Community resilience in Nepal

Two years ago, after a massive earthquake, BRAC was one of the first global organizations to stand with the people of Nepal, providing blankets, medicine and medical equipment requested by the government. Soon after, an emergency team — four doctors, one disaster management expert and a livelihood specialist — was on the ground.

Working closely with the Ministry of Health and Population, WHO and other INGOs, and with the help of local volunteers and the Nepal police hospital team, BRAC provided medical care to more than 750 survivors. Today, BRAC implements a comprehensive community development project that includes initiatives in health, sanitation and empowerment of adolescent girls.

BRAC has implemented its Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) program in the Shyampati Village Development Committee (VDC) of the Kavre district. Ten ELA clubs — known locally as Kishori Clubs — now operate, helping girls to break the cycle of poverty and unlock their economic potential through financial inclusion, life skills education, and livelihood opportunities.

The ultimate goal of the ELA program is to make sure every teenage girl has the same opportunity to realize her own potential. In a country with the third highest rate of child marriage in Asia, according to UNICEF, this is no small feat. A staggering 37 percent of girls in Nepal marry before age 18, despite a minimum marrying age of 20.

Under a new government structure, recently the Shyampati VDC was absorbed into the Namo Buddha Municipality, along with seven other VDCs. As part of a forward-looking emphasis on scale, BRAC will expand into the seven, adjoining VDCs in the Namo Buddha Municipality with its health, sanitation, and adolescent empowerment and skills training programs.

In the meantime, BRAC’s pilot project continues to focus on strengthening the capacity of existing Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs) so that they can provide educational, preventive and curative health services to the community, especially for mothers and young children.

The services include basic literacy skills, making oral rehydration solution to treat diarrheal disease at home, improved prenatal and antenatal care, ensuring full immunization coverage, and encouraging good hygiene practices, such as handwashing.

Two years on, Nepal is recovering — but the process is slow. BRAC has invested in the long-term recovery and development of Nepal: integrated in its health care and girls empowerment programs is a component to strengthen disaster resilience.

When a community is healthier, more skilled and ready to resist shocks, its members are more likely to realize their own potential.

In the 18 months since the Gorkha earthquake devastated much of the country, Nepalis have joined together to support each other in the recovery. Nowhere is that more evident than with Female Community Health Volunteers.

Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs) are a key component to the public health system in Nepal, especially in rural areas of the country. Started in 1988 by the government of Nepal, the FCHV program provides health services to communities, often coordinated through Village Development Committees (VDCs).

Since the earthquake, BRAC has started providing trainings to strengthen the capacity of existing FCHVs so that they can better provide educational, preventive and curative health services to their community members, particularly for mothers and young children in 850 households in the Shyampati VDC in the Kavre district.

Women and girls are an instrumental part of another BRAC program in Shyampati.

The Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) program is one of BRAC's most successful initiatives worldwide. The first of its kind in Nepal, 10 ELA clubs are being set up as safe spaces for adolescent girls, age 13-21, to read, play and socialize. In keeping with the BRAC model, older adolescent girl members will receive training in life skills, livelihoods and financial literacy. They will also have the opportunity to take out small loans.

ELA clubs feature strongly in a one-year pilot project, along with health and sanitation components, that BRAC recently initiated as a step toward rehabilitating the earthquake-affected community.

Sanitation is a real concern in Shyampati, an open-defecation free zone before the earthquake, as community members now are compelled to use the forest to relieve themselves. BRAC continues to make progress restoring and constructing new toilets to replace the 265 damaged in the earthquake.

After a natural disaster, it is often the quiet leadership of women and girls that remains unbroken, a pillar on which communities rebuild. In Nepal, after Gorkha, they are once again providing the foundation. We hope you are as honored as we are to stand with them.