Nepal

Where is Nepal?

Nepal is a landlocked country in South Asia

Our impact

Slide 1 of 4: 900 local masons have been trained in earthquake-resilient building reconstruction techniques

Slide 2 of 4: 1,150 metres of irrigation channels have been constructed to ensure communities have the water they need to grow crops

Slide 3 of 4: 574 houses have been built for the most vulnerable families whose houses were destroyed by an earthquake in 2015

Slide 4 of 4: 20,200 households and 22,625 individuals were served through COVID-19 response actions which included distribution of food, clean water and hygiene kits, health equipment, livelihood support, and other kinds of assistance during the pandemic era

900 local masons have been trained in earthquake-resilient building reconstruction techniques
1,150 metres of irrigation channels have been constructed to ensure communities have the water they need to grow crops
574 houses have been built for the most vulnerable families whose houses were destroyed by an earthquake in 2015
20,200 households and 22,625 individuals were served through COVID-19 response actions which included distribution of food, clean water and hygiene kits, health equipment, livelihood support, and other kinds of assistance during the pandemic era

Overview

Nepal is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural state. It has a diverse geography consisting of mountains, hills and plain land areas. It shares a border with India and China in the South Asian subcontinent. Mount Everest, the highest mountain of the world, lies in Nepal.

Nepal remains the least developed and one of the poorest countries in Asia. Nearly 18% of people still live in absolute multidimensional poverty. Among the challenges Nepal faces is a widening gap between the rich and poor, and a lack of basic infrastructure including for electricity, water and transport. There is also widespread unemployment, low agricultural productivity, high levels of migration and endemic corruption.

A decade-long civil war, which ended in 2006, has pushed the nation even further back. Meanwhile, Nepal is particularly vulnerable to climate change and natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and landslides.

In 2015, two massive earthquakes struck the region, killing nearly 9,000 people and making Nepal even more vulnerable to future disasters.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a sustained vulnerability, inequality and risks to poverty for Nepalese society as a whole.

A woman tries out new equipment provided to a Search and Rescue club to help them respond to emergencies, such as earthquakes, landslides and fires in their community

Our work in Nepal

Tearfund has been working in Nepal since the 1970s and is currently partnering with seven organisations across the country.

Following the earthquakes in 2015, Tearfund launched an initial emergency aid operation, and was among the first agencies to rebuild permanent, earthquake-resilient homes. The National Reconstruction Authority of Nepal had then used Tearfund’s shelter approach as a model for all the earthquake-affected areas in the country.

Tearfund’s long-term development work is increasingly focused in the mid and far-west regions of the country, where there is a high incidence of poverty, prioritising marginalised people such as women and traditionally so called ‘lower caste’ groups. Our programs primarily aim at building environmental and economic sustainability in the most underserved communities, with sexual and gender based violence, disaster risk reduction and emergency response actions as cross-cutting themes embedded into them.

We were also involved in responding to the COVID-19 crisis in the years of 2020, 2021 and 2022 through all of our local partner organisations.

Tearfund’s partners are also working with grassroots self-help groups on anti-human trafficking and community development initiatives and are continuing to build disaster resilience in communities.

Looking for other information about Nepal?

If you need practical tools and guides for working in Nepal, or would like to view research or case studies to understand our work there more deeply, take a look at our partner site, Tearfund Learn.

Explore resources on Tearfund Learn

Please pray for Nepal

Lift up the estimated 15,000 people trafficked each year. Pray for their rescue, as well as physical, emotional and spiritual restoration.
Pray for meaningful discussions about gender-based violence and trafficking in Nepal. Pray for the communities and local self-help groups to highlight these issues to their congregations and to the wider community.
Pray for Nepal that it would transition to a stable political regime, and its people would aspire to attain a sustained socio-economic progression. Pray for our local partners that they would really be able to contribute to the mission of transforming societies in Nepal.