The Community and Youth Empowerment Programme (CYEP) is an integrated development intervention that encourages sustainable rural livelihoods by improving awareness and skills regarding sexual reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, good governance, capacity building and education.

SPW volunteers on the CYEP work directly with deprived communities and groups, including women’s groups and out-of-school youth groups, to improve their health understanding, their health practice, and to help them gain access to the resources and services available to them to enhance their livelihoods in the long term. An integral component of this community work involves working closely with local health and environment services to increase their profile and demand amongst community people/rural young people. They also teach a non-formal health, environment and good governance curriculum in rural government schools, supplemented by wide varieties of activities through Youth Clubs (Green Clubs), which empower students with the knowledge and skills to protect their health and livelihoods, and promote health behaviours and sustainable rural living amongst their schools, out-of-school peers and communities.

Programme Facts:

Community and Youth Empowerment Programme - Working where?

• based in Dhading region (hilly region a few hours from Kathmandu)
• volunteers placed in mixed-nationality groups of 3 (1 International and 2 Nepali)
• live and work in rural communities with both school goign and out-of-school youth
• placements are in areas with very basic facilities such as electricity, communication and transportation
• volunteers live with Nepali families or sometimes in local hostels
• most placements have public telephone booths and email services are available from most of the district HQ

You and your partner(s) will live and work in the community.
The activities of volunteers include:

• teaching formal and non-formal timetabled lessons in schools
• conducting extra-curricular activities involving non-formal education techniques, (e.g. games, drama and art) to explore sensitive topics with young people, environmental and social issues (e.g. caste and gender rights)
• stablishing or strengthening a school library
• establishing links between the youth club, the local health post and local medical personnel
• conducting exposure visits to district health clinics and services for local youth
• assisting youth club to organise outreach activities (e.g. street dramas, rallies, health camps) that raise awareness of HIV/AIDS, nutrition, hygiene, sanitation, adolescent sexual and reproductive health
• linking youth clubs with other community-based organisations and with local and district services
• ensuring that activities involve girls as well as boys
• ensuring that outreach health efforts involve school teachers, head-teachers, community based organisations, local government health officials, health practitioners and service providers
• building the capacity of selected youth club members to lead as peer educators on health issues in future
• forming and/or strengthening a youth group (Green Club) to tackle key environmental and resource issues (e.g. watershed management, forest and soil conservation, Green income generation)
• working with school, teachers, students, and communities to raise awareness and invest in small-scale infrastructure development projects establishing youth-led outreach activities such as environmental awareness campaigns and events to tackle deforestation and soil erosion and promote low cost technologies such as fuel efficient stoves and pit latrines
• linking youth conservation activities with the conservation objectives of existing user-groups to ensure the sustainability of the programme working directly with community-based organisations, local NGOs and services and local governments to strengthen the sustainability of the resource conservation initiative and to provide sustainable means of income generation

Case Study

Programme structure
Initial 4-week training period covering:

• teambuilding skills
• cross-cultural awareness
• basic development theory
• general and Nepal-specific knowledge of key health issues
• NFE (Non Formal Education) Techniques
• Participatory Rural Appraisal Techniques
• Appropriate Rural Technologies
• (TEFL - Teaching English as a Foreigh Language - for international volunteers)
• language training

• additional training occurs on a needs-based manner (usually after the Mid-Term Review)

Case Study

Staff support:

• 1 main office in Kathmandu, which monitors volunteers' welfare
• one month after arriving in placement, volunteers receive a welfare visit from office staff
• local staff (a District Coordinator), visit volunteers every 1-3 weeks

Community support:

• assist in finding safe accommodation
• interact with volunteers freely, invite them to their home for special meals and social functions
• community leaders and existing user groups (e.g. Mothers' Group, Forest Group, Youth Groups), are very supportive towards programme

Country Information

• Staple - dal, bhat and tarkari, literally meaning lentils, rice and curried vegetables
• Meat - masu is meat with spices and gravy, usually served with rice. Nepalese eat chicken, mutton, buffalo and pork. Most Nepalis do not eat beef.
• Vegetarianism - accepted easily, potatoes, lentils, rice and vegetables are plentiful
• Other - to quench your thirst a lassi is perfect, a drink made of curd and water

Visit SPW Nepal website

Check out Steve Speed's website for volunteers offering a wide range of information and advice.

Read Nepal's ex-volunteer newsletter, ‘Samjhana'.