the care weyerhaeuser partnership

There are 1200 people in this particular community forest group, comprising 159 households." "One hundered of those 159 households are self-sufficient now. They are able to make enough of a living from the forest to keep their families fed for six months out of the year. On the forest border they plant trees and in between they plant tomatoes, wheat, rice and maize. They also collect firewood and fodder from the forest" says Neupane, CARE's coordinator in Banke district.

There is not quite enough firewood or fodder to last the whole year, so the community group plants seedlings in a nursery which they sell for extra income. This income goes into a fund for all group members. At a recent monthly meeting, the group decided they wanted to grow seedlings all year round instead of seasonally, to increase the amount of money in the fund.

"We want to use the fund to build a community center and to place a fence around the nursery," says Kala.

"Before, we had to walk one hour to get firewood and fodder. We had to get it from other people's fields. Now have our own fields and are learning to manage them. We have access to resources and technology now that we never had before" says Adhikari

CARE and Weyerhaeuser are seeing to it that needy communities in Nepal get the resources and the knowledge they need to forge ahead with their lives.