Finish Strong/Jump-Start! Support Nepal's Families

ETC's new project area in Ramdhuni Municipality, Sunsari District is located not so very far from Nepal's border with India. People regularly go back and forth between the two countries for personal reasons as well as to work or shop. Because of the open nature of that border and the high COVID rates in India, we became very concerned about the well-being of the people living in Ramdhuni - particularly those who can't afford basic health and safety supplies.

With that in mind, ETC recently partnered with local organization Save the Earth to purchase and distribute washable, reusable masks and three months' worth of soap to 1,500 marginalized families in Ramdhuni. We also provided some practical health training, focusing on helping children learn to wash their hands very thoroughly and providing information about how often to wash the masks. We were able to do this outdoors, over the course of about ten days, and therefore without undue crowding or exposure risk.

The project was a huge success on more than one level:

• First and foremost, it provided many hundreds of people with important resources to help them protect themselves from this insidious virus. Fortunately, these villages have not yet been hard-hit by COVID, and we very much want to keep it that way.
• Second, it served as a good introduction of ETC into these villages where we ought to have been working beginning in July, if not for the pandemic.
• Third, it was an excellent way to test-drive a partnership with Save the Earth. They have a long track record and a strong positive reputation in Ramdhuni already, and now that we have worked with them on this special project, we feel very good about the prospects of future collaboration.

You can see more photos of this project, as well as of our previous work in Dolakha, on our website. And we are working to determine what our next steps will be while COVID is still with us, based on what the most pressing needs are and what is possible to do while keeping our staff and the village residents safe. Exact activities are yet to be determined, but are likely to be centered on public health and agricultural development - because we do know that food security is a big problem in these villages.

There's so much of our usual work that we cannot do right now. Anything that has to happen in big groups or indoors, or that involves difficult transportation logistics, is pretty much off the menu. But we are choosing to focus on what we can do to help the people of Ramdhuni Municipality, even during these times of global pandemic, and we look forward to sharing it with you as we move forward together!