What's New

International Tea Day is celebrated globally on 21^st May to create awareness about the demand of this global drink and its economic significance around the world, tea being the second most consumed beverage after water in the world. This year the Jumla group of our RAP3 MHLR inclusion and diversity team organised a virtual event on 21^st May 2021 in which they presented a video about the significance of tea and its values around the world.

The team shared a PowerPoint presentation about tea, its cultivation and processing in the tea factory, cultural values, health benefits, history of tea in Nepal. The team pointed to the importance of tea in fighting hunger and poverty in developing countries around the world. In addition, Subhashini Chandran, the former RAP3 staff who had also worked as the CEO at her family tea business for 18 years, added value with her presence in the Tea event by sharing her experience of managing tea estates. She explained the wages” pay gap” in the tea sector, where 90 to 95 percent of tea pickers are women, that the reason for women earning less than men is related to the occupational hierarchy with women at the bottom of this pyramid. She also spoke about the significant contributions she was able to make during her tenure, such as providing training to help women get supervisor and managerial roles, funding to support education for girl children, medical care and so on. The team’s efforts to celebrate International Tea Day 2021 provided an opportunity to all the RAP3 MHLR staff to learn more about the significant facts, history and importance of the tea worldwide.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to all the members of the Jumla team, especially Subhashini Chandran for contributing her valuable time to mark this meaningful celebration. It was a great event to celebrate in favour of the sustainable production and consumption of tea and its importance in fighting hunger and poverty around the world.

Happy International Tea Day, 2021!

RAP3 MHLR delivers emergency medical supplies to Karnali districts

Nepal has been facing the second wave of the coronavirus over the past few weeks. The rapid rise in infections has posed unprecedented challenges to the country’s health services. In an effort to combat the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Karnali province, UK aid funded RAP3 MHLR has provided health and medical supplies to the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure Development (MoPID), Surkhet and Gamgadhi district hospitals, health posts and isolation centers in Mugu and Humla.  The medical supplies include Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs), surgical masks, N95 masks, face shields, examination gloves, pulse oximeters, sodium hypochlorite, sanitisers, liquid soap, and sanitiser dispensers.

After receiving the RAP3 MHLR supplies, the Health Service Manager of Gamgadhi district hospital, Mrs. Karuna Bhattarai said, “We will make the best use of all the emergency health and medical supplies we receive to minimise the adverse impact of COVID-19 pandemic. We are grateful to the project for delivering supplies on swiftly in this remote district of our country, where people have to lose their lives due to a lack of proper medical treatment.”

Similarly, MoPID Surkhet and Mayor of Chhayanath Rara Municipality, Mugu also expressed their gratitude to RAP3 MHLR for delivering medical supplies swiftly and when they were in need of these emergency supplies the most.

“We were very delighted to receive this emergency medical health supplies from UK aid funded RAP3 MHLR project. We had no hope of receiving emergency supplies for our local health post, and we are grateful to the project for supporting us with emergency assistance to save lives in the village.  Our health post in-charge will deliver these medicines to the patients who have been waiting for medications at the health post. We are hopeful that this will be of tremendous support to those fighting COVID-19 in the village”.

— Mr. Chakra Saud, Ward Chairperson of Chhayanath Rara Municipality, Mugu.

We hope that our medical supplies in Karnali will help frontline workers save lives of people infected with the virus. 

International Family Day is celebrated globally on May 15^th to spread awareness about the benefits of the family system, family problems in our society and to honor the fact that families are the basic foundation of society. This year the Kalikot group of our RAP3 MHLR inclusion and diversity team organised a virtual event on 14^th May 2021 in which they presented a video about the importance of having a family in both happy and sad times.

Through a short play, the team presented why it is important to take care of elderly family members during an epidemic like COVID-19, how good family care can help corona patients recover faster, and how those who are away from home can stay in touch with their families through technology.  The next part of the video showed the story of some members of the Road Building Groups (RBGs) and specific maintenance group (SMGs) and the difficult times they had to go through due to the untimely demise of loved ones. They described why a loved one’s memory will always be a precious treasure for family members as well as the pain of losing family members. One of the project staff recited a powerful poem describing why family is a beautiful gift and how we can be an example to society by having healthy and positive relationships with our family members.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to all the members of the Kalikot team to mark this meaningful celebration. It was a great event that depicts why family is one of the most important and valuable gifts of our life.

Happy International Family Day, 2021!

Public audits in all five Local Road User Committees (LRUCs) were carried out between 27 April and 29 April 2021 in Mugu and Humla. Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, only project staff and group leaders of Road Building Groups (RBGs) and Special Road Building Groups (SRBGs) attended the public audits held in Bamagairigaun, Panidhara, Rughamasta, Luma Gurudev and Dudedaha LRUCs.

Despite the pandemic and the lockdown, wage distribution by the project staff to workers in 2020/21 was carried out with the support of local officials, but no public audits were conducted due to safety concerns. In late April the project was able to hold its first public audits for the previous year’s payments, as well as the first payment of the current year (March 2020 -March 2021). Payments and public audits all followed the project’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols. The overall purpose of the public audits was to discuss and give feedback between beneficiaries, stakeholders and the project team on the design, delivery, quality of service and verification of payments received by RBGs/SRBGs and expenditures made by LRUCs. These meetings were also useful to increase the sense of ownership amongst beneficiaries and stakeholders. The participants were given sufficient time to raise any issues, misunderstandings, concerns, and queries they might have and the project field team helped to clear up all the issues and queries raised during the meeting. The public audit meeting with beneficiaries and stakeholders also helped to understand, analyse, and improve the social and ethical approach of the programme.

For the past few years, the RAP3 MHLR central office has relied on Doko Recyclers to manage our recyclable office waste. Since the project signed a contract with Doko Recyclers, our support staff at head office have been segregating recyclable waste and disposing of it in separate bins supplied by Doko Recyclers. It is important to protect our air and water quality, as well as our overall green environment, and as a project we try to promote recycling whenever possible. It is important to think which waste can be saved from going to landfill sites whether it is paper products, E-materials, plastics or recycling old items. We can help to make a difference by optimising waste recycling to reduce energy consumption and pollution of the air, water, and land.

Donate or get paid for your recyclable waste by enrolling in Doko Recycler’s services or calling them at 9802044436 or visiting their website at www.dokorecyclers.com.

Thank you Doko Recyclers for your continuous effort to help spruce up our environment.

Dr. Suman Baidya (Infrastructure Adviser) and Surya Rana (Programme Manager) from British Embassy Kathmandu (BEK) visited the entire Mugu Humla Link Road alignment in Mugu and Humla from 10^th to 14^th April 2021.  The BEK team met officials of Chankheli Rural Municipality at Deuli, Ward Chairperson of Chhayanath Rara Municipality at Bama and similarly they had a meeting with Deputy Mayor and Executive officer at Chhayanath Rara Municipality office.

The team also interacted with the Road Building Groups (RBGs), Special Road Building Groups (SRBGs) and Local Road User Committee (LRUC), and road users on the road sites and observed various project field activities in the Mugu and Humla sections. Furthermore, the team also held a discussion on substantial completion of Gamgadhi-Chankheli section at Bama. Suman Baidya urged for road maintenance by Nepal Government and local communities after its handover. He also urged local communities to maximise such positive impacts and overcome the negative impacts of the road (e.g. road safety and deforestation). He expressed hope for positive changes in the road’s influence area in agriculture, tourism, health and education sectors; and requested local governments for long term plans to make it happen.

During the substantial completion and other discussions, the locals also shared the benefits they have received as a result of the road construction, such as emergency medical services, wage in transparent manner, women empowerment, significant reduction in the price of rice etc.

The COVID-19 safety protocols were strictly followed during the field trip.

World Health Day is a global health awareness day observed every year on April 7 to raise awareness about the overall health and well-being of people across the world.

On the occasion of World Health Day, the Jajarkot group of our RAP3 MHLR inclusion and diversity team organized a virtual event on 9^th April in which they presented a video about the significance of maintaining physical health and mental health in our daily lives. The video highlighted the importance of a healthy routine, the benefits of consuming healthy food, the importance of avoiding stress, and giving equal priority to health and working. The video concluded with a list of the benefits that can be obtained from keeping these healthy practices.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to all the members of the Jajarkot team to mark this meaningful celebration of World Health Day. It is also the day to thank all the doctors, nurses, midwives and healthcare workers for always working hard to keep us fit and healthy.