Literacy and Livelihoods for 445 Women in Nepal

The Language Development Centre - Nepal is supporting the Tharu speaking communities in Dang to improve their socio-economic life in partnership with a local NGO, Help Society Nepal, Dang.

 Language, education and livelihood activities are implementing in coordination with local government, community schools and local communities.  This project is going well even with a small amount of funding.

Livestock management training was conducted in the Saudiyar Village Development Committee. Thirty participants were local Tharu farmers. The objective was to improve the farmer’s animal husbandry skills to increase their income from livestock.

Key issues in training:

• Pig farming and management
• Main diseases of buffaloes and treatment
• Goat rearing and its management
• Local poultry farming, balance diet, main diseases and treatment
• Fodder plantations to address deforestation

Themes of training:

How to use and enhance indigenous people's knowledge, resources, and skills to sustainable increase livestock in the Tharu community.

Achievements:

Thirty Tharu farmers participated in the training, 20 are men and 10 women. They were trained to change their animal husbandry skills for pigs, buffaloes and poultry. We included men in the training because women need men supports to increase their family-based business for their quality family life.

Training included providing a better good diet for animal and chicken using local resources.

Bechulal said, "I am a farmer from my childhood but I never think if I improve my farming practice it will change my economic situation. Now I am realized that our knowledge and skills need to be improved for our better economy." He added, "I will change my practices and help to change others sharing them what I learned."

The participants made following common statements in the training. The statements are;

• We will use the information and skills we learned from this training
• Animals and chicken need to be given good food, water and have a good shed for their better health then it will give good product
• We will regular consult with animal health workers for vaccinations and other issues
• We would like to request more training and support to enhance our practices

We are in difficult situation to make commitments to local people with We are trying to do our best to continue existing and expand activities from our limited resources but it is not easy for us to make commitment to local people to address their minimum requirement.

We are grateful for your support. Thank you.