Did you know that if you are born with a disability in Nepal, you might well be considered to be suffering from a past-life sin or curse? Imagine trying to overcome this type of stigma being attached to your very existence. "Differently-Abled" people are on the lowest rung of the societal ladder in Nepal. This project’s goal is to create awareness, education and opportunity for people through an approved Rotary 3-H Grant (Health, Hunger, Humanity) and through grass-roots efforts by partnering Rotary Clubs in Nepal with clubs in the USA to work jointly on projects helping people with disabilities in Nepal.

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The goal of this project is to help uplift people with disabilities in Nepal and to inaugurate Nepal’s new Rotary District 3292. We invite your Rotary/Rotaract Club and District to work jointly with the Nepali clubs in this groundbreaking effort!

We are currently identifying partnering clubs in the USA to work jointly with clubs in Nepal on projects to help people with disabilities in the Nepali community as is outlined below.

Our project has two major components:

1.) Partner Rotary and Rotaract Clubs from the USA with clubs in the new Rotary District 3292 in Nepal to develop and implement projects to help people with disabilities in Nepal. The ideas for these projects will be generated by the Rotary & Rotaract clubs in Nepal. Implementing such projects will help raise awareness about people with disabilities amongst Nepali Rotarians as well as Rotarians in the USA. We will also create wonderful publicity for Rotary, people with disabilities and the projects themselves throughout Nepal and the Rotary & Rotaract world.

2.) The second component of the project is a $330,000 Rotary Foundation 3-H grant (3-H = Health, Hunger & Humanity) to fund an overall disability awareness campaign to help change the current negative attitudes and superstitions toward those with disabilities in Nepal. The 3-H application was submitted in 2007 and approved in April, 2008. With these grant funds and Rotarian involvement we will work to change the general perception that if you have a child with a disability you (or your child) are suffering from a past-life sin or curse. We are planning an overall awareness campaign for our Rotary-funded pilot project and preparing specialized marketing materials, radio advertising scripts, radio dramas, street-theater programs, printed posters, billboards and other materials prepared specifically for this purpose. We have identified a number of NGO’s who are already working in this area and will partner with us. We will also staff a small call-center/help-line that will provide referrals to other NGO’s in Nepal that can help. We will hire people with disabilities to staff the call center.

How can your club participate? Let us know if you have an interest in this groundbreaking project and we will forward potential projects for your club to review. Once you agree on a project, you are off and running! We have committees both in the USA and in Nepal to help facilitate the projects and partnerships.

Unless we properly address the core superstition that people with disabilities are cursed, or suffering from a past-life sin, it will be difficult for them to move forward, toward equality. These awareness programs and international joint club projects will have a substantive impact on dispelling these myths. Through Rotary we can lead the way to better, more productive lives for these worthy people!

Click here to visit the Rotary Nepal/Usa Disability Awareness Campaign website, or contact for more information.