Overcoming the challenges of

COVID-19 together

Responding to a global crisis

Adara believes that everyone has a right to quality education and health services no matter where they live.

We are seeking support for our work in remote education in Nepal. Our work with communities in Humla, Ghyangfedi and Kathmandu focuses on:

• access to quality primary and secondary education,• formal and non-formal education for youth and young adults,• child protection and the prevention of child trafficking,• and children’s health and nutrition.

The COVID-19 pandemic presents significant challenges to the accessibility of quality education for children in remote and vulnerable communities in Nepal.

Our COVID-19 Plan seeks to address the immediate need to prevent the spread of COVID-19, minimising disruptions to primary and secondary education and ensuring the continuation of essential health, nutrition, and child protection services in the communities where we work.

The structures and tools we have developed over the last two decades of long-term community development work will be useful as we respond to this pandemic and deal with its long term social and economic repercussions.

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The ChallengeThe impacts of COVID-19 will be widespread and long term and will worsen existing inequalities around the world. The most deprived and marginalised

communities will be disproportionately impacted for many months and years to come. The numbers are now increasing at an alarming rate in Nepal and there is no

sign of this slowing down.

Nepal is also vulnerable to natural disasters, including seasonal floods and landslides. There is a risk that the country could be faced with two emergencies at the

same time. The Government of Nepal and the humanitarian community, need to be prepared for this very real possibility.

Nepal’s existing public health system does not have adequate capacity to address COVID-19 or any other pandemic. Even though many hospitals and laboratories

have qualified doctors, nurses and paramedics, they are limited in number, under-prepared and ill-equipped to respond to the pandemic. Inadequate supplies of

PPE, and too few intensive care beds mean the country will struggle to handle a significant outbreak of COVID-19.

Apart from the obvious health risk COVID-19 presents, there will be significant and immediate secondary impacts that result from efforts

to contain the spread of the disease - particularly harsh economic and social impacts through loss of income, loss of access to essential

services and increased isolation. We expect to see an increase in extreme poverty and hardship in remote communities in Nepal.

Women and children living in these communities will be hardest hit by the socio-economic consequences during and after the pandemic.

Economic downturn and global recession are to be expected. Nepal is likely to experience significant economic challenges from the

collapse of tourism, manufacturing and other export industries. History also demonstrates that the economic downturn will have a

significant impact on food security. After the 2008 recession, one billion people globally were malnourished, and five million more children

were hungry in 2010 than they would have been if the recession had not happened. Food security will be a major issue in Nepal in the

coming months.

Currently, 27% of children under five years of age in Nepal are already underweight. In the remote region of Humla, where Adara works,

55% of children are stunted in growth and 48% are anaemic. These figures are likely to worsen with the growing threat to food security.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that an additional 670 children could lose their lives every month in Nepal as the

COVID-19 pandemic continues to weaken the health system and disrupt routine services.

Education is also being interrupted, and many children do not have the opportunity to learn from home. As we have seen from previous

health emergencies, the impact on education is likely to be most devastating in countries with already low learning outcomes, high

dropout rates, and low resilience to shocks. Girls have less access to digital technology than boys, which may reduce their access to and

participation in online learning. In the Humla district, high up in the Himalayas of Northwest Nepal, there is no access to the internet so

alternative methods need to be sought to ensure education does not suffer.

Adara believes that everyone has a right to quality education and health services no matter where they live. As the impacts of

COVID-19 are felt on our project sites, our work to ensure access to these services is more important than ever before.

Our 2020 plan ensures we can continue to deliver essential services including education, health, nutrition, and

child protection, and mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on the communities we support. Adara works in the remote

districts of Humla and Ghyangfedi, as well as with youth and other partner organisations in Kathmandu.

Adara is seeking your support to:

• Provide educational support to children and youth whose education has been disrupted by (a) offering

distance learning for children not in school conducted by local teachers via FM radio stations or online

(where there is internet connection) and (b) distributing home learning kits to all third grade students

and above in all 16 target schools in Ghyangfedi and Humla;

• Support marginalised students with additional learning supplies and offer disadvantaged youth access

to psychosocial counselling, support with tertiary education and ensure their health and welfare is being

constantly monitored during the pandemic;

• Train and support local teachers to provide distance learning and visit students at home to provide

additional learning support;

• Support community awareness campaigns in local languages (e.g. via local FM radio stations, phoning

every household in Adara supported communities, posters, regular loudspeaker messages in supported

villages);

• Provide nutritious meals to students, and nutrition support and education to communities in need;

• Working with our partner, The Women’s Foundation, employ 16 survivors of domestic violence to make

quality cloth masks to protect children, teachers, and Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs) in

Adara Schools, and to provide these women with training and employment;

• Train, equip and support FCHVs in our target villages and facilitate them to run hand hygiene stations in

each village and train the community on handwashing and other prevention methods; and

• Ensure our 16 target schools are safe to return to once lockdown restrictions ease and students are

provided with any additional educational support required.4

Adara’s Approach to Remote Education

5Kermi Village

Our Funding NeedAdara is seeking US$500,000 in support for our remote education work in Nepal, as we tackle the

COVID-19 crisis. We would be delighted to partner with you to ensure the continuation of primary and

secondary education, and the promotion of health, nutrition and child protection to some of the most

vulnerable communities in the world.

Monitoring and evaluation is integral to all Adara programs. Key indicators that will be measured in Nepal include:

• # children from Adara’s target schools accessing distance education through radio programmes, home

learning kits and other non-formal education materials during school closures

• # radio episodes, posters and calls administered to raise awareness of COVID-19

• # PPE sets and sanitation supplies distributed in Adara-supported schools, health facilities and

communities

• # of teachers, health workers, students and community members trained in COVID-19 prevention, and

signs and symptoms recognition

• # patients accessing health care

• # and % children being immunised

• # awareness materials distributed to prevent child trafficking

• # cases of girl-trafficking reported

• # vulnerable families with access to food relief

• # of students enrolled back into school once re-opened

• # of new students enrolled into school once re-opened

• Average school learning achievement

Evaluation

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About Adara

The Adara Group was founded in 1998 by Audette Exel to bridge the worlds of business and international

development with a special focus on serving the most vulnerable communities. Today the group comprises two

different parts, an international development organization called Adara Development and two corporate

advisory businesses - Adara Advisors Pty Limited and Adara Partners (Australia) Pty Limited. The sole

objective of the businesses is to help support Adara Development’s administrative costs. This allows 100% of

all other donations received by Adara Development to go directly to project-related costs.

We have a 22-year track record in complex service delivery in remote and disadvantaged communities with a

focus on health, education, child protection and nutrition support. Over this time, we have become experts in

maternal, newborn and child health and remote community development. We work on a grassroots, local,

regional and national level in the countries where we work.

Each year, we reach more than 50,000 people through service delivery and countless others through

knowledge sharing. Our depth of service and knowledge allows us to scale and have breadth at a much greater

level. Our work is deeply aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals with a particular focus on SDGs 3

and 4.

The 2015 Nepal earthquake taught us about working through times of crisis, and how to create plans and

strategies to respond to disaster. This experience is now guiding our COVID-19 response work, allowing us to

act quickly and strategically to reach communities in need.

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Rebecca Poyntz

Senior Partnerships Manager

Rebecca.poyntz@adaragroup.org

+61 2 9395 2826

Audette Exel

Founder and Chair

Audette@adaragroup.org

+61 2 9395 2825

Next Steps

Let’s work together to reach the most vulnerable.

The health, wellbeing and education of vulnerable communities is more important than ever. We would deeply appreciate any

contribution to our COVID-19 response work.

We would love to continue discussing our proposal further. Please get in touch with us using our details below: