Caritas Nepal just showed us the path, the rest depends on us!

Although facing few major challenges, Amika Pathak feels privileged to have received support to further improve her quality of life. She picked up the experiences she had gained in training about Livestock Management and decided to use these techniques for her benefits.

Amika Pathak is 45 years old and lives with her mother- and father-in-law and her husband in Tame Village, Nuwakot District. Her two children are already studying at the University of Kathmandu. Agriculture has been her main source of income all her life. The family mostly focused on meeting their basic needs and did not think about breeding goats to earn extra money and upgrade their standard of living.

Once Caritas initiated the project in Tame Village, Amika and other local farmers formed a group to strengthen interaction and communication between farmers. Later, they were given a three-day course on Livestock management that focused on the treatment of diseased animals. Further, they are now being assisted by a nearby veterinarian. These benefits led them to breed their goats as an additional source of income, besides farming and milk production. In the meantime, their goats have successfully multiplied, bringing her total to nine goats worth 15,000 NPR. “We were not aware of these types of training!” Amika says happily, who has now recognized her chance to improve her life in a simple way.

“For a single goat also you have to give plenty of time to rear it and take care of it while for nine goats it is the same work with more income! So why not to expand this business? ”

So far she has not sold any of her goats, but some people are already interested. Therefore she will sell them soon. She is particularly looking forward to next year’s Dashain Festival, as she can sell her goats at a much higher price than at any other time of the year. Then the price would be 2000 NPR per dharni#. In addition, she wants to improve the quality and quantity of the goat breed in the future, which promises even more profit.

After seeing how Caritas Nepal tries to help the farmers in her region, she feels very privileged. However, she notes that not only because of Caritas but also because of their own commitment, farmers are turning their lives for the better and are succeeding:

“The trainings are being provided, but that depends on how we use it, the way we use it. Caritas Nepal just showed us the path, the rest depends on us.”

• dharni – Typical form of measurement done in villages of Nepal and it is 2.4 kg.