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UK Ambassador's
Field Visit
The British Ambassador to Nepal, Mr. Keith
Bloomfield made a field visit to Banke District and observed
various projects implemented under the Rural Community Infrastructure
and Livelihood Support Project (RCILSP) funded by the UK Department
for International Development (DFID) at Balapur community
in Mahadevpuri VDC on 24 October, 2005.
He observed the Balapur Green Road Construction
project (3 km) and the Ex Kamaiya Shallow Tube Well Project
along with a number of culverts constructed along the green
road. Mr. Mohan Khatri, the chairperson of the Users' Committee
spoke on behalf of the community and gave a briefing on the
overall programme of work implemented under the RCILSP by
RRN with support from DFID.
Keith Bloomfield expressed his appreciation
of the warm welcome and said that he was very happy to observe
development projects implemented with the active participation
of the community. He assured the audience that DFID will continue
to support development projects in Nepal despite the prevailing
conflict situation in the country.
Mr Bal Krishna Chaudhary, Regional Coordinator,
presented the highlights of the overall achievements of the
RCILSP Project across different districts. Ms Kamala Pant,
District Coordinator for Banke district thanked the ambassador
and Mrs. Bloomfield for their visit to Balapur and thanked
community members and RRN staff for the excellent arrangements
and information sharing. The programme was organised by Ruplal
Aidi, the Monitoring Officer based in Nepalgunj, Banke.
DAC Field Visit
A team from the Development Assistance Committee
(DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) visited the Community Support Programme implemented
by RRN and NEWHA in Banke and Bardiya districts, with funding
from DFID. The DAC team had come to Nepal to review the development
aid programmes of DFID. The DAC team, which was made up of
members from several donor countries, visited the Balapur
integrated project. The team was welcomed by the Balapur community.
Upon arrival, they were briefed about the project while driving
round the Balapur ring road. The team was exposed to the Shallow
Tube Well Irrigation project for Ex-Kamaiyas, where they observed
the community irrigating land using water from the shallow
tube well.
The team members interacted with community
members and discussed on a range of issues including the changes
brought about after the completion of infrastructure work.
Thaggu Tharu, the chairperson of the Ex Kamaiya community,
briefed the team on the changes brought by the irrigation
support programme to his village. The community members were
very pleased to welcome the visitors and presented a letter
to them on behalf of the whole community.
The visitors thanked the community people
for the warm welcome. They were very happy to see such an
excellent work with the support from DFID fund through RRN.
Basic Risk Management Training
With the objective of sensitising staff
on the basic principles of risk management, the Risk Management
Office (RMO) of DFID organised a Basic Risk Management Training
for DFID partner organisations and their programme staff from
from the mid and far western Region. Four RRN District Co-ordinators,
namely Bhanu Parajuli from Kanchanpur; Kalpana Shrestha from
Bardiya; Ms Kamala Pant from Banke and Ms Bimala KC from Salyan
participated in the training from October 27 -29, 2005 at
Kitchen Hut in Nepalgunj. A total of 52 participants attended
the training from different districts.
Relief Material Distribution in Kanchanpur
and Dang districts for the flood victims
RRN distributed relief material to the flood
victims of Dodhara Chandani VDC including the municipal areas
in Kanchanpur and Sishaniya VDC and Sonpur VDC of Dang District
on October 2 and October 30 respectively. Local community
representatives, Red Cross officials and teachers attended
the distribution function.
Flooding from the Mahakali River entered
the community settlement area on the night of September 26,
2005 in Kanchanpur. Flooding from the Rapti River entered
the Deukhuri belt on October 19, 20 and 21 affecting the lives
of the rural community, and causing millions of rupees worth
of damage to property. RRN distributed relief material to
the flood victims of Deukhuri valley on 30 October, 2005 amidst
a formal function attended by local people, Red Cross representatives,
teachers and the local journalists.
RRN President
attends ‘Consultation on Resistance and Alternatives
to Debt Domination’, 28-30 September, Cuba
This year saw the 20th anniversary of the
historic meetings in Havana, Cuba, that focused the world's
attention on the true nature of the debt crisis and strengthened
the struggle against the payment of enslaving debt burdens.
To remember and celebrate the anniversary, analyse the changes
which have occurred and discuss the next steps, Jubilee South
convened a ‘Consultation on Resistance and Alternatives
to Debt Domination’, from 28 to 30 September 2005 - again
in Havana, Cuba.
The RRN President, DR Arjun Karki, attended
and addressed the Consultation as the South Asian Regional
Head of Jubilee South. At the meeting Southern and Northern
people's movements and organisations agreed to work together
to promote global recognition of the debt burden of developing
countries and the associated rise in poverty, that has been
further exacerbated by the process of globalisation and the
imposition of neoliberal policies by governments, transnational
corporations and multinationals, such as the World Bank, WTO
and IMF. At the meeting, RRN was also elected as one of the
Asia-Pacific representatives of Jubilee South’s International
Coordination Committee (ICC).
For more information please see: http://www.jubileesouth.org.
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