Practical Action

26/4/2021

What does the word “Nepal” conjure up to you?  Trekking amongst spectacular Himalayan peaks?  Valiant Gurkha soldiers?  I have to say that “ good food” wasn’t on my word association list until I was indulging in lockdown TV watching and saw Santosh Shah get to the finals of BBC’s Masterchef: the Professionals.  Santosh grew up in a little Nepali village – there’s a stunning picture at https://www.chefsantoshshah.com/ – but had to leave at age 14 to work in India because the village couldn’t sustain its population. And with climate change that is becoming even harder. Practical Action (one of the charities we support, and so, as it happens, does Santosh Shah)  quotes a local as saying “it doesn’t rain on time and when it rains it pours”  (https://practicalaction.org/turn-the-tables/).

Practical Action are now undertaking a major programme to engage with governments as they prepare for the climate conference COP 26 in Glasgow this autumn, pointing out the need to develop resilience and sustainability amongst communities that are already facing the impact of climate change.  But on a more practical level their local team of local people in Nepal have developed a five point plan for resilience and sustainability. But even straightforward and locally based programmes need resources and support, which our contributions help to provide. In Nepal their plan involves

1. Developing more resilient seeds and farming methods for local farmers, allied to better, and more easily accessed, weather forecasting so the planting can be attuned to the weather conditions.
2. Using solar energy and other ingenious engineering to ensure that water from rainfall and mountain springs is available for domestic use and irrigation when it is needed.
3. Diversifying business opportunities and improving business skills, which involves communication and training.
4. Advancing the opportunities and leadership skills of women in the villages so they can thrive.
5. Improving market access in a land where roads and tracks are very steep and prone to landslides. This is my favourite because it involves aerial ropeways. If you know a child who enjoys “Go Ape” you will know what I mean! I’ve found them ingenious and exciting ever since our daughter Lucy brought back pictures of the first ropeways from a Practical Action trip to Nepal in 2008.  This is a recent Practical Action picture, not one of hers, but it gives a good idea.

So Practical Action expects that the villages can, for example, further their prosperity by not only  growing, but also getting to market and perhaps selling to many high-end chefs, the colocasia leaf, which Santosh Shah says is “a spinach like leaf with a deep earthy flavour. One of his signature dishes the ‘Tandoori Octopus’ has the element of colocasia leaf; as he was growing up this leaf used to grow in his mother’s garden during the rainy season”.

Lucy, I may add, says,  from personal experience, that Nepali food is particularly delicious. Encouraging the thriving of those who grow and cook it seems like an all-round win.

It is by furthering these sorts of practical approaches, drawing on the experience of local people across several countries across  through their network of local offices, and impressing on governments and authorities the benefits of resilient and sustainable development, that Practical Action seems to me to implement the values which Hampstead Parish Church seeks to foster.