History of the Holistic Community Development Program in Jumla, Nepal
In the late 1990‘s, Dr. Alex Zahnd successfully applied the HCD approach in development projects in 16 villages in the north-eastern part of Jumla. However, the Nepalese civil war (1996 – 2006) made it impossible to visit the area for 10 years. Once peace returned, Alex visited some of the villages again, and the villagers remembered the RIDS-Nepal team immediately. They put forward request letters in written form that asked for the revival of the holistic community development projects in their villages.
Thus, in 2009, Alex started the HCD project work again through RIDS-Nepal, initially in one village, Mohorigaun ( Mohorigaun Village), through the financial support from a family in the USA, and then extended the project work from 2012 on in two additional villages, Dopa and Kholapari through the financial support of the two Rotary Clubs Bentleigh Morabbin Central and Warrandyte Donvale in Melbourne, Australia, and the “Friends of Nepal - Australia Inc” in Perth Western Australia. In these three villages, the various “Family of 4” and “Family of 4 PLUS” programs are being implemented through RIDS-Nepal in close partnership with the local villagers.
In 2012, follow-up surveys were conducted in the 16 villages as an integral part of the HCD approach. In these surveys, the 3 villages Huri, Chhuma and Ghodigaun, which are the partners in the currently new, 3-years HCD program that was started in September 2013, have shown a particularly keen interest to start working again in partnership with our local NGO partner RIDS-Nepal to design and implement long-term HCD projects in their villages. Thus, RIDS-Nepal, in partnership with these three village communities and under the leadership of Dr. Alex Zahnd, RIDS-Switzerland, have designed a 3-years HCD program to be jointly implemented through RIDS-Nepal and the local people. In July 2013, the Foundation Symphasis decided to provide the funding for this entire 3-years HCD program.
