Regions Supported: Individual Project Areas

Chitlang

Chitlang is a VDC (Village Development Committee) in Makawanpur District situated southwest of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu with approximately 6,000 inhabitants.

Nepal SEEDS completed three water projects in Chitlang that provide clean water to 596 households, and has constructed numerous composting outhouses. Chitlang is also the location of the first group of our pilot biogas projects funded by Nepal SEEDS.

The biogas systems are designed to convert animal and human waste into methane gas for cooking.

Biogas benefits the environment by reducing the demand on diminishing forest resources, and benefits health by reducing the smoke from wood fires that served as the primary fuel for villagers’ kitchens.

In Chitlang Nepal SEEDS also provides the salary for a local teacher, Indra Maya Balami, as well as instructional materials for Kalidevi Primary School where 41 children are enrolled. Chitlang exemplifies the central role that strong local leadership plays in developing a strategy for integrating health, educational, and environmental projects within a single community.

Sisneri

Sisnery VDC is also located in Makawanpur District, southwest of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, with a population of 3,500 inhabitants.

Nepal SEEDS completed two large water projects in Sisneri that provide clean water to over 800 villagers, and constructed 71 composting outhouses.

The school was included in these projects, and now has both boys’ and girls’ facilities as well as clean water.

In addition, Nepal SEEDS provides a teacher’s salary and teaching materials to Bandevi Primary School where 195 children are now enrolled in grades K through 5.

Bhorle

Bhorle VDC is located in Rasuwa District, situated to the north of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu. The majority of Bhorle’s population of about 6,000 people is Tamang, an ethnic group that lags behind the rest of the nation in education, healthcare, and other socioeconomic indicators.

To supplement their insufficient yields, most men in Bhorle engage in seasonal wage labor, such as carrying loads for trekking groups.

In Bhorle, Nepal SEEDS has completed five water delivery systems that benefit 1,860 people, and constructed several hundred composting outhouses that are used by over 1,700 people.

Additionally, in 2009 Nepal SEEDS provided funding to a cooperative project with the residents of Bhorle to construct a Women’s Community Health Center which is staffed by registered nurses and benefits 800 local women and their children.

Nepal SEEDS also provides teachers’ salaries and school supplies for three schools in Bhorle: Jana Kalyan Primary School (enrollment of 126), Suryodaya Primary School (enrollment of 91), and Jwalamukhi Primary School (enrollment of 46).

One of the teachers at Suryodaya Primary School, Mayadevi Poudel, has been working with Nepal SEEDS for the past 10 years and has played an integral role in developing the local education system.

Nubri

The Nubri Valley, situated in Nepal’s Gorkha District, shares a border with China’s Tibet Autonomous Region. The valley is comprised of four VDCs and has a population of roughly 3,500. The upper part of the valley is populated by ethnic Tibetans who began settling here over 600 years ago.

The lower part of the valley, where Nepal SEEDS sponsors numerous projects including the Kyimolung Health Clinic, is populated by a mixture of Tibetans and ethnic Ghales who migrated from the south.

In Nubri Nepal SEEDS provides educational support in the form of teacher’s salaries and instructional materials for six schools, including Gaurishankar Children’s Welfare Hostel, where a total of 104 students are enrolled.

In response to local concerns for maintaining cultural traditions, the children receive some of their instruction in Tibetan, the indigenous language that is inextricably tied with the area’s historical and Buddhist religious culture.

Nepal SEEDS also provides scholarships for four children to attend secondary school and college in Kathmandu. These two boys and two girls have all expressed a desire to use their education to benefit the people of Nubri.

To improve local health conditions, Nepal SEEDS supports three health clinics and has sponsored several Women’s Health Training programs so that women can learn the basic principles of health, sanitation, and hygiene.

Tsum

The Tsum Valley in Nepal’s Gorkha District is populated by roughly 2,300 people representing a mixture of ethnic Tibetans and Ghales.

Tsum is home to numerous Buddhist temples and pilgrimage sites, including a cave where Milarepa, the venerated 11th century saint, is said to have once meditated. Tsum benefitted historically through its proximity to Kyirong, once a thriving regional trade and cultural center in Tibet.

The decline of trans-Himalayan trade networks and Tibetan cultural institutions has left the people of Tsum impoverished.

In Tsum, Nepal SEEDS supports the Shenpen Clinic and Tsumchet Clinic both of which are run by local nuns trained in Sowa Rigpatraditional medicine.

Nepal SEEDS also provides teaching materials for 75 students at Buddha and Chule-Nyile Primary Schools.