Mugu magic

Mugu is a district in north west Nepal. Its population is made up mostly of two distinct ethnic groups, namely the Khasan and Bhote peoples. The Khasan are generally thought to be of Indo-Aryan origin, while the Bhote people have roots in a Tibetan Mongolian ethnic group. Within the Bhote community there exist two main castes, the higher Mugali caste and the lower Karmarong caste.

Most of those in the Karmarong caste are very poor and marginalised in terms of food, education and health and are mostly found within the village areas of Mangari, Pulu and Kimri. It is with these Bhote communities that BMS World Mission supported partner worker Paul Chhetri works with BMS partners, United Mission to Nepal, to improve this marginalised community’s chances at livelihood and empowerment.

The work being done by Paul and our partners in just this one small district is staggering in both its breadth and depth. Some key areas are:

 Advocacy

• A campaign across 11 villages to raise awareness of disabled people’s rights
• Training in advocacy to do with climate change issues, involving local communities

Conflict transformation

• Mentoring conflict transformation workers

Disaster management
 

• Regular cross-organisational planning for potential disaster management needs in the future
• Climate change workshops that encompass the entire district

Education
 

• Workshops and refresher training for teachers and partner workers in education
• Monitoring and providing support for extra-curricular activities in several schools
• Running a scholarship scheme

Food sovereignty
 

• Livelihood improvement programme through informal education
• Livelihood improvement through empowering women
• Monitoring and running the ‘Garlic and Onion Promotion Project’ in one village

Health work
 

• World Aids Day celebration, aimed at ending stigma and creating community support for HIV and Aids sufferers
• Needs-assessment survey of six district health facilities

  BMS partners in Mugu face daily challenges, from restricted or delayed travel due to flight cancellations, poor roads and unreliable bridges, to unreliable, long-distance communications and political opposition at the local level in some places.