Improving Health and Well-Being of Women and their Families in Nepal

student scholarships   student scholarships

2020-2021 Scholarship recipients in the Mulkharka region, Sindhupolchok. These 9th and 10th grade students (16 in total) receive stationery, uniforms, bag, school fees and coaching fees if they need extra help in a subject. Schools in the area only go up to the 8th class, so Friends of Nepal Pariwar Foundation scholarships help support and incentivize students to continue on to high school. Some of the students walk one to two hours each direction to attend school.

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health clinic  health clinic

A one-day free health camp was held at the Mulkharka Health Clinic in March 2021. Villagers were notified one month in advance that there would be a doctor-led team providing general check-ups and treatments, reproductive health services, and cervical cancer screening and treatment. Of the 201 people served, 152 were women.

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Following the earthquake in Nepal in 2015, many spring-fed drinking water systems were disrupted. Springs would dry up in the original site and reappear in another place. The spring in Kharkabesi village in Ramechhap District stopped flowing immediately following the earthquake and reappeared several hundred feet away.

  

Thirteen households had to walk 30 minutes below the village to carry water from a seasonal stream until the system was reconstructed in 2019. The community donated all the labor and our local partner, Bajra Samaj Nepal, provided 3000 feet of new pipe and some cement to contruct the new line, utilizing the old reservoir tank and tap.


Clinics are staffed by Nepal-trained nurse midwives with 3-25 years of experience. Clinics are managed by communities and charge for medicines and services to eventually become self supporting. Friends of Nepal Pariwar subsidizes some of the nurse midwife salaries.



Two clinics are located in remote areas of Sindhupolchowk and Kavre districts. The clinics serve communities 4-5 hours walk from the clinic. (Looking north from the Mulkharka clinic) In addition to supporting health facilities in remote areas, our local partner provides assistance for other community needs such as safe drinking water and educational scholarships for middle and high school students .


Springs or other water sources may be located below the community and rural people commonly spend 2-3 hours daily carrying water, usually women. If a spring can be found above the village, and can be collected in a tank and piped - distributed - via several taps throughout the village, safe, pure drinking water will be available and at less labor particularly for women. Friends of Nepal Pariwar supports construction of at least one community water system annually.

  

  

  

This community in Ramechhap District (Pipeltar) is volunteering together to construct a drinking water system. First, the collection of spring water above the village in a small collection box, followed by construction of a larger reservoir tank above the village for storage of water. PVC pipes are temporarily used for making the form but later removed when the thin cement plaster outside dries and plastering is completed inside the tank. Pipes are then utilized for distributing water from the source to the tank and to tapes located throughout the village. Community volunteers make their own gravel for use with cement. The final "product" is safe drinking water distributed to the community nearby user homes, greatly reducing family work - particularly women's labor.


A portion of Friends of Nepal Pariwar Foundation’s funds supports rural village girls and boys going to school, like this area in Ramechhap, east of Kathmandu. 

In Ramechhap this year, over 45 girls and boys studying in grades 6-12 are provided scholarships if they meet the criteria for assistance. These funds from the Foundation go through our local NGO partner Bajra Samaj Nepal (BSN). Scholarship recipients must have received a passing grade from the previous year, come from a low-income family with small land holdings, and live far from the school -- at least 1-2 hour walk.


As part of our scholarship program, students can maintain the scholarship if their attendance is good and their grades are passing or better in the upper grades. 

In Nepal there is social pressure on girls in rural areas to help the family look after siblings and livestock, to work on the land and carry water. They are often pushed into early marriage. Our scholarships help to put a thumb on the scale for education and technical training.

Scholarships range from providing uniforms and book bags, to school fees, tutoring and a midday snack for children studying in higher secondary school who are unable to return home midday or afford a snack.