Mathias lives in Kirke Hyllinge in Central Zealand with his mother, father and little brother. He has been blind ever since he was almost newborn. Still, he feels like a seeing blind, as he calls it, since he doesn't feel restricted by his visual impairment - something he and his parents have worked on throughout his life:

“There are some things for which I always need help. But I want to make sure there are as many things as I can do myself. My parents and I have done this too. I just want to be as independent and self-reliant as possible. "

In Nepal's remote mountainous villages the very young children are at high risk of falling, broken limbs and burns. As medical care is not available, even the smallest accidents can cause lasting disabilities. Unfortunately, Sarita's story is not uncommon in the remote mountainous areas of Nepal. She lives with a physical disability due to an accident she sustained when she was a child when she did not have access to medical care.

In Nepal, people with disabilities have their everyday lives in the unsettled mountain areas, where they move safely around the outermost slopes. With a camera and a drone, Mission East's Communications Officer Michael Schmidt followed a family man and a schoolgirl's life on a steep hillside to an awareness campaign on people with disabilities.

Everyone in Bimala Kafles village was convinced that she and the other women were dangerous during their menstrual period. In Mission East’s youth group, they have discovered that there is nothing to be afraid of. 

Pabitra’s daughter did not get enough food when she was a baby and struggles with physical and cognitive difficulties. But in Mission East’s classes for women in Nepal, Pabitra is now learning how to give her children a healthy and nutritious diet. 

Pabitra comes from an extremely poor Dalit family in the remote mountain area of Western Nepal. She got married by the age of 15 and lives with her husband and three children in the village of Thehe. The family lives off the food they manage to grow on their own little piece of land. 

When women learn to count numbers, calculate and save up money, they can fund small businesses and improve their living conditions.

By Susanne Madsen, Fundraiser and Line Højland, Communications Officer – June 2018

In Jhupu Rokaya’s village Murma, the women have a large metal box with three locks on. Jhupu has the key to one of the locks, but to open the box, the keepers of the two other keys must be present too.

Lalparu Sunar grew up in a poor family in the remote Karnali region. She was unable to read and write. After her participation in a literacy group for women she had the courage to run for local office - and was elected.

By Asha Budha Magar, Mission East Nepal, September 2017

Landslides and floods in Nepal have made thousands of families homeless. Massive bodies of water have washed away food and kitchen utensils. Through a local partner, Mission East now provides families with shelter materials, kitchen utensils and access to clean water.

August 25th 2017 

Mission East aims to enable people in remote communities to respond quickly and effectively when the next disaster strikes.

By Lizz Harrison, Disaster Risk Reduction Programme Manager, Mission East Nepal

Just over two years ago, Nepal was devastated by two major earthquakes hitting within weeks of each other and causing massive destruction. Almost 9,000 people were killed and 20,000 more were injured. 

Mission East saves lives in Nepal – now and many years ahead – by training the population to reduce the risk of disasters. Lizz Harrison, an expert in disaster risk reduction, and explains how.

By Kim Wiesener, Communications Officer, July 3 2017

When a disaster strikes, it may destroy people’s lives, homes and livelihood. It may also cause a lot of damage to a country’s economy. If the country is poor, it is much more difficult to respond to the disaster, and its development may come to a standstill.

The partner organisation of Mission East, HEAD Nepal, locates blind and partially sighted children in remote mountain villages and ensures that they attend school. Laxmi Shahi is one of these children.

By Kim Wiesener, Communications Officer

Laxmi Shahi from Nepal’s remote Humla District is partially sighted, but she is doing very well at school. She is one of the best students in her class and aims to become a teacher for other children with disabilities.

The Mission East Country Director for Nepal realises that it can be expensive to work in the most remote parts of the country. But it is also necessary, he says, given that Mission East aims to reach the most vulnerable.

By Kim Wiesener, Communications Officer

When Patrick Sweeting began to visit Nepal’s remote Karnali Region to inspect Mission East projects, he quickly understood that you must go the extra mile to find the most vulnerable people.

A blind Nepalese boy was forced to live in a cowshed. Now Ram is flourishing at a home that is run by Mission East’s partner organisation, HEAD Nepal.

By Patrick Sweeting, Mission East Country Director, Nepal

Ram Banadur Shahi, a six-year old boy, was not born blind, but he was born poor. As the youngest son of a poor farmer in the mountainous and arid region of Humla District in western Nepal, he could have expected a hard life, but nobody could have predicted the terrible fate that awaited him.

Since 2006, Mission East has worked to develop remote mountain communities in western Nepal. The poverty-stricken population has found new opportunities and hope for the future. A permanent presence in the country also enables Mission East to respond quickly to disaster situations.

By Line Højland, Communications Officer

A project on ”climate-smart” agriculture has created optimism in a village in Western Nepal. With solar-powered water pumps the local farmers can irrigate and cultivate their fields. In December, Mission East’s local partner organisation received an award for the project.

By Kim Wiesener, Communications Officer

Dalli saw her house crumble when the earthquake struck Nepal last spring. The 44-year-old woman and her children had to sleep in the open until Mission East provided material for shelter and hygiene. Now the work continues to secure the future for other vulnerable families.

Piskar lies just a few kilometres from the epicentre of the earthquake that hit Nepal on May 12th and the majority of the houses in the village have collapsed. Mission East arrived with humanitarian aid in the form of tarpaulins and hygiene kits shortly before the monsoon set in and mudslides blocked the roads.

In the aftermath of the Nepal earthquakes, the elderly and people with disabilities are some of the most vulnerable. Man Kaji and Maili Maya are some of the beneficiaries of Mission East’s relief efforts. The rebuilding commences after the monsoon.

15-year old Sapna lost four cousins in the earthquake and the family’s house was completely destroyed. The family now lives in a tent in the schoolyard with no source of income.

Nepal’s population stay in open air during night fearing new shocks after another severe earthquake hit Nepal Tuesday. Mission East provides shelter and clean drinking water.

Mission East distributes tarpaulins and hygiene kits to about 7,000 families close to the earthquake’s epicenter in Nepal. Volunteers help the most vulnerable putting up tents, and staff advises on hygiene issues.

A month from now massive rain will wash down on the millions people affected by the earthquake in Nepal. The relief and development organisation Mission East is at the moment working tirelessly on providing shelter and clean water for the most vulnerable groups in outlying mountain villages.

Mission East works on helping the most vulnerable groups in society. Ujjali aged 84 is one of them.

Mission East distributes relief aid in nine villages northeast of Kathmandu and makes sure that the most vulnerable groups in society – e.g. elderly and people with disabilities – get tarpaulins and hygiene kits to withstand cold weather, rain and infectious diseases.

On Saturday 2nd of May, Mission East distributed tarpaulins and hygiene kits to earthquake victims in four villages close to one of the earthquake’s epicenters northeast of Kathmandu. The gratitude was moving, says Mission East employee.

Humla and Mugu are two of the most remote and impoverished districts in Nepal. Humla is only accessible by air and Mugu by just a seasonal road connection. The isolated geography coupled with poverty, low education, poor health, and deep-rooted harmful socio-cultural practices have narrowed opportunities especially for women to lift themselves out of poverty.

Unwanted and hidden, denied access to education and unable to go outside of the four walls of their home. For people with disabilities, there are many barriers to overcome, both physical, as well as barriers that exist in the minds of other people.

In Tajikistan, children with disabilities are hidden away. In Armenia their parents are reproached for having given birth to them. And in Nepal, persons with disabilities are seen as useless in the harsh mountainous areas, where poverty is so great that there is rarely enough food for the whole family.

In India and Nepal, severe flooding has already cost more than a hundred lives, and more people have been reported missing. In Nepal, Mission East is in the process of getting food aid to the victims in the remote mountainous region of Karnali.

 
In recent day, excessive monsoon rains have caused major flooding and landslides in northern India and western Nepal. Amongst other areas, the flooding has hit the region of Karnali in northwestern Nepal where people live in isolated and inaccessible areas.

It isn’t easy to find your way if you are blind, especially when living in an inaccessible area like the mountains of Western Nepal. Simple things like going to the toilet or fetching clean water become an enormous challenge.
 

Since the inception of Mission East WASH activities in Nepal in 2008, access to clean water and better hygiene practices has significantly improved.
 
This is the conclusion of a fresh review which also includes lessons learned.
 

In the remote districts of Karnali, women have important roles and functions in their community. They have responsibilities and heavy workload, but they have little voice to decide for  their own future and the future development of  their village.
 
Usually, boys have priority to  access school, and literacy rate for women is  much lower than for men. Population often believes that women are weak, not so clever and should only focus on home duties. As consequences, women are among the most vulnerable groups living in Karnali.
 

If you turn on your radio in the mountain villages of Nepal, you can hear people singing about natural disasters.
 
Songs and radio drama have taught 80,000 villagers in the remote mountain areas of Nepal about floods, mudslides and earthquakes.
 
Each year these disasters destroy harvests, block paths, or in the worst cases, take the lives of residents of these mountainous areas. The short melodic jingles that play on the radio are easy to remember and remind people about good risk-reduction practices.
 

 
Recently, UNISDR (The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction) published the book "Risk Returns" which holds a large amount of examples of disaster risk reduction. Danish relief work is represented by Mission East's projects in Nepal.

It is amazing what a few bags of cement can accomplish in the mountains of Nepal. Hear how they have changed the lives of hundreds of people in the impoverished village of Kalika.

"My name is Bhumika. I am 10 years old.

Mission East’s new Country Representative in Nepal, Alessandra Radaelli, has earlier this year visited the Karnali Zone in Nepal where Mission East started new projects in 2007 to help the poor mountain population.
 

For families in the poorest mountain area of Nepal a lot of time is spent fetching water - time that could have been spent in the field working on producing a better yield
40-year-old Indahara's bare feet leave traces in the mud as she walks down the mountain. Here and there mudslides have turned the path into a challenge and it is hard to imagine how she will manage when snow soon starts to fall.

Mission East’s new Country Representative in Nepal, Alessandra Radaelli, has earlier this year visited the Karnali Zone in Nepal where Mission East started new projects in 2007 to help the poor mountain population.

Being close to the people we help is part of the vision of Mission East. Our newly-opened office in Nepal will help us taking care of our assistance to the extremely poor population in the mountainous north of the country.
 

During the next year and a half, Mission East will help sustainably improve the food situation for 5,000 people in northern Nepal.

Imagine sharing a doctor with 40,000 other people. And imagine having to walk several days on narrow paths across mountains and unsafe bridges to reach him.
 

To many women, children, and men in one of the poorest areas in Nepal, Humla, this is one of the hard facts they have to face every day.

Therefore, Mission East is planning a health camp that will teach the population to take better care of itself when the doctor is several mountains away. And the help is much needed.

The AEC Foundation has provided Mission East with funding for vital development activities in the remote, mountainous Soru Belt area of Nepal.
 

Mission East has identified the Soru Belt area and Humla and Muga districts as having the most critical needs within the Karnali zone. We hope to find ourselves addressing urgent needs there with new programmes in 2007.

The decade-long conflict between the government and the Maoists in Nepal appears to be over. In November, the two sides signed a peace agreement. An important way to support the peace process is through providing sustainable solutions to the chronic levels of poverty in many parts of Nepal.