By Matt Kertman | Communications and Marketing Associate
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.
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