Abundant life in Ghusel village

A father sits at his kitchen table, counting over his monthly earnings. He can’t quite believe it – they’re double what they used to be, and the change is down to training he received in his home village of Ghusel.

Think back to the Good Land appeal, and a key image that may come to mind is of adorable baby goats! As well as providing food for people in Ghusel, goats are an important source of income for farmers who loan them out for breeding. Sejun is just one of the people in rural Nepal making a living this way.

“Before participating in the training, we were doing agriculture and livestock in the traditional way,” Sejun explains. “But, after applying the knowledge received on the goat rearing, shed management and livestock training, my income level has doubled. The number of cattle on my farm and my vegetable production have also increased.” Sejun’s confidence has been hugely boosted by the changes he’s seen – and you’ve played a vital role in enabling him to build a secure and stable family life for his wife and two children. It’s been an incredible transformation, made possible by you!

A group of children sit on a comfy carpet, singing along to a traditional Nepali song. It’s different to the copying out they used to do in their exercise books, and the smiles on their faces show how much they’re enjoying it. With breaks like this built in for arts and crafts, singing and story-time, even their teacher seems to be enjoying the lessons more. The child-friendly classroom is benefiting everyone, and it’s all thanks to you.

Your support of the Good Land appeal has established five child-friendly classrooms in schools serving Ghusel’s children, providing teaching kits, storage boxes for arts and crafts, carpets for story-time and singing sessions, and sanitation kits.

Thanks to your generosity, teachers are learning about child-friendly lessons and different learning approaches, including running indoor and outdoor activities. School attendance in Nepal is prone to dropping when times are lean or when children, especially girls, near their teens. With your support, parents in Ghusel are being given every reason to help their children stay in school.

A lady waits expectantly for the birth of her first baby. From her sisters, aunties and friends, she’s heard what childbirth can involve… being carried for hours down a steep mountain path, then driving for miles to the nearest health post or hospital. She knows all too well the fear that’s caused by the arrival of the monsoon rains: they could block the roads with landslides, or wash them away altogether. She’s knows all the stories, but this time, she’s not worried. Because since the Good Land appeal launched, your support has stretched beyond Ghusel, equipping a similar rural village named Rukum with all it needs to help women give birth safely.

“When I was about to deliver, I was very scared,” says Anita, who you first met in the Good Land appeal. “A landslide was happening and they had to carry me through a risky road. Landslides happened in two or three places… they put me down and waited for it to be over. I didn’t know if I’d reach the hospital or not.”

Despite Anita’s worrying labour, her baby was born safely. And now women in rural Nepal don’t have to be afraid of going through what Anita did. Your generous support has established a safe birthing centre at a nearby outpost, providing medicine, medical equipment and healthy meals for the women, as well as course handbooks and stationery for teaching. Clean water management, a big focus of the Good Land appeal, has also really helped the outpost provide good, safe care.