We recently completed a trip to Nepal to work on our commitment to support rebuilding the areas affected by the devastating earthquake just over a year ago. The time spent was focused on 3 areas. Our take away from this trip was incredibly encouraging.
1. Completing a one year case study for an E-rickshaw business model to produce funding for Mamaghar Nepal, a home for rescued street children in Hetauda, Makwanpur.
2. A fish farm to be implemented to create additional revenue to go towards teachers salaries at the Shree Chelaune Secondary School in Manekharka, Sindhupalchowk.
3. Completing a collection of information for a water and sanitation grant we are currently writing after a one year study in the Terai Region.
There are an estimated 5000 children living on the streets of Nepal. Ground down by rural poverty and domestic violence, many Nepali children run away from home in search of a better life. Mamaghar Nepal was established in 2012 to provide a safe and supportive environment for some of these children.
Khusi Hona started supporting Mamaghar Nepal in 2012. Initial support included winter clothing, blankets, computers, libraries, furniture, solar panels and field trips for the children at the home. The director of Mamaghar requested financial assistance and support for their monthly food costs. Khusi Hona started providing the financial assistance needed to support these costs. In an effort to avoid creating a scenario of dependence for this funding, we implemented a plan to start a small business to supplement the monthly food costs.
We executed this case study less than 3 months after the devastating earthquake struck Nepal. Several months of blockades and protests in the Terai region stalled the economy, brought transport to a standstill and led to spiralling prices, the landlocked nation has been gripped by a humanitarian crisis. In completing our first case study we found that despite a very difficult environment to foster economic development, the E- rickshaw project turned out better than imagined, now we are ready to seek funding to implement scaling up this environmentally friendly, job producing and sustainable project to what will hopefully one day be a fleet of these rickshaws that sustain all the overhead financial needs of this exceptional children’s home.
We also started a plan to implement a fish farm to create additional revenue to go towards teachers salaries at the Shree Chelaune Secondary School in Manekharka, Sindhupalchowk. We first arrived in Manekharka shortly after the earthquake, the village had lost its school and more than 90% of its houses in the earthquake. Our team first delivered aid supplies in May 2015 and returned in June to complete an education and school needs assessment that yielded valuable information about the community. In December, Khusi Hona provided scholarships to 5 students from the village, allowing them to complete their +2 higher secondary degrees – had these scholarships not been awarded, the students’ studies would have ended at grade 10.
Lastly we completed collecting data and media to go towards a one year grant study to implement WASH programs in the Terai Region, The Terai is a plain region of Nepal that lies in south of the outer foothills of the Himalaya. WASH (also spelled WaSH) stands for “Water, Sanitation and Hygiene” Our plan is to eventually develop more access to water in areas where mostly women will walk hours a day to collect water for their homes. Empowering women in these areas can often lead to whole communities prospering.
At Khusi Hona, we focus on the “teaching a man to fish” part of the famous adage (No pun intended). When you teach a man to fish, you enable him to feed himself and his family for a lifetime, but that’s not all: Small business development in poverty-stricken countries in South Asia provides the resources necessary for extended families and entire communities to pull themselves out of terrible situations.
Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi entrepreneur, economist and civil society leader, as well as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, said “In my experience, poor people are the world’s greatest entrepreneurs. Every day, they must innovate in order to survive. They remain poor because they do not have the opportunities to turn their creativity into sustainable income.” One of Khusi Hona’s projects is to provide people with opportunities to create income for themselves and their families.
As families prosper, they spend money and stimulate the local economy. This leads to more and more success as time goes on. Despite obstacles such as conflict, corruption and high fiscal deficits in some countries, South Asia has already achieved impressive economic growth and poverty reduction in the past decade, thanks mainly to economic reforms in the 1990s. If this growth accelerates to 10 percent per year, the region could see single-digit poverty rates by 2017. Khusi Hona strives to support the present and future success of this region.
Consider partnering with us this week to support Nepal Economic Development Projects. Partner with us and share the goal. Click here to MAKE A DONATION Remember, 100% of this donation goes directly to sponsoring powerful economic development programs! #khusihona #feelhappy
