Since its establishment in 1995, CHILDREN-Nepal has been focusing on mobilizing civil society stakeholders to ensure and respect children rights. We have identified poverty as the root cause for the exploitation and violations of children’s rights in Nepal. Families experiencing poverty are put under a lot of stress which transforms their family homes into a precarious and potentially violent space with no minimum access to facilities to provide for one’s basic needs. CHILDREN-Nepal work to mobilise civil society stakeholders to provide a voice for all children and women to ensure their rights. CN also has been focusing to empower children and their families living under margin of society to raise their voice with the decision making and influence the decision relating to them.
We are committed for the empowerment of children as we promote their involvement in ‘self help’ groups, where they can share their experiences with their peers and establish strong support networks. We educate children on their rights whilst providing training and various capacity building opportunities and guidance for how they can take control of their lives and mobilize themselves within the community.
CHILDREN-Nepal is also dedicated to the support of parents through organizing meetings where parents can come together to support and provide guidance for each other. Our women empowerment programs provide women with social and financial autonomy which can allow them to have more influence within the family structure and community decisions. We focus on the empowerment of the entire family, as the stronger the family unit the higher the likelihood that children’s rights are ensured.
Climate Change is an emergent global problem to which women and children from marginalized families are the most vulnerable, especially if they live in rural communities as their livelihoods are dependent on the success of farming. Women and children are most affected as their access to basic needs for survival; food, water, and shelter as well as access to financial, healthcare, and educational facilities are restricted as knock-on effects from the consequences of climate change. In response to this problem, CN is now implementing new support programs within rural communities. We facilitate and provide guidance of how these families can become more climates resilient through adapting their lifestyles and how to combat these new climatic challenges through processes such as climate resilient sustainable farming and practice environment friendly technologies. Our programs have a focus on sustainable farming as there is a trend of rural families becoming demotivated with their livelihood as their farming patterns, passed down through generations, are no longer compatible with the new the weather patterns experienced today. Everyone is responsible for climate change, albeit on different scales, thus we all need to contribute to the mitigation of this shared problem.
Similarly to climate change, respect for children’s rights is everyone’s responsibility. We encourage the involvement and dedication of all civil citizens, NGOs, and government authorities to acknowledge our shared responsibility to ensure the protection and respect of the rights of all children. We provide the space for such stakeholders to come together and share their experiences of supporting children’s rights to encourage collaboration between stakeholders and the continuation of such ventures and social mobilizations through the organizing regular meetings interaction and dialogues. CHILDREN-Nepal wants to ensure that all stakeholders are held accountable of their responsibility to ensure all children are aware of their rights, and that these rights are respected.

To ensure social mobilization CN has carried out the following initiatives;

• Formation and mobilization of child self-help group.
• Support community to create safe and inclusive environment at school home and community.
• Parents co-operatives.
• Formation and mobilization of youth self-help groups.
• Networking, Lobbing and collaboration among stakeholders.
• Enhancing rural livelihood through local sustainable development initiatives.
• Formation and mobilization of farmers groups and co-operatives.
• Advocacy on the issues of child rights at Local, Provincial, and National level.
• Facilitating School to set up school
• Garden and create practical learning
• Opportunities for children about climate resilient sustainable farming practices and environment friendly technologies.

Organic Farming Initiatives;

CN has a goal of enhancing rural livelihoods through organic farming and sustainable livelihood initiatives for ensuring children rights. Since 2018 CHILDREN-Nepal has started to support rural farmers to practice organic farming and environmental friendly technologies in the Lewade and Phallapani villages of Kaski district as well as the Gunjara village in Tanahun district of Nepal. As a result 73.45% of households in these 3 communities increased organic agricultural production by at least 30%. When the project started in 2018 only 10.49% of households had a sufficient food supply for 6 to 9 months. But in 2022, farmers had a higher crop yield and were able to sell their produce to the market, marking a shift in market culture as farmers are now able to increase their income through the market instead of purchasing from it. With this economic upturn, the rate of children dropping out of school has decreased. Additionally, children’s access to a healthy and balanced diet has increased and the nutritional status of women and children has significantly improved.

With the support human settlement service (DIB), Denmark CHILDREN-Nepal has been able to support rural communities to install and practice various climate resilient and environmental friendly technologies as well as practice organic farming.

• Installation of an improved cooking stove,
• Rain water harvesting and plastic pond,
• Plastic tannella (Greenhouse),
• Drop irrigation,
• Mulching,
• Kitchen waste water management,
• Vermin composting.

CHILDREN-Nepal supports poor and marginalized farmers to produce organic food and vegetables and how to control the quality of their organic agro-products through developing internal control systems and practicing participatory guarantee system (PGS).

Tree Plantation Campaigns in the Community

For the last decade, CN has regularly encouraged and supported communities to plant useful plants such as;

Herbal and Medicinal Plants :

• Dumri, Pakhuri, and Aloe vera etc.

Fruits :

• Guava, Litchi, and Mango etc.
• High Oxygen Plants
• Bamboo, Tanki, and Badahar etc.

This project has contributed to the increase of bio-diversity within communities as well as protecting the local environment.

Inclusion of Women in sustainable livelihood Activities

CHILDREN-Nepal implemented the Increasing the Participation of Women and Marginalised Groups in Sustainable Livelihood Activities (IPWMGSLA) project. From November 2021 to March 2023, CN focused on supporting poor farmers through all stages of the produces’ process to the sales floor from food processing to grading, labeling, packaging, branding, and marketing promotion and ensuring they get a fair price.

Farmers Cooperatives

To provide better collaborative effort among the poor and marginalized farmers CN has supported rural farmers to established organic farmers groups and co-operatives. Local farmers have been running saving credit and marketing promotion of their organic agro-product and benefited from fair price through the cooperatives.

School Gardening Programs

In 2023, CN established a new program in collaboration with public schools, where they set up kitchen gardens at schools and create learning opportunities for the children about organic farming.

Main Purpose of program:

To engage school children in sustainable farming, providing them with the practical knowledge and tools to increase healthy food supply and improve children’s nutrition.

Outcomes;

• Children have gained the knowledge, tools, and skills needed for organic farming.
• Parents of school children have set up produce gardens at home growing healthy and organic vegetables.

Enhancing rural livelihood

Since 2018, with the support of (DIB), Denmark CHILDREN-Nepal started to support rural farmers to practice organic farming and eco-friendly solution and enhanced their livelihood.

• Support farmers to practice environmentally friendly farming technologies such as; Use of plastic tunnela house (greenhouse), promote the use of bio-fertilizer and encourage farmers to collect and promote local seeds.
• Promote sustainable waste management practice in the communities.
• Support communities to protect natural water resources.
• Promote renewable energy in the community such as; Electric oven, Solar dryers, Bio-energy and Solar heater.
• Support marginalized farmers to improve their cow shed
• Implement the organic advocacy campaign within communities, spreading awareness of the issues of climate change and the role of community members.

The farmers also get involved with forum theatre plays, where they raise awareness on issues such as gender, caste, social inclusion, importance of organic farming and healthy food consumption to the local community through their performances