Linking Entrepreneurship with Agriculture

Nepal is an agro-based country and its economy is highly dominated by agriculture as it is the main source of food, income and employment for majority of Nepalese people. However, most of the farmers in the country can hardly meet their household and other expenses. As a result they have a very low economic status and thus do not have the capital to invest in entrepreneurship.

Nepal Jesuit Social Institute is encouraging people to improve their livelihood through the means of agriculture. Economic support is provided to groups of five people to start up their own farming or animal husbandry. Presently, money has been granted to 5 groups from Tipling and 5 groups from Jaretar for poultry farming, sheep and goat rearing, vegetable farming and tailoring as a means to increase their source of income.

The ratio of women to men beneficiaries is quite high in most of NJSI’s entrepreneur programs which is parallel to NJSI’s intention of women of empowerment. This opportunity of entrepreneurship will help them to be economically independent and simultaneously also increase agriculture production.

Building Network for a Change

Nepal Jesuit Social Institute has always tried new ways to bring positive change in the society. One of the recent works includes facilitating 2 organization for people with special needs with electronic materials. Blind Star Society and Blind Rocks are self-made institutions working for enhancing lives of visually impaired people to help them live independently.

On 13th February 2019, 4 computers and 2 scanners were provided to Blind Rocks for helping visually impaired students of Shree Sawaswati Secondary School, Gorkha and 2 computers were provided to Blind Rocks for official purpose. 8 representatives from both the organization gathered at the premises of NJSI for the distribution program. Each of them introduced themselves and expressed their gratitude toward NJSI for the continuous support. Both of the organizations are doing tremendous jobs in uplifting the life of differently abled people and needless to say, their contribution to the society is praise worthy.

NO MORE STRUGGLE FOR BASIC NECESSITY

Water is one of the basic human necessities but a large portion of Nepalese population is devoid of access to safe and adequate drinking water. Sirantole is one of the remote places of Helambu Rural Municipality, Sindhupalchowk where people spend most of their hours travelling to fetch water. Understanding that an easy accessibility of water is crucial, Nepal Jesuit Social Institute is building a water tank to abate the problem which is currently effecting so many lives.

The work of Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) for the water tank of 18000 liters capacity has finished. Intake from source tank is also ready whereas installment of pipeline is going on and soon construction of taps will also start. The water tank is expected to be completed soon and will be ready for handover to the local villagers so they can live a much healthier life.

Restoration of Hope- Possible Life Center

Differently abled people are perceived in several ways. Some view them as spiritually cursed and some take it as natural phenomenon. Most of the differently abled people have to suffer myriad of challenges in their day to day life. They suffer range of complications during in their day to day life including physical, mental, educational, health but mainly economic. Society, institutions, government and even their own families at times, choose to disassociate themselves from people with disability. But there are exemplary people who have chosen to stand against all odds life has served them with and have risen much stronger than the rest of the world and Possible Life Center happens to be home to many of them.

This institution is situated at Lolang-4, Milanbasti, Balaju, Kathmandu and formed by same people who were once discriminated by society because of their disability. They have been running the center since 2072 B.S and altogether 13 people work together to inspire other people at present. They make and sell attractive handicrafts like Jewelry made from paper, Balls, Cloth item etc. They have skills to produce handicraft items however cannot afford resources and materials. So, Nepal Jesuit Social Institute economically supported them to buy materials like cotton and velvet clothes, cutting machine and threads which they have requested for to make various cloth items such as Maternity gown, Tops, Bhoto and Daura for children, Water proof bags, Petticoats and many more. On 12th February 2019, they received the amount and bought required materials.

This help is a milestone for developing their entrepreneurship for which they are thankful towards us.

Graduation of Future Leaders

Nepal Jesuit Social Institute has been supporting and helping in betterment of livelihood of people not just by conducting various activities but also by providing economic support. Management and Computer course is one of the project funded by NJSI but run by St. Anne’s which is located in Taukhel, Godawari-3, Lalitpur. The course is 6 month long where the participants are trained in English, Basic computer, Typing speed and Personality and Human relation. The graduating batch is the third batch comprising of 9 students who started the course from July.

St. Anne’s organized the graduation ceremony on 23rd January, 2019 where NJSI team was also present. The well managed program lasted for 2 hours in between which the students danced, sang songs, prepared a poem and also performed drama on the theme “Impacts of Social Media” which was the major highlight of the program. Families of the graduating students were also present in the program to cheer them up.

All of them were very happy and cheerful on completing the basic course. Everyone expressed their gratitude toward St. Anne’s and Nepal Jesuit Social Institute. One of the students said “My English was very bad with lots of grammatical mistakes. After the course my English has improved a lot. One of the biggest achievements after the course is that now I can speak in English in front of mass. I look forward to be a social worker and serve people in need. I look up to St. Anne’s Sisters as my inspiration and role model. I feel proud that I am a member of St. Anne’s and will always be thankful for the course.”

NJSI believes completing this course will undoubtedly help them in their career. They will inspire many more people and can even be future leaders. We wish them luck and bright future.

Breaking the stereotype- BSS participating in CAN InfoTech

Bright Star Society, established as a self-help group in 2013 is an organization which focuses on empowering people with special needs in health services, skill-oriented trainings such as radio anchoring and personality development, disability sensitization short-term trainings and linking people in the inclusive framework of development. Post-earthquake, Nepal Jesuit Social Institute has been linked with Bright Star Society and distributed winter clothes, blankets, bed-nets and assistive tools like white canes, crutches and wheelchairs to the earthquake victims with disabilities in most affected areas like Dolakha, Kavre and Sindhupalchowk. They have also conducted various campaigns, programs and trainings in partnership with NJSI to empower and help person with disability to become independent.

From January 29 to February 3, 2019 Bright Star Society actively participated in the grand exhibition of computer technology CAN InfoTech with the financial support of NJSI in logistic management. Apart from spreading awareness on how to use computers, mobile phones and braille, they introduced interesting things like a palm-talking map, Smart clock for the visually impaired, talking Blood Pressure Measuring Machine, Amazon Alexa device and many more. They also distributed white canes and audio players to the blind and visually impaired students residing in Kathmandu valley.

The six days long exhibition was a grand success as the stall was always crowded with curious visitors. They expressed their heartfelt gratitude to NJSI for supporting this initiative to open up the avenue even for potential employers to consider and unlock their understanding for hiring blind and visually impaired in different job markets.