A self-help group provided Narakala from Nepal with the knowledge and opportunity to rear and sell chickens so she can now make ends meet.

Is this really all it takes?

You inevitably ask yourself this when you read one story after another about how hives, kitchen gardens, fish ponds, livestock and a small modest chicken farm can change the opportunities of a poor family.

Hard to make ends meet

Now take Narakala Thapa from the remote village of Dulli in Sarkegad municipality up the Himalayas in northwestern Nepal. She is responsible for 10 family members, including a little sister who was raped as a teenager and as a result has a half-grown daughter. Narakala’s husband works occasionally in the village and she herself cultivates the family’s small kitchen garden.

Yes, they get something to eat every day, but necessities like clothes, health care and schooling for her 6 children, she cannot afford.

Save up and borrow for investment

But then she was invited to join a self-help group, which is supported by Mission East. Here she learns to read and write, gain insight into health and hygiene and even how to counteract corruption in the village and promote a climate-friendly lifestyle.

She also learns to rear chickens – and here she gets help to transfer her knowledge in a concrete project. In the self-help group, she can both save up on the small funds she has and borrow money for investment.

No sooner said, than done. She borrows the equivalent to 70 Dollars to be able to rear chickens. She invests 30 Dollars in a cage, two roosters and three chickens.

Motivation and ‘a new mindset’

The little farm quickly grow to 30 hens; 25 of them she sells and earns 110 Dollars. And suddenly she has money for family expenses. As for the loan, she has paid it back to the self-help group’s “bank”.

– The encouragement from the self-help group gave me the courage to start raising chickens. They have given me a new mindset. Now I know I will be able to cope with the challenges of improving the family’s living conditions. I am so happy for the support and motivation I have received here, says Narakala Thapa.

Mission East has since 2007 helped vulnerable people and communities out of extreme poverty – primarily in the remote Karnali region of northwestern Nepal, where the village of Dulli in Sarkegad municipality is located.