CFFN has been striving to bring the reach of education to the margins of society in Nepal. Benefitting from our early experiences, we have come to take much larger initiatives in order to make substantial impacts in early childhood and tertiary education.
The rural, remote, and marginalized populations in Nepal face two key barriers to education. First, the circumstances of many poor people are such that they are unable to provide a proper learning environment for their children. Only 3% of women and 0.7% of Dalit population reach a tertiary education level, compared to the 9% population average, which itself is one of the lowest in the world. This indicates the enormity of the work education if the gender and socio-cultural gaps are to be closed rapidly. Second, the existing institutions do not have enough resources to meet the demand for higher education. Today, access has been generally available to economically-able families in urban areas.
With your generous contributions and involvement, CFFN will make it possible to meet the needs for early childhood education and higher education for the people of Nepal.
CFFN Accomplishments
After originally contributing to the cause of peace and democracy in Nepal, CFFN shifted its focus towards policy research. CFFN successfully organized Unfolding Futures, a series of annual academic conferences, and Himalayan Heartbeat, an annual cultural and awareness program, along with numerous interaction programs about contemporary issues of Nepal.
These efforts made CFFN a top contributor of suggestions to the Nepalese constitution in a worldwide campaign launched by Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA). These policy quests led to identifying education as the most effective area to help Nepal break poverty, income gap, social inequalities, and health inequalities. Subsequently, CFFN launched programs in education by mobilizing international volunteers and grassroots people. Iterative cycles of execution, evaluation, and contemplation, while implementing programs on digital libraries and computer-aided learning in rural Nepal, brought CFFN to its current juncture where it solely concentrates on education.
CFFN Today
Today, CFFN has emerged as an organization of creative ideas and endeavours, which are drawing attention of broader Nepalese Diaspora. The first Community Child Care Centre, established by and operated through a CFFN initiative, has been recognized by Nepal’s Ministry of Education, which is providing training and a portion of teachers' salaries. CFFN’s Open University of Nepal initiative has been adopted by NRNA. CFFN is also collaborating with Athabasca University of Canada to solve the technical challenges of establishing such distance learning institution in Nepal.
Through its Project USHA, CFFN has built and continues building a significant amount of knowledge base relevant to Nepal. CFFN Radio and its programs have been building leadership, maturity and youth talent for developing increasingly sophisticated educational programs. Most of all, the swiftness and intensity with which other credible organizations are collaborating with CFFN speak for the quality and credibility of CFFN as an organization.
