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Who Do We Reach

PHASE Worldwide’s main working Area will be Nepal, but we are happy to support other similar projects in needy areas all over the world, as long as our basic principles are maintained.

Nepal

Nepal, the Himalayan Kingdom, is a small landlocked country wedged between India and China. It is generously endowed with natural beauty and ethnic and cultural variety.
However, according to its development indicators, it ranks among the poorest and least developed countries in the world, on a par with some of the poorest African countries. (Purchasing Power Parity GDP – 1,310 USD per year, Life expectancy 60.1 years, adult literacy rate 48.6%, child mortality 91.2 per 1000, maternal mortality 415 per 100,000 – one of the highest in the world. Many of these indicators are a lot worse when the more developed areas – Kathmandu Valley, Pokhara etc – are taken out of the average.)
The country was only opened to the world in 1951, and partial democracy was introduced in 1990. Over the last 10 years, Nepal has been suffering from the impact of a Maoist insurgency affecting the whole country. In the whole of this time, more than 12,000 people were killed (mainly army and Maoists, but also many civilians), and about 40,000 displaced within the country. Many villages are all but empty, tourists had almost stopped coming to many areas, and the trend for young men to go abroad to earn money and support their families (often as illegal immigrants) has increased dramatically.
The insurgency itself arose from frustration with the slow progress the country made after democracy was introduced, but since the insurgency started, development progress has slowed and all but come to a standstill. In some areas it can even be said that the poor and powerless are now worse off than they were before the insurgency started.
The main fundraising strategy of the Maoist Army was to collect forced “donations” from villagers, teachers and health workers. They also have forced all local administrative leaders and the village police force to leave the more remote villages. This led to enormous pressure on the remaining villagers, many of whom moved away if they possibly can, and also prevented many government workers to take up their posts in remote areas, leading to even worse education and health services in those areas. On top of that, many, especially large international organisations, found it more and more difficult to work in those forgotten areas, as they could not do so without Maoist “approval”, but must not be seen to “support” the Maoists.

Although there is now a real hope for peace and democracy in the country, the situation in those forgotten and pressurized communities is not going to change overnight. In fact, it remains to be seen whether a new government will achieve more for the remote communities, who, unfortunately, do not count as strongly in matte3rs of voting and economic pressure as the urban centres…
Small, individual and flexible NGOs like PHASE Worldwide are best placed to take advantage of the newly open political situation and bring hope and progress into the remotes corners of the country.

Some statistics about Nepal:

General Indicators of Development

Health

Education

 

Link: http://www.info-nepal.com

The Health Service in Rural Nepal

Every “Village Development Committee” (VDC) – this is the name for the political community unit, in general between 2,000 and 6,000 inhabitants – is served by one Sub Health Post, staffed by three trained health workers and one caretaker.
These Sub Health Posts (SHPs) provide a primary care service which includes treatment of simple illnesses, contraceptive services and childhood vaccinations.
Three to four of these SHPs report to one Health Post, which has more highly trained staff and a slightly higher allocation of medicines per year, and about 9-10 SHPs refer to one Primary Care Centre, where on paper there should be a doctor and trained nurses.

The next level from this is secondary care – the district hospital. In theory every district hospital has 3-5 doctors and approximately 30 ancillary staff.
In reality, these hospitals which cover a population of 150,000 to 300,000 people often only have one doctor, and that only for part of the year, and health care is given by nurses and other staff. – Any emergencies often have to be referred to the nearest regional hospital – often many hours of unreliable transport away.

The Education System in Nepal

Parents are now required by law to send their children to Primary school for 5 years.
Most villages do have an accessible primary school, but secondary schools are usually only near the market centres or roads. – Often too far away for children from the villages to continue their schooling beyond primary school.
There are two types of secondary school: Lower Secondary Schools from grade 6 to 8, and Higher Secondary Schools up to grade 10; after the 10th grade, pupils take the national school leaving exam, and are issued, if they pass (national pass rates are around 20%) with a school leaving certificate (SLC). This is the key to all higher education and almost all salaried positions.

The main problem of village schools is their woeful understaffing: Often, one teacher is left to teach 80-100 children of all ages…
But there are many other problems – see also our “what we do” page.