Future Village is a research and project-based NGO located in Katunge Village, about 7 hours from the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu.
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What is Future Village?
When Dr. Christie Lam first arrived to do her anthropological research in rural Nepal 11 years ago, there was no school, health care service or future out of poverty in this village of 700 people, Katunge. With her hard work and dedication, carrying bricks and furniture together with volunteers and the villagers up from the city of Kathmandu to this picturesque village in the hills, she transformed the life of the villagers by founding the NGO Future Village school. Over the years, the local community grew to embrace the spirit of the 'dream', and the Future Village team grew into a group of enthusiasts from several Asian and European countries who cherished the founding values and toiled to support this forgotten community of loving and peaceful people in this hills. 'Future Village', through a participatory and empowering approach has been better understanding the local needs and striving to achieve livelihood improvement in a sustainable way ever since. At zero administration cost, the 'Future Village House' teaches over 120 village kids every year and funds their dreams, provides free health and dental services, and makes sure than a population of more than 700 can access clean drinking water, proper sanitation, and sustainable agriculture. Future Village Nepal has been a project of love from many kind Samaritans from Hong Kong, Australia, China, Japan, India, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Europe. |
What happened in 2015?
On Saturday April 25th 2015 a 7.9-magnitude earthquake heavily hit Nepal, one of the poorest countries of the world. The earthquake has made extensive damages to the whole country and caused many injuries and deaths. A lot of people have lost their homes and livelihood. The earthquake had caused extensive damage in the rural villages out of Kathmandu, like in Katunge Village where our NGO is located. In our project area of Katunge, all houses have collapsed and some local people were killed. The two local school buildings were destroyed. Villagers had no shelter even after months and were forced to sleep in the fields while it was raining. There was an acute food and water shortage, and there was no help from big humanitarian organizations. This was till an international effort pulled off by Future Village was successful in providing emergency humanitarian relief that included emergency cash, a new community shelter, rice and grain distribution, emergency supplies, temporary school and materials to ensure a normal planting season. |
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Towards The Chance Initiative...
According to our evaluations after multiple visits this year, we know that people are worried about how to rebuild their houses (their life), and lack confidence for the future. 90% of the houses and all schools in Katunge are seriously damaged. As an NGO helping in disaster response, we plan to go from relief to redevelopment and sustainability. Thus, we propose a project to rebuild safe houses, schools and ultimately build hopes for people's future. In doing so, we have partnered with several organizations like IDEA Foundation, Design for People Co. Ltd. And Hsieh Ying Chun Architects, Architecture for the Mass, Invision Charity. |
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