CAN Success Story

Over the previous five years, to 31 March 2005, Community Action Nepal has raised over £354,843. All donations have been transferred to Nepal without any deduction for UK administrative costs. All CAN UK expenses are met through lectures, sales of Nepalese goods and by support from the trekking company Community Action Treks Limited (CAT). In the UK CAN employs one full-time Co-ordinator. All the other employees are based in Nepal and are Nepali nationals.

The completed projects represent a wide spread of financial investment - from the most expensive, a Porter Shelter costing £46,000, plus a large amount of ‘in-kind’ contribution, to the most inexpensive project costing only a few pounds - help with the painting of a Stupa. There are instances where funding was raised for a Nepalese child to have heart surgery and the provision of finance for an electric scooter for a polio victim.

CAN’s sponsors range from larger organisations and trusts to individuals - Including young children and individual trekkers, all of whom are supporting improved health, education and general community development in the project areas.

In the current Financial Year CAN UK has sent quarterly bank transfers to CAN Nepal to cover an education budget of over £28,000 p.a., a health budget exceeding £39,000 p.a. and a community development budget of approximately £9,000 p.a. Other expenses include the cost of a central office (with eight staff) and administration, plus field visit expenses for regular monitoring visits to project sites, approximately £21,050 p.a.

Widening the appeal - a conduit has been created where not only Doug and his mountaineering friends can give back to the mountain people but also others too. Numerous walkers and mountaineers across Britain now feel they have a direct connection, through CAN, with the Nepalese whose mountains have given them so much pleasure. Many of the trekkers who have trekked with CAT have later raised money for CAN in their desire to “help out”, as Doug, the trustees and friends of CAN have done these last ten years.

Strengthening community life - despite the grinding poverty of everyday life in and around the village of Walung, East of Makalu there is now a renewal of community spirit as the result of the Gompa. The Gompa was fully supported by CAN, at the request of the village elders, as a place of not only worship but also as the centre of village life. It is also the temporary Health Centre.

Thousands of villagers can now find relief from toothache - in Nepal there are no dentists permanently working outside the five main towns. Now that our nurses are trained to extract teeth at the six, permanent Health Posts, approximately 50,000 people are able to seek relief from tooth abscess.

Women’s Groups are strengthened - not only are the children taught to read and write but also adults have the same opportunity through CAN’s adult education programmes. They also learn to book-keep and handle financial loans and income from income generating schemes. The women who laboriously make allo cloth from nettles now know CAN will provide a ready market and a fair price for their labours.

Reversal of the depopulation of remote villages - since CAN has supported schools, Health Posts and temporary dormitory accommodation the population of the Upper Melamchi Basin (Hellambu) has increased and reversed the decline due to migrants’ labour and lack of local amenities.

The need to...

1 ...be village led rather than donor driven. CAN is village led rather than donor driven in that we are inspired to take on projects at the suggestion of resourceful village people.

2 ...to remain a “grass roots” operation rather than a jeep-type NGO. CAN continues to remain at “grass roots” tending towards a “bare foot” operation rather than a “jeep-type” NGO. CAN avoids employing aid agency professionals so as to remain independent and innovative and not to become just another part of the aid industry.

3 ...work in partnership with other appropriate charities. CAN believes charities should, where appropriate, be charitable to each other and work in partnership. CAN and the following mountain based charities have come together in mutual aid - RokPa (Samye Ling Tibetan Centre), Promise Nepal (Maggie Burgess), The Scottish Foundation for Surgery in Nepal (Sir David Carter, Mrs Trish Lang), International Porter Protection Group (Everest Doctor Jim Duff), Porter Progress (American Ben Ayres), Himalayan Trust (Ed Hillary and George Band UK).

4 ...avoid excessive bureaucracy and heavy handed leadership. CAN avoids the ordeal by planning as explorer Bill Tillman put it when extolling the virtues of organising Himalayan Expeditions on the back of an envelope or as former trustee, Stephen Goodwin points out, “too much input from too many people suggests that unless an executive hold is taken on the process we are heading for the classic horse designed by a committee – a camel!” Just a poignant “if Moses had tried to draft The Ten Commandments like this we would still be waiting for him to come down from the mountain”.

5 ...continue sending all donations out to Nepal. CAN sends all donations received in the UK to Nepal. No donations are spent on wages or administration. The salary of our first and only full time staff member, Ruth Moore, is covered from sales and lectures, etc. All office overheads – stationery, telephones, rent, etc are covered by CAT

6 ...ensure the Nepal Management Committee reconciles difficulties between Kathmandu office and remote villages. Out in Nepal the Management Committee includes representatives from project areas - i.e. it is not simply staffed with influential Kathmandu residents making important decisions about work in rural areas. It is a third force for balance in that it reconciles difficulties between the Nepal office workers and the Nepali villagers. The result has been to:

● give project beneficiaries a close communication with CAN as an NGO

● give them direct information as to how CAN works and confidence that CAN will continue helping them into the future

● give them the chance to make a valuable contribution towards planning projects and CAN’s overall strategy in Nepal.

7 ...avoid donor dependency syndrome. At least one third of the cost of CAN funded projects are actually funded by the villagers, thus avoiding the donor dependency syndrome that can so easily reduce community participation. Labour is costed into the estimates and it is here that the local people can contribute their sarandong? – voluntary labour. The result of this is for the villagers to fully appreciate and maintain their own project as CAN increasingly takes a back seat.

8 ...continually monitor CAN’s field work. CAN’s field work is constantly monitored to ensure:

● Funds are used appropriately and costs are based on local rates. Any fiddling and the project is stopped until such problems are resolved.

● That the Community Development Committees and CAN overseers are satisfied with the contractors’ work.

● That appropriate maintenance and repairs are carried out.

9 ...CAN accepts full responsibility for what it implements. CAN accepts full responsibility for what it starts - in our schools, teachers are selected who will encourage village children to be proud of all that they have going for them and they are not just there to train up imitation westerners. CAN’s resources are also put into vocational training and income generating schemes, with the aim to encourage bright, well-educated, young people to remain in the hills. Whilst introducing western medicine we would be failing if we did not put great emphasis on family planning, otherwise there would be a population explosion.

10 ...phase CAN out as local community committees take over. The eventual plan is to phase out support to a community once CAN is no longer needed as the implementing body. This will require the local management committee to generate enough income to keep the project sustainable.

The ultimate hope is for CAN UK to completely withdraw from Nepal and to pass over all responsibilities to Nepali citizens. We now have to work towards their financial independence. This will be difficult but a significant milestone when it is achieved.

Reg. Charity No: 1067772 - Warwick Mill, Warwick Bridge, Carlisle, CA4 8RR