DanChurchAid, Nepal.

Nepal is one of the world’s poorest countries with more than 30per cent of the population living below the poverty line. The absolute bottom of Nepalese society is made up by 4.5 million people without caste. They live in extreme poverty and are subjects to outrages, gross exploitation and discrimination every day. During the past years, this country has also experienced several natural disasters that are likely to have been induced partly by climate changes. When disaster strikes the poor are the ones who suffer the most. In the country, many poor farmers lose their homes, their crops and their livestock. It is important for the poor farmers to be able to adapt to the new climate, as climate changes are making it difficult to predict the weather. If the farmers cannot predict what the weather is going to be, they cannot plan the work in the fields. They end up sowing too late or too early and thus they risk losing the crop to the rain or the drought. This is how hunger becomes part of the everyday life.

Since the end of the 1980s, DanChurchAid has been supporting development work in Nepal. To begin with, the work was focused on traditional development fields like clean drinking water, irrigation systems and improvement of infrastructures. But now, one of the most important fields is to improve the rights of the poor. In DanChurchAid we believe in helping people help themselves so that the population can ensure their own survival and cope in the long run.