Community Development
Community Development in the Gangajamuna Rural Municipality, Dhading District
The construction of a permanent marketplace and shelter for a village community.
Since 1998 NAFA has supported a number of villages in the Gangajamuna Rural Municipality (Dhading district north-west of Kathmandu) with small scale development projects. These projects are planned and implemented in partnership with the Hilly Region Development Club (HRDC) and the Pasang Chowk Agricultural Cooperative, two locally run volunteer organisation based in Tawal, the largest village in the area. It is in this area that NAFA uses a community development approach to improve the lives of subsistence farming communities.
Community development aims to improve the health, education and economic well-being of all individuals in a community, using an approach that encompasses community members’ active and meaningful participation in this process and the equitable distribution of the benefits of all development activities (adapted from AusAid definition).
NAFA’s Community Development Work Involves:
- Gaining an understanding of a community within a complex cultural, political and economic environment.
- Developing relationships and building local capacity
- Identifying development priorities and strengths
- Integrating projects across key sectors: health, education, environmental, economic
- Encouraging participation and ownership
- Strengthening partnerships through information sharing and negotiation
- Monitoring and evaluating project outcomes to identify change over time
Key Projects:
Education:
- Extending the hub school in Tawal, (serving children from 5 villages), from Grade 5 to Grade 10 through classroom construction and the subsidy of senior teacher salaries.
Health:
- Funding the installation of water taps in Tawal village.
- Co-funding (with Ausaid) the construction of the Tawal health centre serving over five villages
- Subsidising health worker salaries
- Funding one-off ear, eye and dental health clinics for over 13 villages
- Supporting upgrading of health worker qualifications and technical skills in rural health, midwifery and pathology testing.
- Funding one-off ear, eye and dental health clinics for over 13 villages
- Funding a five-year oral health program
Environmental:
- Financial support for the installation of improved cooking stoves in six villages, that use less wood and virtually eliminate smoke in households.
Economic:
- Financial support for the installation of a micro-hydro system providing clean electricity to two villages and supporting the creation of a number of small businesses.
- Supporting the development, growth and sustainability of an agricultural cooperative aimed at diversifying crops, improving animal husbandry and encouraging savings through a locally run savings bank
Queensford College helps women in the Tawal area increase their incomes
Tailor training NAFA has been assisting Tawal since 1998 with community development projects aimed at improving the health, education and economic well-being of community members. Development projects assist all members of the community, [...]
Co-operative farming initiative helps villagers rebuild their livelihoods
Co-op Farmers attending training In 2013, approximately 200 farming households from four villages (Tawal, Dusheni, Ladap and Tawal Besi) in the Ri VDC, Dhading district pooled their cash and ‘in-kind’ labout to purchase [...]
English Family Foundation Grant for Pasang Chowk Agricultural Co-operative
Chicken shed destroyed Six months after the devastation of the Gorkha earthquake, Tawal area villagers were still coming to terms with the massive loss of property and sadly, the loss of 72 [...]