Nepal School Projects - www.nepal-school-projects.org

Nepal School Projects (NSP) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) located in Ontario, Canada, founded in 1975, and run entirely by volunteers. NSP is registered as a non-profit organization with the Government of Ontario, and as a charity with Revenue Canada. NSP is also eligible to apply for matching contributions of public funds from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in support of approved development activities in Nepal. The key objectives of the organization are to raise and allocate funds for development projects in rural Nepal. The emphasis must be on "grass-roots" projects that clearly benefit needy and underprivileged people.

All NSP supported development activities are coordinated and managed by local people. NSP feels that the best approach toward development activities in Third World countries is to put the beneficiaries in charge of development projects within their own communities. The local people themselves best understand their own problems and should be encouraged to seek their own solutions, possibly with the help of external material assistance.

NSP Target Region

All development activities undertaken by NSP during the past two and a half decades focused on the hill regions of Kabhre Palanchok district in eastern Nepal which has a population of approximately 350,000 made up of eight very diverse ethnic communities. The Tibeto-Burman speaking Tamangs represent about fifty percent of Kabhre district's population.

Initially, development aid focused on the central Timal region but, in 1985, shifted to the southern Mahabharat region, isolated from the rest of the district by the high Mahabharat ridge. The region is also the poorest and the most backward area within Kabhre district. Prior to NSP's initiation of development activities, the region did not benefit from any development assistance, governmental or NGO, in spite of the obvious needs of the region's population.

Topographically, the southern Mahabharat is a remote mountain region with steep hillsides, often reaching very high altitude (3,000 metres or 10,000 feet) and deep narrow valleys. The population suffers from poverty, lack of safe water and health care facilities, a lack of income generating opportunities, difficult terrain, poor communication and a great distance from a motorable road and urban centres. The subsistence farming on low productivity land barely meets their food needs and severe food shortages result when there is a natural disaster like monsoon flooding.

Projects supported by NSP

NSP supports development projects aimed at the fulfilment of minimum basic human needs for drinking water, basic education, primary health care, skill training for gainful employment and infrastructures such as foot trails, which are essential for communication and transportation in a roadless region.

All NSP supported development projects originate within the recipient communities. The villagers do all project planning and actively participate in project implementation. The benefiting villagers also make a substantial in-kind contribution toward their project, both in voluntary labour and in locally available materials. The villagers' contribution, plus the adoption of cost saving technologies result in highly cost effective projects.

Furthermore, all projects made possible with NSP assistance must be self-sustainable following their completion. For instance, although NSP provides technical and material assistance with primary school and health post construction, NSP does not operate or staff such facilities. On their completion, they will become part of the Nepalese educational or health care system with government appointed and paid personnel. The buildings are also constructed in such a way that they are virtually maintenance free. Similarly with drinking water systems, the Village Project Committees are asked to levy a small monthly user fee from every household, so that the accumulated funds can be applied toward the purchase of replacement parts or repairs.

Primary school construction

As recently as the 1950s, Nepal had virtually no schools. With the exception of the higher caste people, the majority of the population was illiterate. Although the literacy, especially in urban centres, has greatly improved over the years, in the remote regions of the country the majority of teen and adult population still cannot read or write. This is mainly due to the absence of schools in remote rural regions of the country.

Virtually all rural schools constructed through total self-help are often windowless and too small: many are nothing more than an open shelter with a thatched roof. Although education for all ranks very high among the country's priorities, the government does not construct primary schools. Any community desiring education for their children must construct and maintain suitable premises with their own resources. In return, the government will provide teachers and pay their salaries.

It was in this area where NSP has played an important role by providing technical expertise and material aid with primary school construction to the poorest villages of Kabhre Palanchok district, thus enabling very poor children to have an access to basic education up to grade five. All NSP assisted school projects are being constructed by graduates from NSP’s own vocational training program.

Training for gainful employment

Nepal lacks any broad-scale vocational training facilities for young people. Since all NSP projects offer skill training opportunity for young people, NSP established its own hands-on vocational training program in a variety of skills for young adults. All skilled tradesmen and foremen working on NSP supported projects received their training through NSP, and the high standard of workmanship reflected in all projects is entirely due to their high level of achievement.

Safe drinking water projects

The initial objective was to provide assistance with primary school construction. However, applications for assistance with drinking water systems far outnumbered those for school construction even in the first year of operation. While schools can be constructed only in those communities that have been authorised as education centres by the district government in order to qualify for government appointed and paid teachers, every village needs water. Thus, gravity-fed drinking water systems to the Mahabharat hill villages currently represent the main development activity. The lack of water within the community also puts an extra burden on the village women who, by local tradition, are the main water carriers. Furthermore, water taken out of a ground well, where available, is usually polluted.

In addition to the labour saving benefits by not having to carry water from distant sources, there are also health related benefits from the availability of safe water within the village. Nepal is among the countries where less than twenty percent of rural population has an easy access to safe drinking water. About 80% of world's disease is related to a lack of clean drinking water. Clean water is a prerequisite for economic and social development, as only healthy people can fully utilise their capabilities.

Sanitation and biogas

For 10 years sanitation has been an essential component of water systems and, under ideal weather conditions (which rarely prevail!), it is possible to construct 425 latrines per year at an average cost of £110. These are 2 pit latrines which means that the second pit can be used while the first pit is sealed for composting. These latrines can be fitted with biogas plants and cooking stoves as a substitute for cooking with firewood. This not only saves trees but also reduces indoor air pollution and the incidence of bronchitis and pneumonia. The cost of installing a stove is about £170 but it is also possible to apply for a grant from the Nepalese government which would reduce this to £100.

Assistance with wire bridge construction

All rivers within the region can be forded during the dry season, but crossing a river becomes impossible during the monsoon season. Suspension bridges are very costly and beyond the scope of NSP aid. A local entrepreneur designed a low cost alternative to a suspension bridge - a wire suspended carriage moved across a river by pulling a cable can transport two adult persons or a load equivalent to 300 kilograms at a tiny fraction of suspension bridge cost. With the villagers donating all the local materials, such as stone and sand as well as transport of all bridge components to the site, these ‘flying fox’ bridges are very cost effective.

Primary health care

The high incidence of sickness and above average mortality rate among southern Mahabharat's population is due to the primitive way of life and a virtual absence of health care facilities within the region. NSP is supporting the government's objective to gradually establish one health post in every VDC of country by providing assistance with the construction of health post facilities. As is the case with schools, the government does not have the resources to construct the village health posts, it will only appoint the health workers and pay their salaries. Although the village health posts usually lack adequate variety and quantity of medical supplies, the health workers can at least provide important diagnostic services to the local people to prevent premature death.

With the help of a prominent Nepalese physician, NSP has trained a number of Mahabharat villagers as primary health care workers and has provided them with donations of emergency medical supplies. At present, there are only five fully functioning health posts within the eleven VDCs of the region. Thus, these "barefoot doctors" provide an essential service to the people within their home area using the Nepalese translation of the village health care handbook "Where There Is No Doctor" by David Werner as their guide.

Emergency disaster aid

In addition to development aid, NSP has also provided emergency humanitarian assistance to the victims of natural disasters that have struck the region in recent past, such as the 1988 earthquake and the 1993 floods and landslides, when one hundred inches of rain fell within forty eight hours causing massive landslides in the hills and major floods in the valleys as well as a loss of life. When a natural calamity strikes, the local government is unable to provide a meaningful assistance to the victims, and the destitute families have no one to turn to for help but to their equally poor neighbours and relatives.

Projects implemented

1975 – 1985: 48 village schools, 9 drinking water systems and skill training for 80 young adults.
1985 – 1999: 43 village schools, 157 drinking water systems (3,548 households and 34,553 people), 4 health posts and skill training for 127 young people.

In order to assure continued sustainability of NSP supported projects, every community seeking assistance must form a village project committee that becomes responsible for project planning and coordination of villagers' participation prior to and during project implementation. Following the completion of the project, the committee then becomes responsible for its routine maintenance. The fact that all skilled tradesmen and foremen engaged in NSP project implementation are also local people from within the target region should further enhance the sustainability of NSP supported projects.

The Everest Marathon Fund has supplied money to support all NSP's projects: schools, water projects, vocational training and flood rehabilitation. The money raised by the 2005 race will specifically be used to install biogas systems.