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Greetings from Nepal, Firstly, I would like to share some stories of Corona from Nepal, from 29th April, the government has ordered a 2nd Phase of Prohibitory (lockdown). Schools, colleges are already closed since last week. Due to lockdown, important services are only in operation. People are mostly locked down in our homes. This is a good idea to break the chain of corona spreading. Our government has also given vaccines to the senior citizens and front liners. Front liners health workers got 2nd dose of vaccine while senior citizens and few teachers have 1st dose. Another important news is that Government has provided Chinese vaccines (Vero Cell) to public in different vaccination stations who are aged in between 18 to 60 years. This is good task of Nepal Goverment to save people from Covid-19.   I also got the 1st Dose vaccine; we are now waiting for the government notice for the 2nd dose. Our main problem now is the massive covid spreading in India, you might be aware about the Indian condition, more than 400000 people per day affected while more than 3000 people lost their lives. We have hundreds of open borders with India and millions of people working in India are returning to Nepal, so covid is spreading in drastic order in Nepal as well. Until today, we have 7000+ active cases per day and nearly 20+ death tolls per day, this is also scary, because Nepal does not have good medical infrastructure. The only way to be safe is to stay at home, stay contactless and apply safety measures as per the medical instruction by government. We needed to be much careful in this case.   We look forward to the chain break of corona outbreak very soon. Our school and college classes have turned into online. We are doing our best on it. Government schools' online classes are not running well due to lack of technology and access of internet in households. We have not opened our Computer Center for the public this time due to uncertainty of covid spread. The computer center was started in last year's pandemic for public. We installed 10 computers for public with access of internet and all other accessories. Everything is closed in our municipality but our Bottle House Project is running with safety measures. Since it is an agriculture-based project, we must work on it. We have a very good team in the project, so that we have all working people during this 2nd pandemic as well. I have prepared short update about the project for these 4 months. We have many some good news. Collaborating with Dakshinkali Municipality we are able to purchase a Boer Goat (87.5%). We can use this breed for producing more improved goats in our farm and also help the farmers who are doing goat farming. We also printed Covid Awareness Leaflet and distributed in public. A team of CLC is mobilized for spreading words of safety measures and prevention from covid using loud speakers. Some project activities are pending due to lockdown by government. Learning and Sharing has been integral part of Bottle House Project. Just before this 2nd Prohibitory order, we have few colleges from where we received social work students.  More than 400 students visited our farm who helped with manual works. During their visit, we share our social work practices and try to motivate them for social works. Thanking ONGD-FNEL and Whole Team for all kind cooperation and support… Stay Safe… Remembering ONGD-FNEL Family… please take care. @NirojShrestha @shikharapurCLC Niroj SCLC Project Manager

Camille Ceccaldi, ONGD-FNEL project manager, visited  Ratnashova Secondary School, 2 hours drive from Pokhara where our partner Right4Children is improving school environment and promoting children’s rights through art and educational programs. The main goal of the project is to contribute to reduce the risk of child labour, early marriage, trafficking, cases of child abuse and other child rights violations. Children expressed their rights through drawings and a drama focused on child labour was presented. 

Testimony of Mr. Man Bhadur Bhujal, beneficiary of our partner Forward Looking.   Forward Looking is present in district of Gorkha and Palpa (center of Nepal) with the objective of reinforcing the capacity of disabled and disadvantaged children in providing them an appropriate education as well as professional training for the sensibilisation of social question, health, and sanitation. The organisation is also fighting to improve the way disabled people are viewed and treated in society.   Mr Man Bhadur Bhujal was born in remote area of Rampur village, in Palpa district within a poor family and knows economic challenges since his childhood. When he was 13 years old, he got an accident, his family member could not afford his medical fee due to the poor economic conditions. Slowly, he had troubles with his left leg, and it became shorter than normal one. Following this accident, Man could not continue his education after secondary level and became the second disabled member of his family which added trouble to the family. Therefore, he was in search of opportunity to rise his critical condition, he heard about livelihood project of Forward Looking through Rampur’s social mobilizer. He got livestock support from Forward Looking and financial support through ONGD-FNEL. Now he has a small poultry farm and a small vegetable farm to be more autonomous. Mr Man Bhadur Bhujal attended livestock training provided by Forward Looking: he was grateful to get this opportunity. Now he hopes to be successful in his project for a better life and feels glad to be able to support his family members.   Despite his physical disability and many other challenges in his daily life, he is struggling for a better future. His success story and his struggle are one of the best examples for other disability persons.

“SCLC could not implement many of its planned activities due to various restrictions imposed by the government siting the action to contain the virus. However, all agricultural activities were never disrupted and the learning center also improved the cow farm and converted it to be more efficient, scientific and organized. Cattle rearing, milk production and food management are the regular activities of integrated cow farms, but recently we have also set up a center for the production of organic manure.” Niroj Shrestha, Project Manager of SCLC, Pharping One of our residents Mr Silash Chepang quotes, “I have seen all these materials going into waste in my village. I now have knowledge to convert the waste for the production of organic manure. After completion of the program, I would return back and will try to train villagers to do the same.”      Samjhana Danuwar is 24 year old and mother of a 2 years child, she is a beneficiary from our partner Hamro Palo, which offer workshops on education and empowerment for young, she tells : “I learned so many new things during my participation at the workshops, among them- the dangerous signs of pregnancy, financial literacy, and mental health topics were new and interesting to me. In addition, I learned that delivering baby at home is unsafe for a pregnant woman. I will visit the hospital if I decide for second baby.” She is a participant of our 15 day program called – Sneh, designed for young mothers       Nanu Tamang is a woman of 45 years old and mother of a 12 years old daughter, she participated to the Income Generating Training from our partner SETU, which support vulnerable families affected with HIV through trainings and scholarship. After a difficult period, Nanu has initiated her own small poultry in Naya Pati Kathmandou and plans to receive additional skills development training like vermi-composting which would add more efficiency and output to her current work. She says "Now I see no major reasons to be unhappy. At least I have my own small land and if I become mentally strong, I can do an impactful livelihood activity on my own and teach an important lesson to my daughter too."    

Nombre de cas de Covid-19 recensés : 2634 (334 nouveaux cas depuis la veille) Nombre de personnes décédées du Covid-19 enregistrées : 10 Nombre de personnes guéries : 246   Le confinement au Népal a commencé le 24 mars 2020 et se poursuit jusqu'au 14 juin 2020 avec une très probable prolongation. Initialement, la période de confinement était d'une semaine en mars, et semaine après semaine, elle a été prolongée et la vie est devenue difficile pour de nombreux Népalais. Avec l’augmentation du nombre de tests, le nombre de personnes infectées a beaucoup augmenté au cours des derniers jours. Ce nombre est susceptible de croître de façon exponentielle car les risques de transmission sont élevés avec les migrants qui rentrent chez eux, le manque de compréhension des mesures de distance sociale et des autres pratiques d'hygiène. En outre, même si la population dans son ensemble comprend l'intérêt de suivre les directives, se laver les mains avec du savon et se couvrir le visage avec des masques de bonne qualité est loin d’être aussi facile pour la plupart des népalais. Les vols sont suspendus jusqu'au 30 juin 2020. Les frontières avec l'Inde et la Chine sont fermées jusqu'à nouvel ordre. Cependant, de nombreux népalais essaient de revenir au Népal par la frontière avec l’Inde et la plupart des cas positifs se trouvent dans provinces frontalières (provinces 1, 2 et 5 qui représentent à elles seules 2057 cas). Les entreprises peuvent ouvrir pour la production et la vente de produits agricoles et alimentaires, et de médicaments. Les services bancaires de base restent ouverts mais fonctionnent de façon ralentie.   Santé Le gouvernement a établi des centres de quarantaine dans tout le pays mais les médias rapportent que la plupart des centres sont mal gérés à cause du manque de connaissance de la maladie. Dans les villages reculés, la population craint l’arrivée de l’épidémie car l’accès aux soins sera difficile : "I am concerned about the health of the people in my village and also the health facilities because our village still do not have public transportation and if the pandemic hits our village, it will be scary because we do not have a health post in the village" - Pasmai Syangbo, 15, Golche, Sindhupalchowk. Le confinement rend également difficile l’accès à d’autres soins de santé : “Half a dozen of our trainees (current and former) are pregnant. They are facing difficulties with routine check-ups. Sometimes, the hospitals are demotivating patients to enter to the hospital due to Covid-19” – Shalik Ram Sharma, DIRDC, Baglung. De nombreux partenaires rapportent que le confinement a un effet négatif sur la santé mentale de la population, qui vit difficilement l’isolement et la crainte de la propagation du virus : « The town used to be so cheerful, but now it is all silent. People are not meeting their friends and relatives because they fear the virus” – Kishan Tamang, reintegrated boy from Umbrella Organization Nepal.   Ecoles Le ministère de l'Éducation, des Sciences et de la Technologie a donné pour instructions aux établissements d'enseignement de ne pas annoncer d'admission pour quelque niveau que ce soit jusqu'à nouvel ordre : "This uncertainty has made me think whether or not I will be allowed to join the school because my family's financial situation is poor and I might have to begin job searching to support them" - Sita Biswokarma, 17, Sindhupalchowk. Les examens de fin d’année qui devaient se tenir fin mars/début avril ont également été reportés : « Due to this lockdown, our board exam has been postponed and we don’t know when it will happen. We are very upset about it” – Nisha, NSEP graduate, Kathmandu. « We are in the process of launching our computer courses online soon. However, as it has been a little challenging because of unavailability and slow speed of internet/WIFI’s services in some parts of Nepal; we have been supporting with the mobile Internet data to those having no Internet at home” - Dinesh Chaudhari, Umbrella Organization Nepal, Kathmandu. De nombreuses initiatives sont lancées pour permettre l’apprentissage virtuel à la maison, mais ceci n’est pas réalisable dans les villages plus reculés où les professeurs ne sont pas à l’aise avec la technologie et où les étudiants n’ont pas accès à un écran et à une connexion Internet suffisante. Cette situation, si elle perdure, pourrait renforcer les écarts déjà existants dans l’accès à l’éducation.   Travailleurs migrants Étant donné que l'économie mondiale est gravement touchée par la crise, de nombreux népalais employés à l'étranger sont en attente pour rentrer chez eux dès que possible. Selon le Foreign Employment Board, 127 000 travailleurs migrants sont actuellement en attente de rentrer au Népal après avoir perdu leur emploi, et ils estiment qu’avec la crise jusqu’à 407 000 népalais travaillant à l’étranger pourraient revenir sur le marché de l’emploi national en fin de compte. Ce retour de travailleurs de l’étranger amène des craintes à deux niveaux. Au niveau sanitaire, les autorités et la population craignent que certains travailleurs migrants reviennent de l’étranger après avoir été infectés par le Covid-19, risquant de contaminer d’autres personnes sur le sol népalais. Selon les statistiques, certains travailleurs sont également porteurs d’autres maladies contractées à l’étranger, ce qui pourrait entraîner une recrudescence de virus tels que le VIH au Népal. Au niveau économique, le Népal est extrêmement dépendant des envois de fonds reçus de l'étranger, qui représentaient en 2017 28% du PIB. Une étude récente a estimé que la baisse de volume des transferts de fonds devrait se situer entre 15 et 20% au cours de l’exercice fiscal 2019-2020.   Emploi La pandémie a durement touché les personnes à faibles revenus, en particulier les travailleurs informels des secteurs de l'hôtellerie, du commerce de détail, de la construction et des transports qui ont un accès limité ou inexistant aux mécanismes de sécurité sociale. « Before the lockdown I used to cook in a restaurant after college to help cover for my living fees. Now the restaurant is closed, and it is getting hard for us to manage our money. Fortunately, we are supported by Umbrella in this situation” – Laxmi, NSEP graduate, Kathmandu. Les petites et moyennes entreprises sont quant à elles très fortement touchées : « More than 80% of our former students were engaged either in self businesses or salaried jobs or foreign employment. The livelihood of their families is depending on them. Due to the Covid-19, the income is disturbed and it created a big challenge for the survival of people as well as of their business entities” – Shalik Ram Sharma, DIRDC, Baglung. Avec l’augmentation du nombre de personnes ayant perdu leur emploi, le retour de travailleurs migrants et les 500 000 personnes qui entrent chaque année sur le marché du travail du pays, le Népal a grandement besoin de créer des opportunités d’emploi locaux pour cette main d’œuvre avec divers niveaux de qualifications. La Task Force mise en place par le gouvernement népalais pour gérer la crise économique a émis un certain nombre de recommandations pour relancer l’économie après la crise. Selon les experts le plus grand nombre d'emplois pourrait être créé dans le cadre de vastes programmes de travail indépendant basés sur l'agriculture. De plus, ils recommandent d’investir dans des instituts de formation bien équipés pour des métiers qui correspondent aux besoins du marché, afin de créer une hausse de l’emploi national.   Souveraineté alimentaire La perte soudaine et à grande échelle de travail pour les népalais exerçant des emplois précaires à revenus journaliers et peu élevés a poussé une masse de travailleurs migrants internes à rentrer des villes vers les villages. Ceci leur permet de survivre en aidant leurs familles dans leurs exploitations agricoles, au lieu de rester en ville où ils seraient rapidement tombés dans la pauvreté extrême. Au niveau de la souveraineté alimentaire, les personnes vivant en ville sont plus affectées que dans les villages. « The food supplies has been slowly a problem in the cities but it has not been a problem in village areas. The people in the cities do not keep food stock as they earn and buy in short time periods whereas people in village areas have good stock even for a year as they grow themselves. So, the lockdown has not much affected in the villages areas. So far, there is probability of shortage of those materials that need to be imported from another cities” – Shyam Lama, Umbrella Organisation Nepal, Katmandou.   Tourisme Les hôtels sont fermés jusqu'à la mi-octobre de cette année, en raison de l'impact du Covid-19 sur l'industrie touristique du pays. Compte tenu des restrictions sur les voyages internationaux et de la crise économique dans le monde, les recettes touristiques au Népal devraient diminuer de 60% en 2020, entraînant une perte de recettes en devises étrangères de 400 millions de dollars[1].   En conclusion, il est actuellement encore difficile de déterminer l’impact socio-économique que la pandémie de Covid-19 aura sur le Népal, qui dépendra de la façon dont les événements se déroulent sur trois fronts : La situation du tourisme, du commerce et de l'emploi à l'étranger, et leur conséquence sur le marché de l’emploi local et sur les revenus nationaux ; La propagation de la pandémie qui pourrait submerger l’infrastructure sanitaire ; La forte dépendance géo-économique du Népal à l’égard de l’Inde et de la Chine et le risque de contagion originaire de ces pays. Au milieu de ces incertitudes, nos partenaires continuent d’être optimistes afin de servir au mieux les communautés avec lesquelles ils travaillent : « The fear of uncertainty still exists, the cure for the virus seems farfetched and epidemic being contained seems impossible. Amidst all those uncertainties, we are busy with regular work in the bottle house. The production is expected to be good this year due to good rain. Overall, we are trying our best to be engaged and productive. Our students have been holding their hopes for better future and spending time learning and doing things they like. There is no doubt this period can be used creatively to fetch a long-term benefit in coming days.” – Niroj Shrestha, SCLC, Pharping.   Julie Denève, le 5 juin 2020   [1] ‘Rapid Assessment of Socio-Economic Impact of Covid-19 in Nepal’ - Institute for Integrated Development Studies (IIDS)  

In this unprecedented situation, the person in charge of our project with SCLC wanted to testify about the crisis and the work of its organization on a daily basis. They are continuing their actions as best as possible in the face of a complicated and constantly changing social and economic situation.   Chepang, an indigenous Tibeto-Burman ethic group, is one of the poorest communities in Nepal. Majority of inhabitants of Raksirang village in Makwanpur area of this ethnic groups. For ages, this community has been living in very harsh conditions and in extreme poverty and one can still observe poverty and primitive living today. It would not be an exaggeration that even today the government and non-government organizations have not been able to provide basic required facilities for the upliftment of those tribal groups. Since 2018, the Shikharapur Community Learning Center, support project of ONGD-FNEL has enrolled students from Raksirang in a residential study and learning program at the organization's agricultural project. As there isn’t any good school in the village and sending children to the nearest developed district, Chitwan, is next to impossible amid the expenses, Shikharapur CLC has brought opportunities to them. Shikharapur have started working for upliftment of the community by enrolling school dropouts to open school and training them in the Shikharapur Sustainable Farmers' School, an ONGD-FNEL specific support project. Silas Chepang is one of the first students who have passed SEE from open school and is currently studying in Arunodaya in grade 11. Presently, out of 14 participants in bottle house 4 are from the Chepang community including Silas. Late 2019 Wuhan province in China was affected by a new type of virus named Covid-19 but very few, including Nepal, had imagined this would take the form of a pandemic. While the virus had started to spread outside China things in Nepal were normal for some time. In the bottle house too, students were busy in their daily errands. But all of a sudden, fearing of importing the virus, Nepal also declared closure restricting international flights followed by restriction of public transportation. The country was completely locked down on an immediate basis. People hoped and waited for a few weeks for things to get better. Unfortunately, there were no chances of the situation of getting better and people started anticipating a prolonged locked down. In despair, people began to make arduous journeys to their respective villages and hometowns. Nepalese are generally very helpful and courteous. But this time the situation was different. People started seeing others, new faces with skepticism, suspicion and fear. In fact, with no help for travelers, the situation was terrible. Most of the people decided to be with their family and were eager to return home. Even though, the students in the bottle house were safe, due to pressure from family they decided to leave to be with their family. Those living nearby walked up to 4 hours to reach home. This wasn’t quite possible for 4 people from Raksirang village. Thus, with an assurance of their health, we asked them to stay at the bottle house.   Among those 4, Nosman Chepang was one of them. He was to appear for secondary examination, an examination known as an iron gate to one's carrier. After the examination he was supposed to get on the job training at the sustainable farm and also study high school (+2). For this he would be staying at the bottle house for 2 years. Now, as the government is also unsure of conducting the examination, he seems very frustrated and disappointed. We have encouraged him to keep on preparing for the upcoming exams. Amir Chepang is the youngest student of Raksirang studying in grade 8 in the open school at bottle house. He is waiting for the final result of grade 8 basic examination. Although the results of other levels have been published, the result of this grade is on hold. The result is published by the municipality. Amir is very content and excited for getting an opportunity to study in the open school and after completion of grade 12 with the technical knowledge on agriculture, he aspires to be self-reliant. When the virus started to appear in Nepal, we were a bit confused and worried about its spread. But after a while, realizing the importance of agriculture, the government showed some leniency towards the agricultural sector. The authorities granted assurance for the full functioning of the agriculture sector which provided a ray of hope to everyone associated in this sector including us. They even started distributing fertilizers and seeds to the farmers. This was a very good initiation taken by the government. After sometimes students, who had gone to the village, gradually started to return. Amid the lockdown we had already started commercial farming in about 30 ropanis of land. Nosman Chepang shares his experience and quotes "Before, I didn't know about lockdown. When all my friends went home, I also wanted to go. It was not possible to go. I stayed happily in this bottle house but was worried about the virus and I felt like I was going to die. At the same time, we finished all the farming work. I feel happy now. " Nosman loves to operate a power tiller. He has also learned to operate it too. He has also utilized his spare time using computers. At times, when he sees a lot of friends playing games on mobile phones, he also likes to play games on mobile. Whenever possible he never fails to play games on his mobile phone. He seems to enjoy it a lot and has fun doing so. Another student Amir Chepang quotes "I go to herd goats. I missed home a lot. The examination results are yet to be published. What to do? During this time, I was busy looking at the goats, selling milk in the bottle house and keeping accounts. But I'm also happy to see my work." Those non-returnee students Nosman, Amir and Silas have started planting tomatoes, creepers vegetables, maize, soya bean, pumpkin and cucumber in the bottle house. Taking the advice of agricultural technicians, they have also been informed and trained about diseases, pests and fertilizers. With all those jobs completed they have also been able to take good care of cattle viz cow. All in all, everyone seems happy at the bottle house. The fear of uncertainty still exists, the cure for the virus seems farfetched and epidemic being contained seems impossible. Amidst all those uncertainties, we are busy with regular work in the bottle house. The production is expected to be good this year due to good rain. Even though the production is good, we fear restrictions not being lifted soon. If so, it shall be very difficult to find the market for selling our produce. Earlier this year too, the production of potatoes are good but we had to sell it directly to the customers through social media. Overall, we are trying our best to be engaged and productive. People like Nosman, Amir and Silas have been holding their hopes for better future and spending time learning and doing things they like. They are trying to find light on the other side of the tunnel but the role of government plays a very crucial role in this scenario.  At the community level, organization like ours can assimilate agriculture and mobilize young farmers. If done right, it is certain that this sector shall be self-sufficient with its agricultural produce. There isn’t any alternative to agriculture and no doubt this period can be used creatively to fetch a long-term benefit in coming days. In this case, we find our project's mission very much effective in every situation. Education, Skill, Agriculture and self-sustaining models are been set as example for community, which Shikharapur CLC is doing in support of ONGD-FNEL, Luxembourg. Moreover, for this, the government needs to be proactive in bringing plans and implementing them to control the spread of the virus. We, the citizens, can only help the government. It shall be very difficult for the government to control if the virus spreads at the community level especially due to lack of sufficient infrastructure in the hospitals. Let's hope for the best to happen and remain positive at this hour and never lose hope.   Niroj Shrestha Executive Member/Project Coordinator Shikharapur Community Learning Center, Kathmandu, Nepal

In this unprecedented situation, the staff members of Umbrella Organization Nepal wanted to testify about the crisis and their daily work. They are continuing their actions as best as possible, facing a complicated and constantly changing social and economic situation.   "Namaste Everyone, My name is Dinesh Chaudhari, have been working as a youth officer in the Umbrella Organization Nepal for ‘Chautari Youth Club’ (CYC), relatively a new project of Umbrella for the youths' empowerment and strengthening through different workshops and skill based trainings. Since the whole world is facing the serious pandemic situation of COVID-19, a nation-wide lockdown has been implemented here in Nepal since 24th March and also it has been extended to 2nd June due to the increasing number of infected cases and some deaths cases. After the lockdown we started working from home and life in home quarantine is of mixed feelings for me as I experience difficulties in performing all the official and household activities inside the same four walls. Now, as we had to adopt new way of working, teaching and learning, we (youth officers) have been conducting the online workshops on the different relevant topics; building confidence and resilience, time management and goal settings and internet safety with the huge number of nation-wide youths' participation. The participants are from different ethnic and family backgrounds. The workshops are basically focused on interactive sessions, group discussions and energizers and brainstorming activities along with the participants’ collective feedbacks for the next session. Another exciting thing for us is that we are in the process of launching our computer courses online soon. However, as it has been a little challenging because of unavailability and slow speed of internet/WIFI’s services in some parts of Nepal; we have been supporting with the mobile Internet data to those having no Internet at home. During this lockdown the most important thing I learnt is to remain positive and not to think too far about the future.  I feel I am lucky because I still have a full-time job. This is a hugely worrying time for all of us but I do believe if we all stick together and support each other we will over come the situation. Stay safe and be happy."     "Namaskar! I am Santosh Sapkota, working as reintegration officer in Umbrella Organization Nepal since May 2016. The lockdown in Nepal started since 24th March 2020. When lockdown started, we had not guessed that lockdown will go longer and situation will get worse like this. From the very first day of the lockdown, we are staying at home. Managing food and vegetables for family is main priority during this period. Grocery shops here are allowed to open 3 hours in morning. I have bought food items in bulk and I am buying vegetables enough for a week. I do exercise in morning, play different games with family members and equally involve in family work as other members of my family to make homestay entertaining. Working from home is new experience for me. First few days were quite challenging to focus on office work as family expects help when they see me at home. As working from home extended, it became habitual for family and they realized my work. My prime office work nowadays is taking updates from reintegrated beneficiaries through phone calls, social media (Facebook) and updating weekly to the management. I also make sure that our beneficiaries are updated with the latest progress about the virus and the situation. I am to call each beneficiary twice a week. Taking phone update of few beneficiaries is quite hard as some family do not have mobile set and some are living in rural areas whose phone is unreachable most the of time. In such case, I call their villagers and call them in morning and evening hours. Monitoring through phone calls is not as effective as in-person monitoring but I am doing my best from my side to make it fruitful. Lockdown have surely disturbed our personal and official work plans. But, unfortunately we do not have other options as well. Staying positive and making ourselves busy in work are the only options to make ourselves engaged. Thank you! Stay safe! Stay healthy! Stay positive! "