
Component 9: Establish and Run Child Care Center for Carpet Weaver’s Children: There was a huge influx of Tibetan Refugees in Nepal since early sixties. The Swiss Red Cross along with Swiss Agency for Assistance set up Carpet centers in various Refugee Centers in Nepal in order to empower the refugees with jobs using weaving skills that they already possessed. The Tibetan weavers spread their technique of weaving and skills slowly to Nepalese people by training them. These days, majority of the weavers are Nepalese. At its peak in the early eighties, the Carpet industry brought one third of Nepal’s foreign currency earnings. The industry then had 3,000 weaving centers, employing 1.2 million people. With the help of Swiss Marketing, the sales grew immensely. The Carpet Industry in 1993 brought 10.3 billion rupees as the market expanded to other European countries and the United States of America. The export orders have dropped in the recent years. Recession has caused many laborers to migrate to Arab countries in search of Job. The prices of goods and materials have also increased exceedingly. Factors such as politicized labor unions with unreasonable demands, lack of government intervention and support, controversies of child labor and environmental issues have negatively affected the industry growth. The industry today employs only 100,000 people with less than 600 weaving centers. Today the weavers in carpet factories form one of the lowest pay grade job in Nepal. The profit margins of the carpet industry has been at its lowest. The wages given to the weavers are barely enough for their livelihood, let alone sustaining a child's education in the expensive Kathmandu Valley. With no access to early childhood development practices and not enough parent or adult involvement in their overall growth and development. Many children as they grew older either dropped out of school to find themselves back in the looms as young adults without an edge to negotiate a proper pay for their skill, which a proper education might have provided them. Written employment contracts, social security and labor legislation rarely exist. This vicious cycle of weaver’s children with no access to ECD and proper schooling finding themselves back in the looms with no other choice can come to an end through awareness and education.
Against this backdrop, Weaving Dreams proposes the establishment of a centralized day care project aimed at providing reliable and quality child care services to carpet weaver’s children in Nepal. The project aims to help the most vulnerable of all, the very young children in the factory premises. The day care would provide service to children from age 2 - 4. A curriculum (MONTESSORI METHOD) would monitor the growth and development of children along with a mid-day meal. This would also prepare them for the school environment. This project recognizes the challenges faced by carpet weavers (primarily women) who often struggle to balance their work and home responsibilities along with taking care of their young children. By providing a safe and nurturing environment for children, the project aims to improve the overall well-being of both the women weavers and their families. The objective would be to reach many vulnerable children from various factories.
Component 10: Capacity building, monitoring, evaluation and reporting: In Nepal, there is a proliferation of Non-government organisations (NGOs) without clear mandate, vision or even strategic direction. Many of them collapse within one to two years, mainly due to lack of community support, incompetent staff, poorly designed programmes and lack of donor funding for the envisaged interventions. Local NGOs find it extremely difficult to engage with their government whether national, provincial or local on development agenda. This in turn disenfranchise their beneficiary constituents of active representation in policy and decision making forums. This is mainly due to poor coordination and synergy among local NGOs that give rise to inadequate consultation and sharing among NGOs, and unnecessary peer competition that further diminish NGO voices for common causes. The vast experience has allowed WVAF to widely interact with diverse sections of the community and identify with their needs, which informed the various program interventions, past and present. WVAF has invested in establishing and developing community based structures, strengthening their capacities and coordinating concerted action among different actors as a sustainable way of addressing deep rooted socio-economic inequalities and immediate material needs. WVAF’s on ground experience and existing programming gaps, the organization considers NGO capacity building approach an appropriate and timely contribution in strengthening local capacities in development agenda in Nepal. WVAF intends to utilize its time-tested expertize and local experience to invest in the development and sustainability of NGO partners in the project. A mix of strategies including direct training, organizational development, mentorship have been proposed. The project will conduct Organizational Capacity Assessment (OCA) to measure the strength and challenges of local NGOs. The project will train NGO partners on Theory of Change (TOC) to develop their capacity, build strong partnership and increased engagement with the local governments. The project will also conduct TOC validation workshop by project partners. It will conduct CSO land scape mapping/assessment in project locations. It will organize various capacity building trainings for participating partners. It will also conduct staff individual trainings/mentorship sessions. Similarly, the project will conduct Rights Based Approach trainings for CSOs, Communities and service providers. The project conducts monitoring visits to measure project performance. The project will also support quarterly coordination meetings between CSO and service providers. Likewise, the project will facilitate Bi annual policy engagement with local, provincial and federal governments. The project will document and disseminate of best practices and lessons learnt.
Project Objectives
- To strengthen service delivery capacity of Nepal Orthopedic Hospital in the areas of treatment to children patients, provision of day meal to children patients from poor economic backgrounds, repairing and maintenance, infrastructure development and equipment support (Component 1: Support to Nepal Orthopedic Hospital)
- To empower Nepalese youth to become leaders in technological innovation and entrepreneurship, contributing to sustainable local development and mitigating brain drain (Component 2: Support to Nepali Entrepreneurs to Exchange Knowledge and Skills)
- To support local initiatives for addressing the pressing health and education problems faced by the marginalized community in Sermathang, Helambu, Sindhupalchok, Nepal (Component 3: Community Based Public Health and Education)
- To improve access to education and family reintegration support to intellectual disability children and provide technical and vocational education and training services to their families (Component 4: Strengthen Maitri Griha to Support Intellectual disability children)
- To increase access to education and healthcare services for children, adolescents, youth, women and vulnerable and marginalized groups of Kathmandu and Okhaldhunga districts (Component 5: Education Support to Children and Adolescents in Kathmandu and Okhaldhunga districts)
- To support to build and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive, and provide safe, non-violent, inclusive, and effective learning environments for all (Component 6: Small Infrastructure Support to Public Schools)
- To support economic empowerment of marginalized young girls and women through vocational skills in hospitality sector (Component 7: Didi Project for Women’s Economic Empowerment)
- To improve education, living standard and health care services of girls child at child care home (Component 8: Strengthen Children’s Home for Education and Healthcare)
- To develop cognitive, social and emotional knowledge and behaviour of the children of the carpet weavers by creating a stimulating and nurturing environment (Component 9: Establish and Run Child Care Homes for Carpet Weaver’s Children)
- To enhance the institutional and management capacities of implementing partners and local key stakeholders for their effective engagement in protection and promotion of the rights of the children, adolescents, youth, women and other vulnerable and marginalized groups (Component 10: Capacity building, monitoring, evaluation and reporting)