1999 Progress Report
During the latter part of 1998, we have completed the construction of a primary school in the Ahalebanspur village of Bankhu VDC. This new school is illustrated above. It was constructed with the financial assistance from Burlington, Ontario high school students. The Burlington high school students have been very supportive of our school projects in Nepal, the Ahalebanspur school is the fourth primary school sponsored by the students from this Canadian community. A group of Burlington high school students also visited the school construction site in March 1998.
In the fourth quarter of 1998, our new three-year drinking water program has been finally approved by the Canadian Development Agency (CIDA). However, it will probably be only during the latter part of this year before we will be able to start the implementation of new drinking water systems. We have completed the working drawing for 48 new water systems, which have been circulated to the prospective benefiting villages for their approval.
Every village seeking our assistance must form a Village Projects Committee that will be responsible for the planning, coordination and management of all project related activities on the village level. Initially, our field staff has been assisting the prospective benefiting villages in getting organized. CIDA places a very strong emphasis on gender equity and on getting village women actively involved in the management of all project activities that receive its financial support. Until now, the women have not been active in village politics or administration, at least not in our project area. There are no women currently represented as members of the Village Development Committees, the elected bodies with full legal powers that are responsible for the administration of all affairs on the village level.
During the many years of our development assistance to the Tamang communities of Kabhre district, I have observed that the Tamang women perceive their role in society differently than their counterparts in Canada or developed countries in general. They are primarily homemakers who consider taking care of the family as their key role. One must also consider the fact that virtually all families in rural Nepal have five or more children, thus the women are very busy taking care of the household in addition their customary chores in agriculture. Based on observation within our target region, almost fifty percent of the population are children under the age of fourteen.
A village sanitation component is also an integral part of our drinking water program. We are providing assistance with the the construction of environmentally friendly permanent latrines to all villages that also received our assistance with drinking water systems. Perhaps due to the high quality of these latrines, the villagers' response to sanitation has been overwhelming. Within last eighteen months alone, we have received more than one thousand requests for assistance with latrine construction. There are twenty four tradesmen currently engaged in the sanitation work. The above illustration shows one such latrine.
The local government continues to fulfill its earlier pledge to establish one health post in every VDC of the country. Within our project region, the District Health Office authorized the establishment of another new H.P. facility in Sano Pokhara in the Phokshintar VDC. We have provided assistance with its construction. The project was sponsored by friends of Woody and Penny Strong. The Sano Pokhara H.P. is illustrated above. The two smaller structures on the right, partially obstructed by trees, are the kitchen and toilet. The building in the background is the VDC meeting hall. Due to its somewhat isolated location surrounded by steep hillsides, it is perhaps not ideally located. Perhaps the choice of this location was governed by the fact that the facility is in a central location within the Phokshintar VDC.
Early in 2000, we expect to resume the field and trail rehabilitation and construction work. Just like roads and highways in developed countries represent essential infrastructures, so do the trails in roadless rural Nepal. The trails along with drinking water systems rank the highest on the villagers' development priority list and understandably so. Many daily tasks, such as fetching fodder for the family cattle from the distant jungle, collecting bamboo for broom making and basket weaving require several hours of walking in steep mountain terrain. The transport of project related materials from one of our storage facilities may take two or more days. Walking in rough terrain, especially barefoot, often results in serious foot injuries. During the previous phase of the field rehabilitation work, we have not been able to assist all families affected by the 1993 natural disaster. This activity should contribute toward greater food security among disaster affected families.
Michael R. Rojik, Executive Director