SPRING 2024 UPDATE
Chairman’s Update
Letter from the field – 22nd March 2024
Namaste! It is always good to get back to Sunsari. It’s fresh and vibrant – and it makes all the difference to be with Ram, his team and the Co-operative Executive Committee in person. I have just returned from Sunsari this morning and am writing this from Kathmandu before I head back to the UK tomorrow.
While we continue to see good growth in the Cooperative Savings levels – repayment of the current loan portfolio is creating some challenges, and it is this that Ram and the team will need to substantially focus their time on in the coming months.
While Covid-19 appears not to have had as great an impact on the populations’ health in Nepal when compared with Europe – the economic consequences appear to be worse and are still being felt. Lockdowns without any government support precipitated an economic crisis, whose repercussions are still being felt – with many financial institutions still struggling from loans that were already live at the point of lockdown or issued subsequent to lockdown. As a reminder of this only yesterday on national Nepali television there was an appeal from government for all micro-finance institutions (which we are not, but our savings & loan aspect is similar) to renew all loans for another 12 months without penalty to the loan takers.
It is maize planting season, and the first rains since October arrived this week which has pleased the farmers across Nepal. I welcomed the clearing of the air that it brought which was quite humid and dusty. Between rains we took the opportunity to visit a few of the Cooperative members – amongst others a family breeding goats and cows, and Hari Lal, who has taken a loan for his poultry business. The ingenuity of some of the poorest always impresses me – Hari Lal had upended an old bicycle and replaced the bicycle seat with a plough head making for a very effective plough!
The team took tea at Samjhana’s tea shop yesterday in a break from team working sessions. Samjhana was a participant on our Ujyalo Bhabisya programme 10+ years ago. Over time she has taken a few loans initially from the DN Revolving Fund and then when that was rolled into the Cooperative, from the Cooperative. Samjhana now has bought land and built a larger tea-shop, and has recently taken a loan so that her husband can buy an electric tuk-tuk which offers a taxi service locally. It’s always lovely to see some of those we have worked with longest, seeing them grow with time – and her improved situation and life chances for her children gives real meaning to your support enabling Development Nepal to work in Sunsari.
I expect that the Trustee team will be working remotely, but closely, with Ram and team over the coming months to see what we can do to get the loan portfolio into the right shape. It won’t be an easy task but Ram and his team are well entrenched with the local communities and so I have every confidence they will manage.
Christopher Kelly, Chairman
What is the effect of the pandemic?
With many sources of income having dried up for the duration of the pandemic, and schools experiencing closures in long periods of lockdown, many children entered the workforce for the first time to support their families, commonly making far less than the minimum wage of 13,450 rupees per month (£80.71), or 517 rupees per day (£3.10). Many adult workers did not receive an income for over 12 months and in urban areas were unable to meet rent payments.
Annual Reports
DN 2023-24 Annual Report
Ram, Development Nepal’s Programme Manager in Sunsari describes the phenomenal year of growth in 2018:
enabling more than 1,600 people to participate in the UB Co-operative
over 1,000 micro-loans distributed - opening up opportunity to more lenders
enabling small businesses to grow with good micro-credit repayment terms
thanks to Trustees, donors and supporters of UB Co-operative!