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USAID/Nepal’s health activities focus on providing high quality, voluntary family planning services, improving maternal and child health, reducing the transmission of HIV/AIDS in high-risk groups, monitoring infectious diseases, and addressing the psychosocial needs of children in conflict.
Safe Motherhood Newsletter
Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHV) Program
Community of Love and Affection (SNEHA Samaj)
Girls’ Access to Education (GATE) Program
Safe Motherhood Newsletter
A national Safe Motherhood newsletter reaching more than 10,000 maternal
health care providers delivers information on national policies
to raise awareness of maternal mortality issues. With the
Government of Nepal, USAID devised and initiated a strategy
for safe motherhood training and pilot tested a model Birth
Preparedness Package, including a financial planning tool
for families to prepare for pregnancy, at the local level.
USAID/Nepal also developed a five-year strategy for social
marketing of family planning, maternal health, and HIV prevention
products and services using lessons learned from prior private
sector efforts. As of early 2005, a more focused family planning
social marketing program is targeting the health needs of
adolescent girls and boys, reaching close to 50 percent of the entire population.
Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHV) Program
USAID supported the training of 46,000 female community health volunteers to deliver basic health care nationwide. The work of the volunteers includes providing vitamin A supplements every six months to 3.5 million children aged six months to five years, thereby preventing at least 12,000 child deaths annually. Volunteers in 22 districts have been trained to detect childhood pneumonia, treat mild cases, and refer severe cases and patients who do not respond to treatment to health facilities. The activity also teaches mothers about maternal and child health and provides guidance on treating pneumonia and acute respiratory infections during the winter and diarrhea during the summer.
Community of Love and Affection (SNEHA Samaj)
Nepal reported its first case of HIV/AIDS in 1988. Sixteen years later, UNAIDS estimated that nearly 60,000 adults and children have become infected and classified Nepal as having a concentrated HIV/AIDS epidemic, with those affected facing stigma and discrimination. While several groups of HIV-positive individuals have been formed in Nepal, many Nepalese women and children affected and infected by HIV/AIDS felt uncomfortable joining them. In January 2004, USAID/Nepal helped the women and children form their own support group, the first of its kind, to identify and speak out about their needs.
USAID/Nepal trained the group’s members to run a support group, helped them organize the Fair for the Lives of Women to celebrate International Women’s Day, and provided capacity building support that enabled them to become officially registered in May 2004 as the “Community of Love and Affection” (SNEHA Samaj). USAID then helped the Community draft its constitution, which included providing care and support to women and children testing positive for and affected by HIV/AIDS; raising awareness about HIV/AIDS; improving the quality of life of HIV-positive women; and conducting fundraising programs for the organization’s sustainability. These efforts enabled the Community to gain recognition and access to resources and ensured its effective and meaningful participation in the HIV/AIDS policymaking process.
SNEHA Samaj is becoming a strong advocate for key issues related to women and children living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. As a member of Nepal’s Country Coordinating Mechanism of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Community’s chair has participated in public meetings to discuss the issues facing women infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. USAID/Nepal continues to support the Community to run a monthly forum where women gather to discuss their needs, issues, and concerns. SNEHA Samaj’s future plans include establishing and operating a drop-in center to provide counseling and referral services to women and children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.
Girls’ Access to Education (GATE) Program
USAID/Nepal supports the GATE Program, providing out-of-school girls, aged 10-19
years, with programs for literacy through health education. Working in cooperation
with World Education, the Mission developed a nine-month literacy curriculum
that incorporates reproductive health topics and anti-trafficking messages within
a basic literacy curriculum. Since 2000, it has reached over 5,000 girls in nine
districts where female illiteracy rates range from 30 percent to over 70 percent.
Testing of GATE graduates has shown that vital health knowledge typically
increased fivefold. Indicators such as “use of latrines” rose by almost 300 percent,
and approximately 40 percent of the GATE graduates enrolled in formal education
after completion of the course. This simple but relevant basic education course
has successfully changed the minds of parents who had previously followed the
custom of not educating their daughters.
Since 2004, USAID/Nepal expanded this Program to ten districts and plans to provide
6,000 out-of-school girls with literary skills in just over two years.
The program will improve the knowledge, attitudes, and life skills of an additional
3,000 in and out-of-school girls to communicate about health care with their
parents, peers, and community leaders. Through one year of weekly discussions
about reproductive health issues, girls will be able to acquire knowledge and
develop confidence about protecting their own health, expanding their opportunities,
and becoming catalysts for social change within their families and communities.
In the midst of areas heavily affected by conflict, local partners, including
Swasthya Chautari (Health Forum under the Village Tree) and Building Demand
for Reproductive Health, are mounting activities to develop girls’ skills and
promote hope for positive and non-violent social change.
Nepal's Program Objectives
Health
Economic Growth
Democracy & Governance
Trafficking
SELECTED ACTIVITIES:
Safe Motherhood Newsletter
Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHV) Program
Community of Love and Affection (SNEHA Samaj)
Girls’ Access to Education (GATE) Program
Smallholder Irrigation Market Initiative
Strengthened Actions for Governance in Utilization of Natural Resources Program (SAGUN)
Sustainable Incomes for Women in Gulmi and Argakhanchi
Women in Hydropower Development
Increasing Women’s Political Participation
Strengthening the Role of Civil Society and Women in Democracy and Governance (SAMARPAN)
Rule of Law and Respect of Human Rights Program
Trafficking Prevention and Gainful Employment
Visit USAID/Nepal link
to the Mission
Global Snapshot: Nepal
Homepage
Global Snapshots is a web-based series highlighting
successful gender-related activities undertaken by
USAID Missions around the world. The snapshots illustrate
Mission objectives and activities that take gender
considerations into their implementation.
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Child Marriage
