Nepal is full of biodiversity. Due to lack of awareness and rapid population growth, natural resources have been used unexpectedly. If it continues, communities may face awful natural disasters like soil erosions, land slide and consequently, epidemics. VIN therefore mobilizes people from home and abroad as Volunteers and Intern to make community people aware of these issues in association with community based organizations and children clubs. In this program, volunteers / Intern will help to develop village and school profiles organizing meetings with school management committees, students, and community members, in an effort to identify the further needs of the school and the community.
Volunteers will identify their needs by using Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) tools i.e. community mapping, Focused Group Discussions, sorting and Ranking volunteers are positively contributing because succeeding projects can thus be prioritized and developed through this process. During their stay in community, volunteers will also organize many awareness raising activities to help promote the understanding of various environmental and development issues. Awareness campaigns are done through dramas, rallies, stories games and competitions.
This process has strengthened and empowered children's groups, Women Groups and CBOs. Then, they continue these activities for the rest of the period. These activities cover environmental and sanitation campaigns, conservation campaigns, health issue campaigns, etc.
Agroforestry Projects:
VIN has been working together with "Kaule-ev", a German Association, working for Agro-Projects in Kaule, Okharpauwa VDC, Kathmandu, Nepal. If you wish to learn more about their projects please visit their website
http://en.kauleev.org/kaulenepal. Their goal is to support socially sustainable Agro-Projects. Here, the association alludes to the social, economical and ecological aspects of such projects
. If you wish to volunteer through VIN in their projects, you are welcome! Please contact us at
infor@volunteeringnepal.org
The volunteering opportunities with them include: working with farmers in their set farms; renovation of farms; English teaching for farmers and their children.
Possible number of volunteer placements: maximum 4
Time period of placement: between April 2009 and May 2011
Length of placement: 3 weeks – 5 month (limitation by visa regulations)
Employment fields: Working on farm in an agroforestry project, English teaching to farmers and farmer’s children
Description of placement:
1. Agroforestry Project
Volunteers can be placed after the agroforestry training has been given to farmers by NAF (Nepal Agroforestry Foundation) and CARD (Center of Agriculture Research and Development). The training will be for 3 weeks from end of March to start of April).
After the training farmers will develop by them self the restructuring plan of their land. Based on those plans rebuilding of the project area will than be done with the help of volunteers.
Examples for possible elements included in the rebuilding of the project area are:
nursery
contour hedgerows of nitrogen-fixing plants
crop rotation
cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants
fruits and spices
conservation farming
beekeeping
home gardening
Work areas for volunteers could be in any of the listed areas, depending on what farmers decide to include on their land.
2. Teaching English to farmers, farmers children and in a primary school
Evening class:
a) Number of children: 30 – 40
The children are between 5 and 18 years old. At least 2 classes should be formed depending on age and knowledge.
Time: 5 – 5:45 pm first class 6 – 6:45 pm second class
Place: teaching room in the house of Kaule e.V. or in a room of the primary school in Kaule
b) Number of farmers: 15 - 20
Time: 7 – 7:45 pm
Place: teaching room in the house of Kaule e.V. or in a room of the primary school in Kaule
Day class: Teaching in a primary school
Time: approximately 3 hours per day
Place: primary school of Kaule
Food and accommodation for volunteers:
Accommodation will be in the Kaule e.V. house approximately 10 -15 walking minutes to the primary school.
Volunteers get Dal Bhat for breakfast and dinner (or comparable meal) and a snack for lunch.
