OUR COMMUNITY

Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world. Fifty years after opening its doors to the outside world, Nepal still lags behind in providing some of the basics for a decent living like clean water and education. There are numerous reasons for this but we don't see the need to delve into them, as our main concern is to bring about changes rather than just talk about them.

We at Narayani Group (includes amongst other companies Nepal Bayern Electric, Narayani Safari, Hotel Narayani) have always felt the need to have a community based interactive program whereby we are able to contribute in whatever little way we can, towards the larger good of society.

After some deliberation, we came to a decision to start work on the following areas.

• Education - scholarships for poor girl-children and up-gradation of schools' facilities
• Income elevation - Introduction of livestock scheme for women and introduction of better yielding plants and seeds to farmers
• Health & Infrastructure - Drinking water, bridges & road system and Medical

We are quite clear in our understanding that this is just the beginning of our social work. Future involvement in different locations and the scope of involvement will be evaluated upon the response of the local community, business conditions and the possibility of getting funding from external sources.

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EDUCATION

Presently there are 95 children, all girls, in seven schools of Chitwan and Lalitpur who receive scholarship from us. Of these 65 are in three schools of the Pathiani Village Development Area of Chitwan while 30 are in four schools in Lalitpur district of the Kathmandu valley. As primary and secondary education is basically free in Nepal, this monthly scholarship is actually given to the parents of the girls to ensure that they send their children to school. Failure to do so will automatically terminate this vital cash flow to the family. Families with very low income, this is an incentive to ensure that their children do attend school regularly.

As for the children themselves, they are provided with school uniforms, books, pencils and other materials that are needed to attend school. The children are selected on the basis of need and ability.

Selection is based on the joint recommendation of the school, village council and a manager of the Narayani Group. Such a system has been successful in avoiding discrimination or favoritism on the part of any one party.

As good infrastructure is vital to any educational institution in providing quality education we have been actively involved in adding and upgrading facilities of these three schools, and Ganga Nagar Primary School, Chitwan in particular.

Ganga Nagar School is located in Ganga Nagar village in Chitwan, some 15 kilometers from Bharatpur near the Royal Chitwan National Park. Presently the school's capacity is 202 boys and 235 girls (total 437 students) in class starting from class 1 to class 8. There are 11 teachers in all for all these students.The problem with this school was the physical infrastructure.The school building was in a bad state of disrepair with students being crammed into small rooms, which is hardly conducive for learning. The existing rooms were dark, damp and dingy and in the hot summer months it was unbearable to sit inside the classrooms. Seeing this sorry situation we put forth a plan to help build new sets of classrooms in a cluster of 4 buildings, each housing 2 rooms. We were able to solicit help from our German partners, Wüst GmbH and Epcos both of whom contributed jointly with us towards the construction of one building. We also galvanized the King Mahendra Trust to build another two. The three building complex was inaugurated by His Royal Highness Prince Gyanendra in January 2001

Aside from the physical construction, we have also provided 8 computers (total cost of over US$ 12,000) to the school so that the students get a head start in this electronics age. For this teachers have been trained to teach Basic programming to students.

Another area of help that we sought and got was from the American Women's Organization of Nepal (AWON). They have provided books for a library at Pathiani High Schoo and have also given training to teachers in library science. Further, AWON is also a contributor towards providing scholarship to thirty girl-childrenClassroom of the newly constructed building Mural workby teacher & students of Eltham College UK.

To provide some outside exposure of a changing world to the students and faculty of these schools, Narayani Group as tied up for a long partnership with Eltham College, London, UK. Every year, very small groups teachers and gap-year students from Eltham College spend several months in Chitwan teaching and interacting in the schools. In the process, Eltham has been instrumental in bringing about changes in the perception and teaching methods of the faculty while motivation the students to participate in class activities in developing their individual character. Eltham too has been a contributor towards upgrading these three schools in Chitwan and have provided them with furniture as well as teaching books.

Prior to our involvement in the three schools of the Pathiani Village Development Area, we were involved in Jagatpur Village, Chitwan, where our finances helped construct some of the buildings of the Jagatpur school.

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INCOME ELEVATIONS

Twenty women of some of the poorest families in the area were given she-goats for generating income for themselves. We introduced a system whereby once the goat gave birth to kids, the family had to return the female kids back to our pool so that a further new family could benefit from the scheme. This ensured a growing number of beneficiaries of the scheme instead of just a few families. The family could keep the original goat as well as additional kids the goat would have. This system has given hope to families from the lowest rung of the economic ladder to work in uplifting themselves economically while we act as a catalyst only. Today, the network has a total of 270 women who are benefited from this scheme.

Hybrid seeds of vegetables that grow year round have been introduced to farmers of this area, which has given them an opportunity to diversify their crop. This as also provided them with higher income as off-season vegetables fetch a higher price in the market. Further, our organization, Safari Narayani Lodge also buys back some of these vegetables from the farmers, which helps them financially too. Some years ago, hybrid banana plants were also distributed to farmers as a part of the income elevation scheme.

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INFRASTRUCTURE & OTHERS

• Twelve new drinking water wells were constructed in Pathiani village. This saved the women folk from going down to the river to collect obviously polluted water. The wells were lined with concrete rings so that it lasts longer then the non-lined ones.
• Small culverts and roads built around Pathiani village just for the benefit of the village people only.
• Black topping (tarmac) of certain section of the road in Geetanagar VDC.
• Small project with the local teaching hospital in Chitwan whereby medical interns and doctors are stationed at Pathiani village Development Center to dispense medical services and medicines to the local residents.
• Satellite TV discs and connections in four areas of Pathiani VDC benefiting about 200 houses.

Should you want to contribute and be a part of our ongoing programs, then write to us