Bright Future Project - Nepal
Chickens, goats and buffalo in Nepal
Breaking the poverty cycle
Rotary began helping the poor families in the Solukhumbu (eastern Nepal) in 2017 by giving them a goat and some chickens. A family, whose sons attended Trinity Grammar School, makes an annual donation of $1000 in memory of a special teacher and this finances the project.
During the last five years we have helped many families.
It is difficult to check all families, but we have two examples illustrating the success of the project. Rita is a deserted mother with a young daughter. She managed her three chickens and goat and made enough money to send her daughter to school. She is now in Year 11 and Rita has a small flock of five goats, which ensures a steady income for the family.
Suroj was in Year 9 in 2015, when he became seriously ill. After several operations he returned home, but required regular hospital visits. He has managed his livestock and made enough money to pay for his medical expenses and pass Year 12.
This has inspired Rotary to go to the next level. Two milking buffalo cows and calves were walked for two days to reach their new homes in Kangel in the Solukhumbu. The excess milk, not used by the families, will be sent to the dairy. Buffalo are easy to manage and provide fertilizer for the fields. This could be the start of a new, sustainable industry in the Solukhumbu.
The man in this photograph has two children. The family is landless and he is a farm labourer.
You can just see the buffalo calf in the background.
The lady with the goats started with one goat and three chickens 3 years ago. She is a single mother and has managed her finances to pay for her daughter's schooling. This is a real success story.
The buffalo walked for two days to reach Kangel
Buffalo with family. The eldest son was drowned in the river and the body was never found. The two children are being sponsored to attend school. They are weaving a rope to tether the buffalo.
Bright Future Project -
Nepal
Bright Future Community Centre (Brighter Future Project) began in 2003 as a library. Now it is a combination of different projects, which are administered through BFCC and run by Netra Basnet in Kopan, which is on the outskirts of Kathmandu.
The library is now a learning centre with different learning activities and homework sessions. We are able to check on the welfare of families and provide funds to help with schooling. A sewing centre developed in 2012 and this provided the basic skills for the development of a Days for Girls Project, and products and knitted goods to be sold overseas.
Many of our students’ families moved from the eastern part of Nepal to Kathmandu. Netra is also from eastern Nepal (the region of Kangel) and we have developed several projects there. District Grants helped fund a chicken farm (RC Drysdale) and a learning centre (RC Yarra Bend), both of which have continued as successful projects. We fund the donation of chickens and a goat to poor
families from money donated in memory of a friend.
The advantages of all branches the project is having Netra Basnet is on the ground in Nepal.
He is able to have regular updates and respond to any emergency. The COVID epidemic has created the latest emergency situation. Once COVID started spreading from India, Nepal went into complete lock down, but it was impossible to stop people crossing the border from India. Schools were shut and students were meant to learn online. Most of our students do not have internet access so
could not learn. Their parents could not work and remittance money from overseas also ceased as Nepali workers returned home. We have been using funds to buy food for families. Netra set up accounts at various shops, so our families had access to food supplies. It costs around $70 to feed a family of four for six weeks.
Many families, including Netra’s, have COVID cases in the household and his mother is ill. There is nothing we can do at this stage except ensure Netra has enough funds to help. We have raised over $20,000 from generous donations.
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