Shangri-La Sustainable Development Programme SSDP Yearly report 2009 [SSDP is a people based empowerment and capacity building development project concerning Microfinance, Agriculture, Health and Education in remote west Nepal run with the development partnership with GDAA, Germany] Shangri-La Association, Kathmandu, Nepal Foreword Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting g ender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability and developing a global partnership for development are our millennium development goals (MDGs). And most importantly, the overall goal of SSDP is towards contributing to the MDGs. SSDP has been successfully achieving its objectives in last three years in its projects of microcredit, education, health , maternal and child care and agriculture . The practice has been environment friendly and sensitive to gender and sustainability. We strongly hope that GDAA will continue to support the projects in Karnali- where there is real need for global partnership for its development- in years ahead. We are thankful to GDAA and its supporters who have worked to make the SSDP project successful and benefited poor people of Nepal. With thanks. Sincerely Dikendra Dhakal Programme Manager Wednesday 27 January, 2010 2 Organization of the report This report is divided into three parts. PART I includes Introduction of the SSDP, introduction of target area, SSDP background, goals and objectives and summary of activities completed in 2007 & 2008. PART II is the elaboration of the progress in the year 2009: 2009 Targets and Progress checklist, Group based activities, Cooperative Organization based activities, Health activities, and Education based activities and agriculture activities. PART III provides a glimpse of monitoring and evaluation of the project. APPENDICES: Future plan (2010-11) Saving group list List of Cooperative Boards of Patmara and Luma MDGS 3 PART I INTRODUCTION SHANGRI-LA SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME 4 CHAPTER ONE SHANGRI-LA SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME 1.1 CONTEXTUALIZING KARNALI Problems of Jumla/Karnali1 When there is nothing to fill the belly with We don’t know how to survive And keep the children alive. Why talk of wholesome food When it is hard to get anything to eat and survive? And life is unfulfilled due to lack of health, education, food and shelter. Mouths to feed have increased but not the land Problem like these cannot be solved without a social campaign. Women’s Karma (destiny)is to reproduce and collect animal feed What kind of religion is this, That discriminates among people since birth? My age is for carrying books But I’m destined to carry heavy loads in the basket My life has been spent like this My desire to attend school remains ever unfulfilled. All young men are in India for menial work All women for daily wages to survive Development is obstructed My birthplace (Karnali) remains deserted. Productivity of land has declined, lie’s value has diminished Nepal’s Name written off from the list of “peaceful countries”. Karnali Zone- one of the fourteen zones of Nepal- is a good example of geographical exclusion which has arisen mainly because of lack of access of people to basic services like transportation, and communication, information, employment and market. This inaccisibility has led to capability deprivation among the general mass of Carnal, which has further led to the exclusion from national social and political arenas. Situated in the northwestern mountainous region of Nepal, Karnali occupies about 15 percent of the total territory of Nepal, that is, 21, 351 square kilometers. Most parts of Karnali are unpopulated as 45 percent of its territory is located at an altitude above 4,500 meters and 47 percent is above 2,500 meters. The monsoon cycle of this zone is different from that of other parts of the country due to the peculiarity of the relief of land. The 4,000-meter high Chyakure-Mabu Mountain in the southern part of the zone does not allow the rain-bearing monsoon cloud to flow northward. Consequently, the northern part of the zone gets less rain-fall than the southern part. 1 This is a deuda song popularly song by girls and women in Karnali at the time of social gatherings in groups. Source: Kalikote, 2005. 5 Animism is still practiced in Karnali. Accordingly, the local deities are worshipped by the Karnali people. Superstitions, fatalism and orthodoxy powerfully fabricate the daily lives of the people there. As few examples- the menstruating girls and women are kept away from home during the period; and, during birth labour women are forbidden from consuming meat, milk and its products and leafy vegetables fearing that their local deities will harm them in anger. Child marriage and Jari pratha (wife stealing) are common in Karnali. Polyandry is also in practice in Lama communities of Karnali. Diseases are blamed on the gods or evil spirit. Shamanism is very popular all over Karnali. Agriculture, livestock, wool and herbal products form general source of economic activities in this region. Forest resource, essentially varieities of herbal products are notable natural income generating source that could brig striking impact to the economy of Karnali. However, this business is not managed judiciously. The middlemen from other parts of Nepal and town have been exploiting the Karnali people. The educational attainment of the Karnali population is very low. 81 percent of the adult population of 15years’ and above is illiterate whereas 63 percent of the children between the age bracket of 10 and 14 are unable to read and write. The educational condition of the women is worst. Only 3 percent of women in Karnali are literate. 6 1.2 Introduction of SSDP Shangri-La Sustainable Development Programme (SSDP) is a five year community project of Shangri-La Association (SA) Nepal and Govinda Development Aid Association (GDAA) in Karnali/Jumla west Nepal. SSDP has been started since 2007. SSDP is focused in two communities of Jumla: Patmara and Luma. These two communities were selected after general survey of whole Jumla district. The development experiences in these two communities will be helpful to work in other communities of Jumla and in future in other districts of Karnali region. 1.2.1 Development goal of SSDP The project contributes to poverty reduction of marginalized people of two communities in Jumla by organising and strengthening them into co-operatives that are community owned managed and self sustained institutions to deliver socio economic and financial services according to their needs. 1.2.2 Project Purpose of SSDP 1. Dalits, Women and disadvantaged people are empowered and have control and access to resources and in decisions 2. People achieve a higher Economic status in two communities by local resource mobilization and opportunities of local entrepreneurships through co-operatives 3. People get sustainable support in the field of health, agriculture and education according to the need analysis and participatory monitoring and evaluation of the outreach program 4. Communities maintain social cohesion with the extension of the two new co- operatives from Community Development Fund (CDF) to the adjacent communities of the same Village Development Committee (VDC) 1.2.3 The target areas and project communities Patmara and Luma communities of Jumla district are the present SSDP target areas. In Patmara there were 116 households at time of launching SSDP (2007). Now there are 133 households(2009). In Luma there were 211 households in 2007 and now the households number has reached 233 (2009). Luma Village Patmara Village 7 Mainly SSDP targets in empowerment and capacity building of the people through cooperative organizations in Karnali region of west Nepal. SSDP works in the field of microfinance for economic prosperity, agriculture for food sufficiency, health and education for overall development of the people. People’s participation, local values and norms, social inclusion, democratic decisions, human rights and equality, gender responsiveness, child rights, transparency and sustainability are the guiding values for SSDP. Continuous participatory monitoring and periodic evaluation ensure the projects’ expected progress. 1.2.4 SSDP in Jumla SSDP works through group concepts. The people form the groups on their own in facilitation of Shangri-La. They receive awareness trainings, saving trainings, credit trainings, and cooperative trainings from Shangri-La. One Cooperative organization is formed in each community with the federalization of the groups. The cooperatives have sub committee such as Education Subcommittee, Health Subcommittee and Agriculture Subcommittee who receive trainings, facilitation and grants to work for the development of the communities in respective sectors. The individuals and the communities can get loans from the communities for income generation activities and economic prosperity. Mountain ahead of Luma village 8 1.3 SUMMARY OF COMPLETED PROJECT ACTIVITIES (2007-08) S. N. Activities year Progress 1 SSDP project proposal prepared 2007 completed 2 SSDP Office and staff upgraded 2007 completed 3 Preparation of training materials and manuals for SSDP 2007 completed related trainings 2007 4 Baseline survey for SSDP in Luma and Patmara- Jumla 2007 completed 5 Selection of 22 social mobilizers 2007 completed 6 Orientation and training to 22 social mobilizers on group 2007