Asia

In the quarry villages of rural India, poverty manifests in many ways.  It is therefore necessary to tackle the problem with a holistic community development approach, building capacity through participation in every way possible.

Government expenditure on defence and foreign debt servicing have been an enormous strain on the Pakistani budget, leaving only 1.9% spent on health and 2% on education. Healthcare is scarcely regulated and beyond affordability to much of the nation’s most vulnerable.  Likewise, the education sector is frail, with less than half of all students completing primary school.

In a country where half of all households are clustered around the poverty line, the needs of the poor are many.  Labour is one of their few assets, but opportunity for employment is often limited by lack of education and cultural barriers.  If provided with the means of attaining a good job, they have the chance to earn their way out of poverty.

Unimproved water sources in Myanmar compromise hygiene, sanitation and drinking water availability. Unfiltered rivers and swamps are contaminated by human and animal waste, chemical pollutants and heavy metals which can quite often be fixed by simple low-technology solutions.

As humanitarian crises have lifted in Sri Lanka, national development has shifted its focus toward building a strong economic core in the private sector and diversifying rural livelihoods.  Positive demographic transition has accompanied the drive toward middle-income country status but now poses some challenges regarding aged dependency.

The Jogini tradition has been part of southern Indian life for many centuries.  It is recognised as a form of modern day slavery whereby girls as young as 4 years-old are dedicated in marriage to a local deity and must then prostitute themselves to men as an act of worship.

Years of conflict have worn away Myanmar’s educational foundation.  Within schools, teacher turnover is high, lessons are ill-prepared and academic standards are low.  Many displaced children lack the skills and aptitudes that will help them find a job, particularly where schooling has been disrupted or discontinued.

Upon leaving school, many clever and capable young minds are deprived of their career ambitions due to a lack of education and employment opportunities.  Despite working 6 full days a week in menial labour, they earn barely enough to maintain a subsistence lifestyle.

Despite Sri Lanka’s remarkable social progress in literacy, life expectancy and infant mortality, success in generating economic growth has somewhat lagged behind. Underemployment and underachievement has arisen in rural areas where opportunities for higher education and career advancement in modern industries are few

In response to the 7.8 magnitude earthquake which shook Nepal to the ground, this project will implement two separate phases of assistance:

Following the April 2015 earthquakes and aftershocks of Nepal, on-the-ground aid workers and their local connections are busy at work to restore and rebuild what was lost in the Southwest of Kathmandu.

On April 25th 2015 a 7.8 magnitude earthquake thundered through the Central and Western districts of Nepal.  A series of smaller aftershocks continued throughout the subsequent week leaving the country completely devastated with whole communities reduced to rubble and loss of life exceeding 9,000 people.

Cambodia’s wartime callouses have begun to heal over however much work remains to be done in building the capacity of orthotic services.  Whilst some government support has been reserved to fund prosthetics for victims of land mines, much less is on offer to those with debilitating diseases such as club foot, polio and cerebral palsy.

Until recently, the closest primary school available to students in a remote Indonesian village was 5km away across steep and treacherous terrain. Each week the children would make the journey and sleep in makeshift huts every night before returning back to their home village for the weekend. This was a difficult situation for the community who expressed a strong desire to build their very own primary school.