More than 30 Santal, Rishidev, and Sardar households from the marginalized community live in Morang district’s Rangeli Municipality 2 Kathkholuwa village. The majority of them do not own land and live on public land. They make a living through daily wage labor and animal husbandry and do not have storage of food or grains for emergency. The disaster hit this community hard because they live on the riverbank, leaving them without food during the flood.
Given the community’s vulnerability during the monsoon, the implementing partner of LWF Nepal- LCWS assisted in the construction of a grain bank to store grain for use during flood-like disasters through LICED project of LWF Nepal. The organization provided financial support for the grain bank’s construction, while the local community provided human labor. They currently have 800kgs of paddy in the grain bank, which was stored by the locals during the harvest season. They have a grain bank policy that states that if people take 40kgs of paddy from the bank, they must return a total of 50kgs once they harvest their farm. “The grain bank has been a boon for our community because our children do not have to starve when flood comes,” said Urmila Rishidev, president of Shanti Nari DMT.
The grain bank is under the operation of the disaster management committee that was formed in facilitation of Lutheran Community Welfare Society. The groups regularly meet on a monthly basis and have been actively engaging in cooperatives, saving and credit activities since its establishment. Dhital Murmu, president of the Grain Bank Management Committee stated, “We do not get income generating opportunities after the harvesting and rainy season so many of do not have grains at that time so we contribute to the grain bank during harvesting season and get grains when we need them the most.”
Furthermore, LCWS has been providing disaster preparedness training and assistance to the disaster management committee. Furthermore, the groups have received skill-based training as well as technical assistance in vegetable farming and animal husbandry in order to improve their livelihood and quality of life.