Our Work
Foundation Nepal helps local communities in Nepal to help themselves. We focus our efforts on the poorest and most disadvantaged in society – namely, women and those from low caste families – giving them a hand up, not a hand out.
We work to bring about lasting change by improving: (1) food production and nutrition, (2) family income through micro-finance and micro-business, (3) primary healthcare and (4) education. All our activities are underpinned by a focus on efficiency, value for money, quality and professionalism.
A Self-sufficient Future
Facilitating and empowering communities through training and technical support is at the core of our approach. Rather than using Westerners, we train up and employ local people to provide key services. This keeps costs down by paying local people local wages and it makes our programmes sustainable – when we exit, the core team with deep roots in their community remains in place. Read More >
Overcoming Hunger by Developing Micro-businesses
Malnutrition is the single biggest problem in the areas we work in. Rather than distributing food to people, we believe in investing in long-term solutions, to help people to increase their food yields through better seed varieties, irrigation and agricultural technology. We also work to get small businesses off the ground. By earning a cash income, families can use this money to invest in their land, and buy food, medicines, educational materials and other necessities. Earning money empowers people and raises their status, making them less vulnerable to violence and exploitation within their own communities. It also means they do not become dependent on aid programmes such as free rice distribution, but can provide for themselves. This approach is central to our ‘Giving a hand up, not a hand out’ philosophy.
Read more about our food production, micro-finance and micro-business programmes >
Healthcare
In tandem with helping people through smarter food production and micro-business, we support local health posts, giving families access to basic healthcare, safe maternity services, and family planning.
Read more about our healthcare programmes >
Education
We also work to break the poverty trap by ensuring that children receive a basic education. We do this by supplying schoolchildren with essentials such as copy books, pens and other materials they cannot afford to buy, upgrading school infrastructure and introducing teacher training programmes. Plus, we run adult literacy classes and will be starting vocational training in the near future.
