Mala Project: A week of field supervision in Salyan district

A day to day summary of a field visit on a remote area of western Nepal.

Our field visit started in Dang, by recording two broadcasts, promoting the Mala Project and our Psychosocial Program. Then, after two days of driving mainly off-road, we arrived in Salyan, precisely Kalangha, the head of the district. There, again we went to the local radio and promoted our program on a direct broadcast.

The district of Salyan has been seriously touched during the armed conflict. Mala Project helps actively conflict affected children and their family in this district since 2005. The program has been implemented in partnership between Terre des Hommes (TDH), CMC-Nepal and the local NGO. Three social field workers from the Dalit Development Society (DDS), our local NGO partner are trained by CMC-Nepal and are working actively in the district.

Before going to the field and visit the families, we have to prepare the visit and, of course, to meet the social field worker (SFW), in DDS office. There, we also attended a local coordination meeting. There were the presences of the government office: educational district officer, local development officer and agriculture district officer. We had the opportunity to present the Mala Project and the activities of CMC-Nepal. They expressed how they really appreciate our work.

After all this different meeting, we were finally ready to go! Early in the morning of our third day, we drove a few hours to get deeper in the hills but closer to the population we have to meet. Most of our clients are living in quite retired areas. So, usually we took our vehicle and then we had to walk. Sometimes it was a 5 minutes walk but sometimes a few hours. Anyway, walking in a so wonderful landscape was never a duty! As the routes between our client are far from each other and also because it is important to spend a good time with the families, it is only possible to see 3 to 6 families a day. Mala Project supports 198 conflict affected children in Salyan district. During our week of field visit in Salyan, we visited 16 families and their children. We have met a total of 28 children. We also provided individual counseling to 3 persons.

The living conditions we could see were very basic. They don’t have electricity and the access to drinking water is sometimes difficult. They are living usually in small two floors houses and their cattle is settled nearby. They cultivate a small field of wheat, corn or rice. Some people also had the opportunity to setup a small shop, through the contribution of Mala Project.

Due to the remoteness of some areas, the children have to walk sometimes more than one hour to go to school. There is often no proximity medical care point.

We saw very strong living situations. During the conflict, family members have been beaten physically and psychologically tortured. Sometimes in front of their own children! This result to strong emotional traumas, added with poverty, poor material conditions and social problems. Widow ladies for example, they are often stigmatized and rejected by the community. Then they have to manage all alone. In his work, the SFW will first build a relationship with the family, especially by using active listening. It was amazing to see how the families need someone to speak with. Most of the families we met expressed that is very important for them to meet the SFW and sit together to speak, regularly. Often, the families really considered the SFW as a family member.

We clearly saw the advantages and efficiently of an integrated approach, like the psychosocial approach. After the needs of the family have been clearly identified, we also provide material support. It can be from the school kit to a defined amount helping them to start their own business or to buy goats. All those things together, the emotional, the social and the material aspect will help them to feel confident again and to get their place in the society and in the community.

We also had to be aware and open to some request of the communities. During our visit, we were requested to see two new cases.

The first one was a new born child. Her mother died 7 days after her birth. This little girl, her 4 sister and her brother lived together with her grandmother and are currently supported by the community. None knows where the father is. As the material and financial conditions are very limited, they requested us to help them. With the contribution of the TDH emergency found, we decided to provide them a donation of 2’000 NPR to cover the cost of food.

The other case is a 12 years mentally challenged girl suffering of trauma reactions. When we visited her family, she was obviously neglected from her family. She looks very dirty. Our supervisor gave the family some advice about how to treat and care a mental retardation child.

For all this cases, a feedback and some advices have been given to the SFW and they will visit these cases again. More than our work, it is our responsibility to assist those emergency situations.

This field visit is the opportunity to see success cases but also cases that are more difficult to manage for the SFW. So, we can help him/her and give some advice. It is also the occasion to assess their work and their skills. In this visit, we were very impressed of the seriousness and the commitment toward their work. Their regular field visits helps these families to face their problems and to expect better living conditions. Families have expressed how important it is for them to have someone who cares about them. The SFWs have built strong and confident relationship with the visited families and their children.

After 4 days on the field, we reach again Salyan. We were happy to sleep in a real bed, take a shower and eat the best Dhaal Bhaat ever! But we return back from this supervision visit affected by what we saw and experienced. Emotionally, we had some really intense exchange with the families. The very good collaboration with the SFW, their excellent work on the field and the nice atmosphere we had together facilitated our field visit.

Even there is still a lot to do and still we can do things better but the successful cases we already have prove that our work is efficient and give us motivation to continue our efforts to promote well being of the children and their families.

Text & photos : J. Perriard, 2009