INTRODUCTION
Karuna is also active in disability inclusive disaster relief and rehabilitation after the earthquake of 25th April, 2015 in Nepal through holistic approach.
Karuna foundation Nepal was established in 2015 as a Nepali non-governmental organization. This organization is basically working in the field of disability prevention and rehabilitation. This organization has been continuing the work of Karuna foundation, an international non-governmental organization since 2007. The central office of Karuna Foundation Nepal is in Baluwatar, Kathmandu, while the provincial office is in Itahari, Sunsari. Similarly, there are other district and joint district offices in different districts of Koshi province.
Karuna foundation, an international non-governmental organization, was established in 2007 and started the ‘Share and Care’ program with health insurance in Nepal from 2008 to 2011 in two village development committees in Rasuwa, Kavre and Sunsari Districts. Hence, it can be said that the beginning of the health insurance program in Nepal was started with Karuna. After the successful implementation of this ‘Share and Care’ program, from 2011 to 2014, with some improvisation, a program began in the same village development committee, which was later called ‘Inspire to Care’.
Inception of Karuna Foundation Nepal
Karuna Foundation was started in the Netherlands, by a Dutch entrepreneur Rene aan de Stegge in 2007. With the aim to prevent disabilities among children and improve the quality of life of children with disabilities, Karuna Foundation, as an International Non-Governmental Organization, has been working for more than eight years. From the very beginning of its operation, Karuna Foundation always encouraged Nepalese professionals to take the lead of the operation in Nepal, thus it never had any international expatriates during this period in Nepal. This practice was greatly successful; thus in the year 2015, the Karuna team (the Netherlands and Nepal) took to establish a Nepali NGO to continue the mission.
In 2015, Karuna foundation Nepal was established and from the same year, from 2015 to 2018, the program ‘Inspire to Care’ was conducted in stages in all village development committees in Ilam district, with Karuna Nepal leaving the district in 2022. Similarly, in 2018, a program called Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation Program, shortly called DPRP was launched as a sample in Barahashetra Municipality of Sunsari district.
Following that, since 2019, DPRP has been implemented in all municipalities of Koshi province in a gradual way with the tripartite cost sharing approach from Koshi Provincial Government, Local level and Karuna Nepal along with technical support from Karuna Nepal and National Federation of the Disabled, Nepal. In the first phase, in 2019, the program was started in Sunsari, some of Morang and entire municipality of Panchthar and Dhankuta for a total of 27 municipalities. In the second phase, in 2020, the remaining municipalities of Sunsari, Morang, Bhojpur and Sankhuwasabha were added to a total of 31 municipalities. The program is being implemented in all municipalities of Koshi Province; in the third phase, it has been implemented in all 34 municipalities of Solukhumbu, Okhaldunga, Khotang, and Udayapur Districts; likewise in the fourth phase, it will be implemented in all 30 municipalities of Jhapa, Terathum and Taplejung.
