Namlo Final Report to VWCF on the Dhuskun Community Center
Transcription
Namlo Final Report to VWCF on the Dhuskun Community Center
VIRGINA WELLINGTON CABOT FOUNDATION Final Report September 6th 2014 Date: Name of the organization: Namlo Nepal/Namlo International Program Name: Dhuskun Community Center Contact person and title: Address: Keith Frausto, Executive Director 5032 W. 36th Ave., Denver, CO 80212 Phone: 303-399-3649 [email protected] Grant Amount: $16,338.00 For Project Support x Project Support Challenge Grant Capital/Endowment Period of this report covers from the January 1st 2014 to August 30th 2014 (8 months) 1. Please describe how the Virginia Wellington Cabot Foundation grant money was spent, and enclose a copy of your most recent financial statements (audited preferred) The Virginia Wellington Cabot Foundation grant money was used to construct a two-story, four room community building in Dhuskun, Nepal, that will be used to support activities of the Chhema Devi Income-Generating Women’s Group, and serve as a community center to host adult education, community programs, as well as act as a cooperative business office. Other objectives of this project are: 1) to provide permanent space for education and income-generating activities; Coffee Processing and Ginger Progressing to run and expand their business smoothly. 2) to provide place for rural business activities such as Cooperatives and saving credit. 3) to create opportunity for local youth become self-employed by providing short-term training programs. 4) to establish an institution where men and women can work together Namlo International began its involvement in Dhuskun with the construction of an elementary and Middle school for 450 children. Dhuskun includes 9 wards and a total of about 700 households. The community center was built in Ward 1, where there are about 60 households. The project has a specific focus on the women who were participants in Namlo’s adult literacy and incomegeneration programs. As part of prior programs (the Western Union grant for adult literacy & income generation program), a cooperative of over thirty three women was formed to become owners of this center. The Shree Chhema Devi Income Generating Women Group, is now a legally registered women group at Sindhuhapalchwok district. Note: Please find then attached financial report with this report. 2. To what extent have your stated goals been met? We have received $16,338.00 from Virginia Wellington Cabot Foundation for this project, and completed the construction of the school in August of 2014. Before construction of this building the women’s group used to conduct meetings, educational classes and business activities at open place and deteriorated old building. They requested to Namlo and other organization to work with them for construction of women building for four years. Namlo community workers visited the place and found their meeting place’s condition was deteriorated and risky as well. In the four years of time working with them and series of meetings with the community, Namlo decided to help them women to build community center. Just as important as the construction of the building, the process used with the women’s group was collaborative, with the Community Building Construction Management Group, comprised of eleven members of the women’s cooperative coordinated all aspects of implementation. Namlo organized the project to be a form of capacity building and leadership development for the women’s group. From the beginning of the project, the women group actively the lead the management of the project, as well as being directly involved in its construction. They were involved in collecting price rates, buying materials, transporting materials to and financial report ing as well. Background: Namlo International & Namlo Nepal signed on MOU on 1/22/2014 for 1 year duration, up to December 30th, 2014. Mr.Robert McGough President of Namlo International and Mr. Gopal Gurung, Secretary of Namlo Nepal signed on Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU). Ms. Magda King from Namlo International and Ms. Aruna Thapa from Namlo Nepal also signed on MOU as witness. After the MOU was signed, Namlo Nepal prepared an agreement letter with Shree Chhema Devi Income Generation Women Group, and signed an agreement on 14/01/2014 Mr. Dipendra Joshi, Project Coordinator of Namlo Nepal and Ms. Krishna Kumari Rijal, President of Shree Chhema Devi Income Generating Women Group signed on MOU. Ms. Sangmu Sherpa from Namlo Nepal and Ms. Radha Dhungana, Treasurer of women groups signed as witness. Mr. Khika Prasad Timilsena, Dhuksun VDC Secretary also signed an agreement as witness. Implementation Procedures: 1. Namlo facilitated the women group to establish 11 members Community Building Construction Committee. 2. After signed an agreement, women group deposited $821.05 (which is 3% of project cost) as a Maintenance Fund at bank by opening separate account for this building project. 3. Construction committee prepared a work plan to construct the building and submitted it to Namlo Nepal. 2 4. Before the start the construction, the Namlo team provided an orientation class about working methodologies and financial aspects. 5. Namlo facilitated the women group to select qualified and experienced skilled labor. 6. To transport the construction materials at time, women group improved road side and made space to store sand, aggregate, stone and block. This was also done by community members by utilizing local resources. 7. Leveled the land for building the structure. 8. Transported construction materials. 9. The community building construction committee conducted monthly meetings and shared ongoing progress including financial status among Shree Chhema Devi Income Generating Women Group and construction committee. 10. They have completed all the construction related activities including doors, windows, furniture and painting by the mid of August, 2014. Project Outcomes: ! A new four room two story building, built with reinforced concrete was completed at ward no. 1, Dhuksun VDC and has been already started to use. About 100 women will benefit from this new building from coming year. Over 300 women and men from surrounding VDCs will receive indirect benefits from community center in coming days by getting safe a and suitable place for training. ! Dhuskun Village Development Committee(VDC) also donated $716.00 to Women Group to support the Community Center. ! This project utilized high level of local contribution and the final building is of extremely high quality and durability. This factor not only reduced the overall cost of the project but builds local ownership in the project outcome and long-term maintenance. Please see the attached financial report for further details on local contribution amounts and expenses. ! The women group is working with the Dhuskun VDC to expand the members and entrepreneurship opportunities. They are planning to start education and training workshops in the coming days for women, men and youth. Opportunity for the community - additional outcomes: ! During the time of construction, about five women and ten community members were employed as skilled labor which directly benefited local economy. ! During the time of construction five women, Ms. Kamala Neupane, Ms. Sabitri Rijal, Ms. Gita Karki, Ms.Tara Nepali, and Ms. Bhagwoti Neupane became involved as masons. This directly increases the women labor charge being a skilled mason and also serves as a good role model for other women to learn skills. ! Community members, especially the women’s group, had an opportunity to be directly involved by participating in the construction work, collecting funds directly to the project and donating their labor. The experience enabled women group members to increase their leadership and experience working in a collaborative nature. 3 Impact/Results ! Based upon the Community Center 25 years from now (which we believe to be a very low estimate) over 1500 community members will benefit from this community center by being involve in education and business activities. ! Crowding and the safety risk of the old building and open ground have been eliminated via the construction of new building, benefiting over 100 women annually from surrounding VDCs. ! The construction of the new building created a great deal of excitement across the whole VDC towards education and business to a significant amount of local investment and participation. ! This project has been an excellent learning and capacity building experience for Namlo Nepal, the women group and Community Members. The challenges and success experienced with the project have helped Namlo refine its best practices and working methodology. ! Local community members worked as non skilled labor to contribute the project equivalent of $3,132.00 and $2,172.00 as in-kind goods. The VDC donated $716.00 for this project. This high level of local contribution ensures that the local community has a strong sense of ownership in the project outcome and in the long term-maintenance of the building and school. Challenges Faced: Since Namlo works in remote areas, and building itself is in remote site, there were frequent problems to transport the construction materials from market. Hardware suppliers’ strike also delayed the project for two a week, since transportation was shut down across the country. Still in Nepalese society, the male dominating culture and discriminating social stigma are prevalent. Our women’s group also went through such culture and stigma frequently during the construction period, with some people believing that women are not physically and mentally fit to do masonry work. Next Steps: Monitoring and Evaluation: Namlo Nepal will continue to follow up with the women’s group and community members to determine the true impacts and effectiveness of this initiative. Tracking women’s activities: Namlo will follow the keep and publish the data on student enrollment, pass/fail and repetition rates to determine if the new school building and our other education programs have had a positive impact on these indicators. Frequent follow up by Namlo team will determine how well the women’s group and community members are maintaining the community center, and to collect information on the impact of the project. Community Follow up: As we believe strongly in community participation, there is always a great need for continued assistance to garner support from the community. The women group has secured $821.05 as a maintenance fund for this building. 4 Conclusion: Despite several challenges, in our view, this project became a great success. The support provided for this project from donors has changed the women’s capacity and leadership and thus, the lives of women in this extremely remote area. The need for further education and support in Dhsukun and the surrounding communities is still great, and we do look forward to the possibility of skilled-based other initiatives in the future. As part of its broad-based community-building initiatives over the years, Namlo has constructed Vocational Center in Sabhung VDC, four schools and one water system and other aspects of infrastructure. In its efforts to build sustainable communities, Namlo has also engaged in market-oriented activities that include agriculture, business development, women’s cooperatives and other entrepreneurial activities. The Community Center construction has a direct, immediate and positive impact on the local community, and provides educational and business opportunities for women where, at times, none existed before. On the other hand, increased leadership performance is not pre-ordained, and is requires more of an investment than just a “bricks and mortar” approach. In an effort to strengthen leadership performance, Namlo is now planning to expand educational, skilled-based training and business activities in future. 3. What steps are being taken to ensure the sustainability of the program or organization beyond the period of the Virginia Wellington Cabot Foundation grant? Key approach to sustainability lies underneath the feeling of ownership. If the community people own and feel that the project is theirs and all benefits are for them, then they all feel responsible to protect and manage it in a sustainable manner. To encourage the community people feel and own the project, Namlo Nepal encouraged the women in lead role of planning, implementation and monitoring the activities of the project. The project has been implemented fully on participatory approach, including women and excluded groups so that they have feeling of ownership. Shree Chhema Devi Income Generating Women Group is key components in sustaining the project. Hence, from the establishment of Shree Chhema Devi Women Group, Namlo formally and legally institutionalized the group by registering at the office of central district office, Sindhupalchwok. To complete the project successfully, Shree Chhema Devi Income Generating Women Group established Community Building Construction Management Group which consisted 11 members. Out of 11 members there are 8 women and 4 men which were selected by irrespective of sex, caste, class, religion. Shree Chhema Devi Income Generating Women Group also opened a bank account focusing on operation and maintenance of Community Center. This Maintenance and Operation Fund which also ensure the sustainability of the project after the completion of the project. The Group Members also maintained all the expenses report and receipts during the construction period. The group has collected $821.05 is deposited at this account which is self-initiation raised for a maintenance and operation. This fund will be used to operate and maintain the community center. Besides this, a separate women’s group fund was established to initiate and continue the commercial agriculture activities. Members of the group deposit $0.52 each month. The objective of this fund is to provide small amounts of credit to needy members. Both these funds 5 have created opportunities for the women members to participate in the development activities and raise their socio-economic standard. Increased access and control over the resourcea among the community is vital to the sustainability of the project. This project has also adopted the conservation effort and thus will ensure environmental sustainability. The Shree Chhema Devi Income Generating Women Group members themselves are member of Shree Seti Devi Forest Group and coordinated with Shree Seti Devi Forest Group for maintaining the safe environment. Since forest users groups are nationally recognized and work for the sustainability of forestry, the coordination effort of women’s group and forest users group will definitely play effective role in the environment sustainability as well as the sustainability of the project. As part of efforts to build sustainable communities, both Namlo and the community envision the center to become a central hub or “incubator” for local entrepreneurship activities. For this reason, the next important step is to analyze local markets, identify gaps and opportunities around which to build future businesses. Namlo and the community have already identified the first set of activities, including a livestock program, horticultural production and ginger production. !! DHUSKUN COMMUNITY CENTER FINANCIAL REPORT Expenses Approved Budget Actual Building Walls $1,944 $1,923 Rof $4,663 $4,552 Pillars $1,441 $1,178 PCC Work $2,129 $1,749 Plastering $1,371 $937 $255 $412 Wood $1,816 $1,444 Toilet $1,261 $1,477 Fence and Gate $1,706 $$1,711 Furniture $1,220 $1,149 Skilled Labor Costs $5,871 $6,844 Contingency Costs (15%) $3,552 $3,522 Oversight & Administrative (20%) $4,446 $5,446 Total Cost of the project $32,675 $32,374 Paint 6 The VWCF contribution to the total project was $16,338. Namlo has paid only for purchased materials for building construction and cost for skilled labor. Other locally available materials and non-skilled labor contributed by community members. The value of their contribution was as follows: LOCAL CONTRIBUTIONS (In-kind & cash) ITEM AMOUNT FROM Non-skilled labor $3,132Womenʼs group & local community members In-kind (materials) $2,172Womenʼs group & local community members General contribution $716Village Development Committee Maintenance fund $821Womenʼs group Total $6,841 7 ANNEX Shree Chhema Devi Income Generating Women Group Established on 2011 S.N Name Designation 1 President Krishna K. Risal 2 Vice President Patali Nepal 3 Treasurer Radha Dhungana 4 Secretary Sita Neupane 5 Member Sanu Maya Karki 6 Member Sabitri Risal 7 Member Januka karki 8 Member Maiya Neupane 9 Member Nanda K. Karki 10 Gita Nepali Member 11 Swasthani Timilsina Member 12 Goma Khdka Member 13 Dil K. Neupane Member 14 Bhagwati Neupane Member 15 Bhagwati Timilsina Member 16 Tara Nepali Member 17 Deuti Karki Member 18 Runa Neupane Member 19 Radha Karki Member 20 Kamala Neupane -b Member 21 Gita Karki Member 22 Kamala Neupane -a Member 23 Krishna k.Neupane Member 24 Juna Timilsina Member 25 Maiya Timilsina Member 26 Nani maiya Risal Member 27 Top K. Karki Member 28 Radhika Khadka Member 29 Namita Neupane Member 30 Laxmi Budathoki Member 31 Laxmi Neupane Member 32 Bimala Risal Member 33 Purna Maya Timilsena Member 8 Dhuskun Community Center Construction Committee Name List Established on 30 November 2013 Facilitated by Sangmu Sherpa S.N Name Designation Gender 1 Ramesh Neupane President Male 2 Samvu Neupane Vice President Male 3 Januka Karki Treasurer Female 4 Radha Dhungana Secretary Female 5 Patali Nepal Member Female 6 Gita Karki Member Female 7 Laxmi Karki Member Female 8 Tara Nepali Member Female 9 Krishna Kuamri Risal Member Female 10 Thari Prasad Tmilsena Advisor Male 11 Bhakta Narayan Risal Advisor Male Members of the Dhuskun Women’s Cooperative tying rebar to construct their Center 9 Women of the Cooperative Provided Labor for the Center’s Construction 10 Building the Center, and the Finished Building Below 11 The Shree Chhema Devi Income Generation Women’s Group in their new Center – August, 2014 12