Plan Nepal Annual Progress Report 2010

NEPAL KAZAKHSTAN

SUMMARY REPORT

2010

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Kongi Tarim A volunteer monitors a child’s breathing as part of a health check-up

GOOD REASONS

OUR PRIORITIES

why Plan works in Nepal

in Nepal

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• 43 per cent of children under five have stunted growth due to malnutrition • Three-quarters of people in rural areas do not have sanitation facilities, making them vulnerable to water-borne diseases like diarrhoea

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• GilChildren are not adequately protected from abuse, and exploitation and git discrimination are common

• Helping children to grow up healthy and protected from disease, and promoting safe motherhood • Improving water and sanitation so children can live in a healthy environment and develop good hygiene habits • Making sure families are financially secure and can meet their basic needs and cope with emergencies

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‘They never allowed me to rest. I was not allowed to communicate with my family’

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A youth group meets to discuss local issues and possible solutions

for about 40 per cent of Nepal’s GDP. Agricultural produce – mostly grown in the Terai region bordering India – includes tea, rice, corn, wheat, sugarcane, root crops, milk, and water buffalo meat.

Industry mainly involves the processing of agricultural produce, including jute, sugarcane, tobacco and grain. es

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Kathmandu Makwanpur Bara

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Country Office Program Units

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Over 30 languages and dozens of dialects are also spoken Climate: Nepal has five climatic zones, broadly corresponding to the altitudes. It has five NEPAL seasons: summer, monsoon, autumn, winter and spring. The Himalayas block cold winds from Central Asia in the winter and forms the northern limit of the monsoon wind patterns.

Economy: Agriculture accounts

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Capital: Kathmandu Population: 28.5 million Languages: Nepali (official).

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Nepal Facts

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A YEAR IN

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Focus On:

child protection and participation Exploitation and abuse are widespread and many children are discriminated against because of their gender, caste or ethnicity.

Plan makes people more aware of children’s rights and helps communities to protect children. We campaign against trafficking, abuse and early marriage, and help girls, disabled children and youngsters from

lower castes to get involved in development. We set up children’s clubs, provide life-skills training for young people and promote birth registration. We also support working children and rescue and rehabilitate child labourers.

Ending a Harmful Tradition Runa, aged 19, has missed out on her teenage years.

By the time she was 18, she had been working as a kamalari for six years.

Kamalaris are teenage boys and girls sent from their homes to work as maids or labourers in conditions that often amount to little more than slavery.

Born in the village of Gadwa in western Nepal, Runa grew up in a large family of landless peasants surviving on casual labour. Under extreme financial pressure, they sent Runa to become a kamalari. When she was 12, Runa started working in a politician’s house in Kathmandu, hundreds of miles from home.

In return, her employers paid her father A$61 and promised to send her to school, but they never did.

A life of hardship Runa’s employers treated her badly, beating her severely for minor mistakes. She got up early to wash utensils and clothes with cold water, even in winter. ‘I lived a life full of discrimination, abuse and exploitation. If my employers saw me free, they immediately gave me work.

‘They never allowed me to rest,’ she adds.

‘I was not allowed to communicate with my family.’

Sadly, Runa’s experiences are typical. Most kamalaris are domestic workers or involved in hazardous work at brick factories and farms.

They work for 14 to 18 hours a day, receive very low wages and live in poor conditions.

Most visit their families only once a year. They are deprived of education, health services and free time, and their lack of education means they remain poor as adults.

Runa’s chance to escape came through a Plan project which helps kamalaris to start a new life. Her employers knew about this and were worried that project workers would come for her. When Runa saw her brother on TV, taking part in a rally against bonded labour in Kathmandu, she decided to get him to help

her escape. The next time she was alone, she rushed to a local telephone booth and contacted him. He came with Plan staff to free her.

Making a new life It’s now two years since Runa was freed and her life has moved on. First she had four months of intensive education, which Plan provides for kamalaris to prepare them for school. She then enrolled in Year Five in a local school, with a Plan scholarship, and was soon top of her class. She has now been promoted to Year Seven, and is doing well.

Plan is also helping Runa and her family become more economically secure. They are taking part in a vegetable growing project, and Runa has received training in photography and a small grant to set up a photography studio. She wants to use photography to raise awareness of the kamalari system. She says: ‘I am convinced that the media is an effective way to protect children and prevent such bad practices.’

Changing the system Runa is determined to put her own experiences to good use in campaigning to prevent other young girls becoming kamalaris. She has started running different activities in child clubs, gaining confidence and developing leadership qualities. She is a prominent member of the Common Forum of Freed Kamalaris, which has 1600 members. She also led a delegation to the prime minister and the president asking for the system to be abolished.

Plan’s kamalari project started in Dang district in 2006 and has rescued nearly 1800 children, and helped them gain education and skills. We have also supported 1570 families of kamalaris to improve their incomes by growing and selling vegetables.

‘I am convinced that the media is an effective way to protect children and prevent such bad practices.’

Produced for Nepal by Plan International Australia.

A community celebrates a day to mark the end of open defecation

The Bigger Picture Plan is working with children, families and communities to find sustainable solutions to the challenges in Nepal. We have only given you a small insight into Plan’s work in Nepal with this report but over the past year we also: • Improved nutrition for over 20,000 under fives by providing one good quality meal a day at 883 nurseries • Helped provide single-sex toilets, drinking water and hand-washing facilities in 48 schools and 58 nurseries, benefiting 16,500 children • Helped 9279 families improve their incomes through vegetable growing and supported 549 families with fish farming • 85 per cent of children in areas where Plan works have their birth registered, compared to 35 per cent nationally Your support as a sponsor is crucial to achieving these results. With the resources provided by sponsors, Plan expertise and the collaboration of communities and local partners we are making a big difference to the lives of people in Nepal.

Thank you for your involvement!

To learn more about Plan’s work in Nepal visit plan.org.au/ourwork/asia/nepal

‘One of our greatest achievements is helping marginalised women and young people, especially girls, to live with dignity and hope in spite of the overwhelming challenges posed by the political environment and remnants of the caste system’ – Donald Keane, Plan’s Country Director in Nepal