KATHMANDU, Oct. 19 (Nepal Foreign Affairs)–Kjell Tormod Pettersen, Ambassador of Norway to Nepal and Matthias Meyer, German Ambassador to Nepal, visited Semjong VDC in Dhading district recently in order to get first-hand information on the progress made in joint recovery and rehabilitation programmes supported by both the Norwegian and German Governments.
Ambassador Meyer and Bhogendra Raj Dotel, Chief – Policy Planning and International Cooperation Division, Ministry of Health, jointly inaugurated Semjong’s new health post building.
The new health facility will serve 300 patients every month, restoring critical health care services to a VDC where most of the households saw their homes destroyed by last year’s devastating earthquake. One Heart World-Wide has supplied medical equipment for the restored health posts.
During the inauguration ceremony, the health posts of Dhuwakot I, Dhuwakot II, Katunje and Budhathum were also handed over to the Ministry of Health. With this, German Development Cooperation has now handed over all 16 pre-fabricated health posts designated for construction in the Dhading district.
Ambassador Pettersen of the Royal Norwegian Embassy laid the foundation stone of Shanti Primary School. Eight school constructions in Dhading are co-financed by the Norwegian Government and implemented by German Development Cooperation, with approximately 1,000 students – more than half of whom are girls – expected to benefit.
“The Recovery Programme Nepal has also supported a ‘Women for women’-initiative for income-generation with a local women’s cooperative. Training and technical support for low-cost sanitary pad production was provided along with on-the-job masonry training to construct a cooperative building,” read a press release issued by the German Embassy in Kathmandu.
Other livelihood-restoring activities supported by the project in Dhading district include agricultural support for commercial farming; tailoring training for women; construction-related training in carpentry, masonry, and electrical wiring; tool support for local blacksmiths, and support for small-scale infrastructures including drinking water supply, the embassy release stated.