Nepal

Nepal is the poorest country in South Asia and indeed one of the poorest in the world. Poverty is particularly hard in remote areas.

The country’s tentative peace has meant that Danish Mission East are now able to better access the remote, food insecure areas of Nepal which means that long-term solutions to the problems faced are becoming more possible. Some of the problems are: lack of access to safe water, poor sanitation facilities, poor hygiene practices and food insecurity. All of these made worse by the lack of infrastructure, the isolation and the very difficult geological conditions in the mountainous Himalaya range. 

Therefore Mission East alongside its local partners such as KIRDARC and NASSO have undertaken a range of activities in order to address those fundamental needs.

Small inputs with a huge impact

With a strong emphasis on helping people to help themselves, many of NASSO's activities involve supporting individuals to develop their own livelihoods. This can include establishment of small businesses, for example blacksmith trade or lending schemes for animal purchase and breeding. These small inputs have a huge impact on the recipients, who would otherwise have no means of getting started on a path to a better quality of life. The organization also promotes the education of girls in rural Nepal and operates the Nepal Eternity Orphan Home where children with no family to care for them get a safe and happy start in life.

Responsibility for own development

In their work with the people of Karnali, KIRDARC and Mission East with funds from the international community and private Danish donors use participatory approaches, and promote rural communities’ ability to take responsibility for their own development. We work in the areas of provision of clean water and sanitation, small scale infrastructure such as irrigation systems, and training to improve food production, agricultural inputs and farming practices, with the mainstreaming of DRR, gender and inclusion of the most vulnerable.

Since 2009 Mission East and KIRDARC also started a project to enable local communities and institutions of Humla district to prepare for, mitigate and respond to natural disasters and thus reduce the effect of disaster of people and their livelihood.
 

 Nepal: Risk-reduction by Radio in Nepal Nepal-EN If you turn on your radio in the mountain villages of Nepal, you can hear people singing about natural disasters.   Songs and radio drama have taught 80,000 villagers in the remote mountain areas of Nepal about floods, mudslides and earthquakes.

 Mission East contributes to an international book about disaster risk reduction in Nepal Nepal-EN   Recently, UNISDR (The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction) published the book "Risk Returns" which holds a large amount of examples of disaster risk reduction. Danish relief work is represented by Mission East's projects in Nepal.