Her Farm, growing hope in the Himalaya

The quakes of 2015 brought home two important needs in the rural villages.

• • With 85% of the residents of Mankhu village, where Her Farm is located, living under tarps following the quakes, the need for an emergency shelter was clear.
• • Aid and government relief was distributed without good communication resulting in supplies going to villages where they did not need the supplies while a few km's away, another village who did need them received nothing. With no communication systems in the village, distribution of aid became guesswork.

We're happy to report that we are addressing both at Her Farm, and creating jobs for women at the same time. Construction of a 2000 + sf emergency shelter at Her Farm is nearly complete. The facility can house 150 people, nearly the entire village population and has a clinic on-site to render first aid as well. (See photo). Constructed to the latest earthquake resistance standards (and actually way beyond that) the building is the only disaster shelter that exists in a rural farm community in Nepal. The facilty has back up power systems, a 10,000 gallon freshwater supply and will soon have an FM radio station for communication as well. The building will be in service by the end of September, 2017. There is nothing like this Emergency Center in any other village in Nepal. 

The FM radio will be operated entirely by women and can inform authorities in times of disaster what the conditions are in the villages so that relief and aid can be properly directed. We will begin training women from the villages in fall 2017 to act as community correspondents. As such, they will have cameras, video cameras, voice recorders and training in how to use them. They will be able to gather facts quickly from nearby villages for distribution via our FM station. These women, thanks to generous Patrons via Patreon will receive regular monthly salaries and gather regular stories from the villages for our FM station to broadcast not only in times of emergency, but on a regular basis so that news from the villages can be broadcast to other villages.

Being able to provide paid positions for these "community correspondents" is actually HUGE. There aren't cash paying jobs in farm villages, for women especially. One of the reasons for such out-migration from the villages to the cities in recent years is due to the fact that people want things that money can buy and subsistence farming doesn't generate much cash. Jobs, other than occasional and seasonal farm labor, which is very poorly paid, do not exist in the villages.
We will begin by employing up to 6 women as community correspondents and add more in the future. Refer to the attached photos to better understand the importance of this and how it works.

Thank you