Sahayogi Hat Paropakar Karayakraram (Helping hand Social Service Charity (HSSC)

Establishment: 13^th September 2012

Introduction:

On the occasion of 42^nd birthday on 13^th September 2012, I would like to declare a trust fund- Helping hand Social Service Charity (HSSC) Nepal.  The trust fund will establish with fixed term deposit of one hundred thousand rupees (100000). The interest amount Rs 12000 from the deposited fund will be counted as income. The annual income-Rs 12000 will be provided to conflict/war and cerebral palsy. In medical term, cerebral palsy is paralysis resulting from abnormal development or damage to the brain before or soon after birth.  Initially, this fund will be used to support two children each year. To extend the support to the needy people of Rapti Zone, Mid-west, and the fund will be raised with charity.

From the last 15 years, I have been working for development sector.  In my professional life, I have affiliated with various international organizations. I am familiar with system of UN DFID, SNV among other national and International organizations.  Feeling myself confident to contribute in society with efficiency and collective effort from the existing donor agencies and programme projects.   I realize I should initiate some social welfare work to contribute for my own society. I would like to ensure that this is fully my charity work and will not spend any single penny for political cause. It will also not use in influence of any individual. The fund will go for real victim and needy people as said above.

This trust fund establishment is personal initiative.   It will not complete without collaborative effort from other colleagues. So that, I would like to appeal to my friends, relatives, business people, teacher, students and professionals who would like to contribute in this welfare work. Your small contributions will help a lot to do the individual children and society.

Objectives of Charity:

-          To support conflict/war and cerebral palsy (Paralysis resulting from abnormal development or damage to the brain before or soon after birth) affected children’s

-          To extend support to rural areas Community Schools and Health Centres

-          To increase sponsorship by  Nepali’s to Nepalese for charity (Paropakar) welfare for social welfare activities

Management Responsibilities:

As per my plan in the beginning this fund will be managed jointly by me (Nahakul K.C.) and Sewa Foundation Nepal (Tulsipur Dang based civil society organization). Sewa Foundation agreed to take all management responsibilities as voluntary basis. This charity will not spend any single penny for operation and management cost.

Transparency:

I would like to ensure to all of  who would support for this charity  fund will be spend in transparent manner and  contributions will be posted in website and public notice board. And individual sponsor will receive of individual children’s progress and cost of expenses.

Selection Criteria’s for Children:

Options A:

-          Children’s must be Maoist Insurgency (war) affected children or any civil war affected

-          All children will be form Midwest Nepal

Options B:

-          Cerebral palsy (Paralysis resulting from abnormal development or damage to the brain before or soon after birth) affected children’s

-          Disable children’s

Options C:

-          School building support where all schools buildings are Thatch houses and not receiving any kind of government support

-          Community Health Centres where women and children’s can get health facilities

Ways of Support:

Your small contributions and donations will support to the children. Your support will be highly appreciated. You can send your contributions in following bank account details;

A/C Name:  Nahakul K.C. A/C No: 0110017550 2257. Swift Code: NARBNPKA. Bank Address: NABIL Bank, Kantipath, Kathmandu, Nepal

 Contact Details:

Sahayogi Hat Paropakar Karayakraram Nepal (Helping Hand Charity-Nepal)

C% Sewa Foundation Nepal, Tulsipur Dang Nepal

Phone: 00977 9857820633

Email: nahakulkc@gmail.com

Face book:                   https://www.facebook.com/sewafoundation

                                    https://www.facebook.com/nahakul

Photos of my recent visit of Bamyan mission

Providing technical advice to District Information Center of Yaklawan DDA

Photo near Bamyan center

Teaching to Kabul University students about Community based planning system  of Afg

An Afghan village in Satu mountain area of Punjab district

An Afghan village in Satu mountain area of Punjab district, background is very  beautiful site scene

Gift of God Destroyed by Human

Gift of God Destroyed by Human

Nahakul K.C.[1]

I visited to Bamyan for my official mission on 3^rd week of July 2012. The objectives of the mission were to observe and monitor ongoing programme activities which is implementing by National Area based Development Programme (NABDP). In this article aim is to share my personnel observation about one of the very historical place; shape of deity Budhha’s in Bamyan centre and naturally beautiful places Bande E Aamir Lake and Satu Mountains of Yaklawang and Punjab districts of Bamyan.

Before arrival to Afghanistan, Bamyan and Kandahar were my dream place to visit. I was so fascinating to know about brave Pathan “Pashtu’s” in Kandahar. Kashmiri Pakistani hijackers were hijacked an Air Bus of Air India from Kathmandu and brought to Kandahar. Due to these reasons I was keen to visit in these two places respectively. I was so interested to see the breaker of an idol or image of Buddha’s was destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. Buddha was born and grown up in Nepal and letter on when he had knowledge and wisdom he moved to India and letter on his ideology was spread out in all over the world. I was so eager to see myself Monuments of Buddhhas, nearby caves where more than 5000 Monks were used to stay. It can be counted as “Valley of God”.

The Monumental Buddha statues of Bamyan were until their destruction, one of the best known historic and cultural sights of Afghanistan carved from the cliff in the early 6^th and 7^th centuries AD, the date to an era when Buddhism was an dominant religion in the region and when Bamyan was in important centre of trade route between China, Europe and India and Central Asia. The Astern Buddha (38 mit. high) was craved first, in the middle of the 6^th century and the western Buddha (55 mit. high) in the early 7^th century. The statuses were once brightly decorated. The Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Xuan Zang, who visited Bamyan in about AD 630, recorded the first description of the Buddhas. He wrote that the large Buddha’s “golden hues sparkle on every side and its precious ornaments dazzle the eyes by their brightness.” The hundreds of hereby caves were used by monks and were once decorated with elaborated wall paintings. The Buddha’s were destroyed by the Taleban authority in 2001. (UNESCO)

In reality dismantle of Buddha’s monument was started from earlier Islamic kings. As per local residents it was and historical photos shows giant Buddha was leg and partial part of the face destroyed in 18^th century. The Taliban claimed that the local Hazara community are not Islam. They claimed these monuments looks like Hazara and destroyed in March 2001.

I observed along with my office colleagues and climb up to second largest Buddha. Now there are all empty monuments but it is pretty clear shape. I observed amazing architect and designing of those caves in such places like Bamyan. It was a civilization which shows great historical link up with Alexander and Genghis Khan, who were used to travel through this trade silk route. There is strong belief that, there is 300 mitre sleeping Buddha’s monuments is lying down. Dr. Tarzi renounced archaeologist start to renovate and explore sleeping monument. I hope this will be found out in near future. Right now this renovations works is stopped. More than three decades war of the Afghanistan, it destroyed fascinating history and culture of the country.

I observed virgin lake called Band E Aamir, which I did not know before coming to Afghanistan. This is located around 120 KM west of Bamyan centre and having good connectivity to reach to lake. The Islamic Republic of Government of Afghanistan in year 2009 declared first National Park. It was glad to know that this park was technically supported by Nepali forester Mr. Uday Raj Sharma. There are beautiful seven lakes, which are located north to west. The natural spring water makes everyone to fulfil their thrust. Government is providing basic facilities for boating in the lake site. The blue and crystal clear water you can see up to deep of the lake. It’s “God Gifted” places. Local communities are managing motel and resorts with basic facilities. If you are beginners of writing your poems or novel, you will please to think or write something. There is beautiful and wonder palace called ‘Dragon valley’ where you can observe about the sulphur water is coming from the cave of stones in the small peak of mountains. Local people have beliefs that, it came from the mouth of Dragon. There could be study site for zoologist students. When I visited these three places, I feel the Bamyan is “Gift of God destroyed by Human”.

I visited rural site of the province Yakalawang, Punjab and Waras districts. There is huge pasture land and thin and scattered settlement which is hard to provide basic facilities to the rural people. It seems some hope is reaching to their villages. Now schools are opening, girls and boys are going to school. Pave roads are operating Dubai and Pakistani sold second hand vehicles. MRRD is supporting to culverts, bridges, drinking water supply and more importantly micro hydro power projects. In Bamyan there is very encouraging active participation of women were observed in the local institutions like; District Development Assemblies (DDAs) and Community Development Councils (CDCs).

Bamyan is one of the highest potential for domestic and international tourism. The proposed national highway may open more opportunities to the local people for promotion tourism and development but main question is Peace and stability. Peace which Buddha advocates in his whole life and his millions of followers are following nowadays as well, it required to Afghan people as well. Only Peaceful Afghanistan can move for further betterment of its citizens.

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[1] .  Nahakul KC is development worker, and working for Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development  (MRRD/UNDP) of Afghanistan since November 2009 and this article is written based on his personnel observation of Bamyan visit from 17^th to 22^nd July 2012.

DDAs’ Development Role at Sub-national Governance Level in Afghanistan

DDAs’ Development Role at Sub-national Governance Level in Afghanistan:
Nahakul K.C.
Background
National Area-Based Development Programme (NABDP) commenced as a joint initiative of the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 2002.NABDP contributes towards an enabling environment in rural areas to provide equitable development and good governance through community empowerment at the district level.

District Development Assemblies (DDAs) are district level Shuras, which are democratically elected, represented by Community Development Councils (CDCs), which are mainly focused on planning, implementation and monitoring of rural development activities as local governance institutions at the district level, these local development institutions play an important role to minimize gap between the communities and provinces.

Moreover, the DDA is envisaged to play a crucial role in establishing linkages vertically with provincial authorities and horizontally with various line departments of GoA, private sectors and NGOs to promote local governance, assisting the government for stabilization of peace, thereby offering a multiplier effect of donor funding. In this nexus, it is very much important to analyse both the advantages and limitations of DDAs and the proposed alternative District Councils and to identify areas of collaboration and needs to advocate about the positive parts of the DDA and District Councils which could ultimately result in merger as a single entity

Institutional mechanism
The programme has its major strategies decentralized to the provinces. One of the first successful models was ‘Kandahar Model’, with more physical, financial and administrative decentralization to the provinces. Decentralization of operations to the identified provinces will increase the efficiency significantly. Keeping the geo-political conditions and local context in the scenario, MRRD’s NABDP acknowledges the need for national presence. A package of integrated and inter-linked projects will be delivered to communities identified by the resource allocation criteria that comprise level of poverty, investment per capita, and local physical and institutional potential. With this, NABDP will significantly grow in size. This warrants that a robust accountability and transparency system is in place for both operations and programme management of NABDP.
The MRRD encourages the DDAs to share major progress, best practices and areas of collaborations among the various stakeholders and share their major constraints and challenges in the provincial Conferences. NABDP also encourages other stakeholders to work through the DDAs as the development gate way in the district level.

Moreover, the provincial resource mobilization conferences are proposed to conduct for providing detailed information about the opportunities to work with local development institutions and create conducive working environment at the district and community level through the DDAs and CDCs for the fulfilment of above objectives. The provincial resource mobilization Conferences will be conducted from October to mid December 2011 in the provincial headquarters.

Recent major achievements
NABDP established 388 DDAs out of 402 DDAs across the country. The 388 District Development Plans (DDP) were formulated. Out of the 388 DDAs which already completed three years, re-elections were carried out in 158 DDAs. The capacity development modules (training) were provided to the 290 DDAs. The modules on the training were 1- Good Governance, Conflict resolution and gender equity, 2- project planning, implementation and project management, 3- Procurement and financial management and 4- Disaster Management and Mitigation. The LIDD/NABDP has established 63 District Information Centres and 215 DDAs are receiving grant in aid. Additionally, project monitoring and special training was provided to 13 insecure provinces where DDA members are directly involved in the project monitoring process.
The programme has 96% coverage of Afghanistan where 11460 DDA members directly support the rural development and local governance process. Furthermore, 2,366 DDA members have been trained in different project management modules like local governance, gender, conflict resolutions, procurement & finance, project management & disaster management. These members are contributing in peace and stabilization process and completion of projects. 80% projects are getting implemented through communities with a tripartite agreement between DDA, CDCs, and MRRD. This agreement helped increase the employment, where 2,330,616 beneficiaries of 4,290 families of 461 villages are connected with 27 road projects with access to safe drinking water. In addition, 278 Jeribs of land is irrigated by the updated and newly completed irrigation projects and 13,438 Jeribs of land is protected from the natural disaster by supporting and construction of river control and retaining walls. Likewise, 181 KW of electricity is generated and 10,368 households are electrified from rural energy programme. Similarly, Biogas projects have provided 1,057 households with alternative cooking fuel. Additionally, many female DDA members are part of the Provincial Development Committee and two DDA male members were elected for the parliament.
Challenges and opportunities
Legitimacy of District Development Assemblies (DDAs) has been a key challenge. Without having a legal status, there is an issue of sustainability. Without a legal and legitimate status the donors, government institutions and civil society will hesitate to enter in any deal with the DDAs.
The District Development Plans are prepared and formulated by the DDA members based on their needs. These community plans needs should be reflected at the district level and reflected in Provincial Development Plans and National Plan of the GoIRA. In addition, various emerging Shuras at the district Level formed by other line ministries like, IDLG- USAID, DFID’s Community Councils (CCs) are being paid monthly salary, while the DDA members work voluntarily. The role of DDAs vs. CCs members and their overlapping roles are creating great challenges to the DDAs.
DDAs have been the exclusive responsibility of the MRRD; it must now implement its programmes and channelize its resources in the districts through DDAs. This helps to build DDAs’ capacity in development administration and will help transform them into institutions. Competent human Resource to manage these institutions at the district level is another great challenge. It requires additional commitment and capable human resource support for project implementation, institutionalization and capacity building support to individual DDAs.
Conclusions
DDAs have better opportunities to play an important role in development and governance at the district level. These local institutions are well capacitated for the project management, procurement and finance and monitoring process. These institutions have better coordination with district/provincial governor office and working relationship with Provincial Development Committees. These local institutions are carrying multi ministerial activities at the district level for the providing effective service delivery to the local communities. These institutions are effectively mobilizing internal and external physical and financial resources for the better management, implementation and monitoring the projects. Thus DDA should be converted as a District Council at the district level which can be most appropriate institution to provide effective service delivery in the better governance at the sub national level.