April 15, 2018
Unica Foundation has recently sanctioned two new projects, named Taprang and Chipli smokeless oven and Solar Multiple Use System (MUS) – III: Alleviating poverty in Nepal in the face of a changing climate.
Taprang and Chipli smokeless oven project
Unica Foundation and the Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS), Kaski, have been collaborating on Metallic Improved Cooking Stoves (MICS) projects for a decade to alleviate the ecological and health challenges of rural communities in Kaski district in Nepal. As a continuation, another MICS project in Taprang and Chipli communities have been signed recently between the Unica Foundation and the NRCS, Kaski. This project has started from 1 April and lasts until 30 November 2018. 67 households consisting of 264 people will benefit from the project.
The modality of the project is to include formation of the users committee, provide an awareness training for them as well as distribute and install the MICS in each household of the catchment area. Beside Unica Foundation, the government of Nepal via AEPC (Alternative Energy Promotion Centre) also takes part in this project as they provide subsidy of NPR 3000 (around € 25,-) in every MICS. In addition, the villagers also provide labor contribution, such as carrying the MICS from the road ahead to the households and preparing as well as helping the installation work.
Solar Multiple Use System (MUS)
In the remote hills of Nepal, communities are faced with increasing pressure to generate agricultural income through unreliable access to water. Women and girls are taking the burden for collecting water for basic household needs from hard to reach sources. This situation forces men and children to migrate in search of different work, which increases the workload for the women and girls even worse.
The Renewable World, a British NGO, conducting a project that provides 706 poor households in eight rural communities in the Surkhet district with access to water at household level. The Unica Foundation is going to work with Renewable World to carry out this project and reduce the burden that women and girls face when collecting water from distant sources. Renewable World works directly with the local partner NGO, called Sundar Nepal Sanstha (Beautiful Nepal Association-BNA), while Renewable World also has other donors to work with besides Unica Foundation on this project.
The aim of the project is to improve the income of agriculture to help people get out of poverty by training in climate-adapted agricultural technologies and linking households to agricultural inputs and markets. In addition, it supports communities to develop a plan for the conservation and protection of water resources for sustaining the community in the future.
The project has started on 1 April 2018 and ends on 31 March 2021, and will benefit a total of 4.249 people, including five schools. 2.500 other people will also benefit indirectly from this project.
