Background on Nepal -Civil War - Impact of Poverty - Conditions Where Children are From
 Food Deficit Map of Nepal -  Pemba Sherpa's Story, A Life Affected
Life in the Mountains - Mountain People - Living in the Mountains - Mountain Landscapes - Life in the Nubri Region
Buddhism in the Mountains

Impact of Poverty

  • hunger
  • illiteracy
  • child labour
  • no healthcare, sanitation, or clean water


Working children

Poor kids can't go to school. Some work, some beg, some are forced into the worst kinds of child labour,
including sexual slavery.

World-wide, 80% of working children have illerate mothers.


Average income in Nepal is under $1 per day


Living With Acute Poverty

This is how much time it takes to earn…

1 kilo of rice 3 and a half hours’ work

1 litre of milk 4 hours 26 minutes’ work

1 kilo of sugar 4 hours 52 minutes’ work

a bicycle 436 hours of work

 

82.5% live under the poverty line

 

Nepal, the Hunger Hotspot of Asia

* Half of Nepalese children are malnourished/underweight (compare with Afghanistan's 43%)

* Child mortality rates highest in Asia

* Maternal mortality rates are the highest in the world

These are national figures. It's worse in the mountains. See the map.

 

Malnutrition+Infection+Parasites=Failure to Thrive

Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Gambia, Haiti, Uganda and Nepal rank as some of the poorest countries in the world. The hungriest parts of Nepal are in the Himalayas. Extreme weather and geographical conditions makes food production in the mountains difficult. The regions lying at high altitude are referred to as 'deserts in the sky' because of the lack of monsoon rain.

Himalayan kids come from areas that are food-deficit. Most villages can produce enough food to last only 2 to 4 months of the year. Kids born in Nepal are smaller and lighter than they should be for their age. Mountain children all suffer from varying degrees of hunger, and from macro and micro-nutrient deficiencies. These deficiencies are particularly serious in early childhood and are the cause of the high child mortality rates.

When children first come to us, we see dry reddish hair, swollen bellies and stick arms & legs. Many have chronic skin, eye and stomach ailments. All are suffering from delayed growth...particularly noticeable in dental and skeletal development. We see stunting in Himalayan children: often when talking with a new kid, I find myself thinking, "Gee, s/he's bright 9-year-old", only to find the kid is actually 14 or 15.

When the children first come to SMD school, they suffer from repeated skin, eye and upper respiratory tract (the ubiquitous runny nose) infections as well as intestinal parasites. The infections disappear after a year or two of nutritious food and vitamin supplements. Then the kids put on weight, shoot up and their skin, hair and eyes take on a glow. Nowadays, puberty begins at 12 to 14, rather than at 17 or 18, as it did before we improved the nutrition.