Water

This year, the Madesh, Nepal’s breadbasket region, experienced extreme drought during the monsoon season, severely disrupting rice production. Then, in late October, dozens of people died from flooding and landslides during unseasonably heavy post-monsoon rains. These types of disasters, once uncommon, seem to have become annual occurrences. Meanwhile, lack of access to clean drinking water, inadequate sanitation facilities, groundwater depletion, and destruction of riverbanks continue to be serious issues.

In response to this, our 2026-27 grant cycle will focus on projects related to water, broadly defined. While our small grants program is modest in fiscal terms, we hope that we can make a large impact on a community level in areas like rainwater collection, riverbank reinforcement, disaster reduction infrastructure, and improved irrigation. 

Your donation is critical for us to fund these projects, which help Nepalis improve their lives and livelihoods. Our goal is to raise $35,000 by January 31, 2026. The first $20,000 will be matched dollar-for-dollar by a generous anonymous donor, and every dollar beyond that goes directly to projects. Thus, reaching this goal would generate $55,000 to support additional deserving water-related projects this year and to ensure the health of the grants program going forward. 

In our most recent grant cycle, the FoN grants program received 91 proposals, roughly a 300% increase over last year, which itself was a 100% increase over the previous year. A total of $36,110 in funding commitments were made for nine new projects. These numbers are the highest-ever for our grants program in terms of total donations and number of partner organizations in Nepal. This year also represents a significant increase in our geographic scope - awardees range from eastern to western Nepal, and from the Terai, to the Middle Hills, to the High Himalayas. All of this was made possible by the consistent support and enthusiasm demonstrated by FoN members.

Photos credits: atlasobscura.com