Nepal Social Development and People Empowerment Center (NESPEC)

Food Security & Land Rights Campaign

In 2007, NESPEC began a series of activities and campaigns for the Food Security and Land Rights campaign, with the support of Action Aid Nepal. There are currently four land rights action groups and one district land rights forum that have been established for uniting landless peoples and those living in disputed areas such as on riverbanks or near community forests. These people face tremendous problems in terms of managing their daily livelihood. Most of them are forced to work for large landowners and are unable to earn nearly enough money to sustain their families. The large majority of these people are from Dalit, Janajati and Madhesi castes, who are already faced with considerable discrimination. NESPEC has begun the process of empowering them through a variety of orientations, campaigns, trainings, and regular meetings, as well as supporting them to raise their voice for their rights on a national level.

There are an additional twenty-five farmers' cooperatives (representing 634 families) that have been established in the four Village Development Committees of Jogidaha, Handiya, Sundarpur and Siddipur in which NESPEC is currently working. NESPEC has also started 8 different REFLECT classes for these groups in order to empower them to personally identify their own problems, as well as to help them in the process of finding a solution for themselves on the local level.

Furthermore, eight youth groups have been established by the local children of these communities, and there are now two thousand children that have been included through the facilitation of NESPEC. The children of these groups are staging monthly meetings in order to discuss their problems and find solutions, and NESPEC is supporting them in their various activities and campaigns. The children are publishing wall newspapers (bulletin boards) by writing articles and drawing pictures; they are collecting different articles and literature materials from their friends and putting them in their monthly wall newspaper. The children are also organizing various programs and activities on special occasions such as International Children's Day. These types of activities help them to develop their intellectual and creative skills in a way that will benefit their communities as a whole.