My bumpy road to deceleration
During my 16-day journey through the mountainous region of Mugu, I experienced deceleration like never before: no cell phone reception, no power for the laptop, no news about Corona, the Ukraine war or the looming climate crisis, no Netflix or social media either, and instead of traffic jams on overcrowded roads, there are dirt roads […]
Killer in the Kitchen
When our immediate neighbors light their backyard wood burning firepit to enjoy cool Ohio autumn evenings with a sip of wine and good company, I sequester myself in the house with windows shut to prevent a coughing fit that I will inevitably have from inhaling firewood smoke. Of course, when our neighbors invite us to join them, I apologetically decline their invitation because I do not want to ruin their peaceful social evening with my incessant cough [...]
Birthcenters for Mugu Nepal
Stella Deetjen tells the story of Sushila, who made building birth centres Back to Life's core mission. Without this encounter we would probably not have built our 15 birth centres.
Mangal Rokaya reinvents itself
A self-determined life despite polio thanks to income generation
Mangal was born healthy. He started walking when he was 12 months old. Now 26 years old, Mangal comes from a family that works as day laborers in agriculture high up in the mountains of Mugu [...].
Good and cheap solution – the clay oven
In some areas of Chitwan, many families only settled down a few generations ago. Before that they lived as hunters and gatherers in the forests that now form the 'Chitwan National Park'. With the opening of the national park in 1973, families had to make way and adapt to a new lifestyle in the hills, outside the park [...]
In conversation with Rup from Mugu
Our measures for agricultural development in Mugu, with which we want to give the residents the opportunity to sustainably improve their income situation. One of the long-term measures is to provide agricultural training to young men from Mugu [...].
The future on four legs
In our project villages in Chitwan, southern Nepal, the people would like to make a living from farming. They plant vegetables, fruits and cereals for their own consumption, but the arable land is usually far too small and the yield is not enough to feed the family [...]
Never dangerous again
A few weeks ago, before the onset of winter in the Mugu mountains, we returned to the small village of Kimri. The project visit was originally planned for spring, but due to the corona crisis we had to postpone our plans to autumn 2020. Good timing, because now the promised solar lighting systems were produced and could be installed by our employees.
Kimri on fire
19 families, 112 people and a fire that destroys everything. In Kimri, a remote, Buddhist village in Mugu, we carried out our largest construction project after a fire disaster. A reconstruction that mobilized special forces.
COVID-19: the current situation in Nepal
Unfortunately, the developments of the corona pandemic do not stop at Nepal either. Back in January 2020, it was revealed that a Nepali student had contracted the infection in China before returning to Nepal [...]
Dreams come true – lessons up to high school graduation
School building is a focus of our project work in Nepal. We aim to create new year groups where there is a shortage of secondary schools [...]
Expanded – the path is free up to 8th grade
Back to Life has been supporting the Janajyoti School in the Chitwan District, near the Chitwan National Park in southern Nepal, since 2010. The school is located in a village that is characterized by deep poverty. The Chepang people living there are among the poorest minorities in Nepal [...]
School clothes make the man
Steep and dusty trails, protruding branches on the long winding paths through the mountains, muddy holes in the ground, snowfall, downpours and high mountain sun- there are many challenges for the school uniform of the children of our project areas [...].
How to wash properly has to be learned – our baby bath training
Back to Life supports the mothers with various training courses so that they can care for the newborns in the best possible way. This includes "baby bath training" developed by our midwives for new mothers [...].
Solar lighting systems for 520 households
In March 2017 we reported on the delivery and installation of solar lighting systems for over 500 families in Gamtha, Mugu. From the beginning of our activities in Mugu, we also relied on ecological and clean energy sources in our local projects [...]
High school graduates
Our first high school graduates - we are very proud of you!
Standing on their own two feet and financing themselves is the goal of Rita and Sarita from Chitwan - and they are well on the way [...]
Protecting the environment through the hands of children: interacting child clubs
Sometimes the youth clubs we have initiated in our project schools exchange ideas or meet for sports competitions. From this, the best ideas can emerge [...]
The magic of letters
We are improving the school and learning conditions for over 4500 schoolchildren in Nepal. But we don't want to stop there, we want to look at adult literacy in remote areas [...].
With us, teachers also go to school – further education
A teacher in Nepal is respected in the village but earns little. In the remote areas in particular, teachers are often not well trained, not only professionally, but also pedagogically. They also do not have access to any current teaching materials [...]
Because it can happen again and again – earthquake safety training for teachers
The devastating earthquakes of 2015 claimed almost 9,000 deaths in Nepal. But there could have been hundreds of thousands more: The first quake was on a Saturday - the only school-free day of the week [...]
Olympic champion with a heart: Fabian Hambüchen donates a school
Fabian Hambüchen broke all records in his sporting career - today the Olympic champion is one of the most successful athletes in our country. In the spring of 2016, he was a participant in the ZDF show "I can do that" and also won there [...]
Understanding the world in a playful way – our preschools
We have set up preschools in 33 schools and fund an early childhood development teacher who paints with the children, plays games, reads to them, sings and dances with them, but also begins to teach easier material such as letters and numbers [...]
Child marriage prevented!
Some girls are only 13, 11, even 8 years old when they are married. Child marriages are a sad tradition that we counter with enlightenment. Brave 11-year-old Sirjana used this knowledge to save her friend Rakshya [...].
Reading time
Education is one of our central development topics and the basis for a self-determined life. That's why we promote literacy in our project areas even beyond the normal curriculum [...]
Cook cleanly with sunlight
In rural Nepal, it is common to use firewood for cooking. The open hearth is usually in the middle of the room where the family lives, cooks and sleeps. In the evening the smoky wood is burned to have light. It also serves as a source of heat [...]
For people and nature
The people in rural Mugu are predominantly smallholders who practice extensive agriculture (low capital and labor input in relation to the area). The soils in Mugu are not very fertile, the farmers' harvests not particularly productive [...]
Micro hydropower plant – light and future for a village
The residents of Thakaltar had produced a little energy for light even with a mini hydroelectric power station. But then the monsoons came and destroyed their work. Today, their houses are safely lit and all sorts of other energy has entered the village [...].
Sher Singh, on two legs into the future
The door of the small shop in Loharbada village opens. A child asks about sugar, Sher Singh stands up and goes to the shelf. This would not have been possible just a few years ago. Because Sher Singh has only one healthy leg [...]
A real growth industry: Nuwakot’s greenhouses
The harvest is ripe and the owners of the greenhouse, Kamal Tamang and his wife Khasmaya, can hardly believe their luck. The result is remarkable: the very first harvest yielded 80 kilos of tomatoes. Eight more harvests are possible until the monsoon soon [...].
The chances grow with the plants
With vegetable gardens, Back to Life helps families in our project villages easily and effectively supplement their income while improving their nutritional situation [...].
Fate decides
From Stella Deetjen
"We didn't really have any hope that he would survive. When he was born, he was as small as a mouse. And so thin. But things got really bad when his mother died on the 15th day after delivery," Jhupri Rawal, the infant's grandmother, tells our team in Mugu [...]
Living with an umbilical hernia – Dinesh is saved
The nightmare of childbirth: Dinesh is not only born on the roadside, but is also born with an umbilical hernia. A life-threatening odyssey begins. In a race against time, the family encounters, as if by chance, an employee of Back to Life [...]
The long way to happiness
From Stella Deetjen
The screams of the desperate mother tore the silence of the freezing winter night in the Mugu mountains. In no time the neighbors ran together and gathered in front of the Karkis house. What had happened [...]
Saruli – unconditional will to live
When children dance and sing at school, 11-year-old Saruli from Mugu was full of joy when she wasn't collecting wood or protecting her parents' small field from wild monkeys [...]
Goodbye, Mugu – the new life of Khushi
Children's laughter echoes through the small room. Amma is heating a large pot filled to the brim with oil over an open fire. Her youngest daughter Khushi, still a toddler of one and a half years who has only recently learned to walk, frolics exuberantly around her mother with her siblings [...]
Cut off from the rest of the world – no salvation
Winter in the high mountains, 2014: due to the persistent bad weather in Mugu, a young woman paid a very high price [...]
Proximity creates security – our baby massage courses
The baby massage is said to have many positive properties: In the cool season it is said to warm, the blood circulation is stimulated, also the muscle formation is promoted [...]
So that you get bigger and stronger – our nutritional advice
Balanced nutrition for babies and toddlers is important to us. Due to poverty and hard physical labor, many mothers do not have enough breast milk for their babies [...]
Family planning is not magic
Our midwives ask women about contraception. The reactions are almost always the same: the women cannot believe at first that it is in their hands whether they want to get pregnant or not [...].
Why a birth house in the mountains is vital
By Wolfgang Langenkamp, who donated the Jima Birthplace in Mugu and twice made the adventurous and arduous journey to Mugu himself, at the start of construction and at the inauguration [...]
Saving lives – twice as much!
Nirmala, our midwife in the house where Gamtha was born, speaks urgently to the mother-to-be. "Sharmila, you are too weak for this exhausting twin birth. The babies are not conveniently located, there could be complications [...]
6x TWINS
Twin births are always special. For midwives, this means providing close-meshed obstetric care to detect any complications early enough to guide women through a safe birth [...].
The 1000th Back to Life baby is here!
Born on the Nepalese Mother's Day 2020 in our birthplace Nakharji. From our teammate [...]
Rainy season
The term monsoon is derived from the Arabic word 'mausam' for season, which is what it means in the language [...]
Nuwakot after the earthquake. We never give up hope
On April 25, 2015, the earth shook in Nepal. There was a severe aftershock on May 12th. Back to Life was there as quickly as possible to provide help where it was worst. Nuwakot thus became the new project area and remains so to this day [...]
Dhamili in Chitwan. A village that no longer surrenders to “fate”
Do you have to accept poverty as fate or even God-given? Is 90 Percent Illiteracy Acceptable? Where we shake our heads as a matter of course, the people in Nepal unfortunately often still think differently [...]
In conversation with Harikrishna Upadhyaya, teacher in Mugu
People who are personally involved have a keen eye. So in late 2019, we interviewed Mr. Harikrishna Upadhyaya, who works as a teacher in Khatyad in the Mugu region and is himself a resident of the village [...]
Mugu – Standstill in the snow
In Mugu, our project area in the high mountains of Nepal, everything changes from one moment to the next when it snows. the trails between the mountain villages ice up, become slippery and highly dangerous especially for those carrying heavy loads [...]
A look back and ahead. Loharbada in the Mugu Mountains.
When program director Dikendra Dhakal looks around Loharbada today, he can hardly believe it. "When we first arrived here 10 years ago, not only was the standard of living extremely low, but hygiene conditions were actually non-existent [...]
Sheep farming in Mugu
Our project region Mugu consists of two regions named after the indigenous people: the upper Jadan and the lower Khasan. The Jad are Tibetan lamas, the people of the southern region of Khas who came from northwest India [...]
Keepers of balance – the shamans of Nepal
The full moon is over the mountains, the ceremony has already begun. A young woman in the village who is plagued by an inexplicable disease has visited the shaman in the community's "Than" temple. She begs advice on what to do about her unbearable abdominal pain [...].
The life of the Tharu – the “people of the forest”
It is the first national park to be established in Nepal: Since 1973, Chitwan National Park has been the sanctuary of 68 different mammals - including the famous Bengal tiger [...]
In conversation with Sun Bahadur Moktan
Sun Bahadur Moktan, who lives in Thakaltar in the Chitwan region and teaches there as a teacher. He has an accurate view of what has happened in his village over the past 10 years and we are delighted that he has taken the time to summarise it for us [...].
The Chepang
In the small wooden house that is only covered with straw, the ragged sleeping mats lie on the floor. A “jaabi” hangs on the wall, a bag made of plant fibers. In it, wild fruits, berries, and edibles are gathered from the adjacent forest [...]
The Tamang
The hand drum "Damphu" heats up the rhythm. The dancers get faster, their movements wilder. The dance "Tamang Selo" pulls everyone under its spell. The Tamang, one of the largest Tibetan-Burmese speaking ethnic groups in Nepal, maintain their numerous traditions that they originally brought from Tibet [...]
Nepal in profile
Nepal is located in South Asia between Tibet in the north and India in the south. It has an area of 147,516 square kilometers, around 40% the size of Germany. 39% of the 30 million population live below the poverty line of $3.20 per day per capita (World Bank, 2019) [...]
Burned down – a new beginning for a family
37-year-old Dhanamaya Chepang lives with her family in one of our project villages in Chitwan in southern Nepal. Dhanamaya has a large family, nine of them living tightly packed in a small wooden house on the edge of the forest, at the very end of Dhamili village [...]
Aarati – a twelve-year-old confronts the corona virus
It is June in Dubichaur, a small village in Chitwan province, when Aarati suddenly develops a fever and the sore throat becomes more severe [...]
Books & colored pencils on tour
Schools in Nepal were closed for almost 7 months due to Corona. Online lessons were only offered by expensive private schools. The majority of Nepalese students came away empty-handed. For our children and young people, we carried hundreds of books through the mountains [...]
In conversation with midwife Janaki Karki
The people of Gamgadhi are very concerned. The local government has put in place a curfew to protect society. The movement of people between villages is severely restricted and most residents stay at home [...]
With persistence to success
As Corona infections increased in Nepal and the lockdown was extended again and again, the Back to Life team immediately knew that we needed to respond and bring more supplies to the mountains [...].
How the mountain villages protect themselves from Corona
April 2020: The strict curfew also applies in the Mugu mountains. In our remote project villages, people are trying everything in their power to protect themselves from contracting Corona [...].
Covid-19 prevention – only those who are informed can protect themselves!
In Nepal in February 2020, hardly anyone was talking about Corona, everyday life was going on as normal, but worldwide the number of cases was rising [...]
A day in the life of the Alimaya
Alimaya is 11 years old and lives with her parents and two siblings (eight and 14 years old) in a remote village in the hills north of the well-known Chitwan National Park. Three other siblings are already out of the house and married [...]
Growing up without parents – we help Bibek
Little six year old Bibek caught my eye immediately when I recently (2018) visited our programs and schools in Nuwakot. Not because he was noisy when we played sports and games together, but because of his shyness and because he sort of hung on my coat-tails all day, following me everywhere [...]
From unhappiness to happiness
"He already recognizes it from a distance: our Back to Life logo! Whenever I walk up the hill to the village in my Back to Life T-shirt, jacket or cap, he is already running towards me with a big laugh on his face [...]
Bill Ramsey is our honorary sponsor
It started with jazz says Bill Ramsey about his life. Born in 1931 in Cinncinati, Ohio, the musical stronghold of rhythm & blues at the time, jazz and blues were cradled in his cradle and rooted deep within him as he grew up [...]
Shadow and light
From Stella Deetjen
When I visited the Sansari Devi School in Nuwakot for several days in 2018, which we rebuilt after the earthquake, I noticed a little six-year-old girl who had a perky face but seemed to be surrounded by a great heaviness [...]
Susanne Fröhlich on site
The well-known TV presenter and author Susanne Fröhlich was in our project areas Nuwakot and Chitwan in 2018 to get an idea for herself. An insight into a completely different life [...]
Extended family time
“We sit huddled together in a jeep that winds its way up the hills of Chitwan on dirt roads. The serpentines are so narrow that the driver has to start several times. Suddenly the jeep is stuck, it goes neither forward nor back [...]
Open your eyes – for the children of Nepal with a mobile eye clinic through the mountains
As part of the health care for the schoolchildren, Back to Life also has the boys and girls examined by an ophthalmologist. Using a type of outpatient mobile eye clinic, our team travels or walks with the doctor from school to school in remote areas [...]
Hansa Devi – strong, courageous and undeterred
You could start explaining it at 5 in the morning. Then when Hansa Devi gets up, puts water on and makes tea for “her” 24 children. When she wakes the children, directs them to make their beds and sweep, and with some of them prepares breakfast for all [...]
Last minute rescue
With the last of her strength, 18-year-old Sandhya Nepali reached our birthplace in Loharbada in Mugu. The 7th month pregnant woman suffered from profuse bleeding. Our midwives immediately recognized the seriousness of the situation [...].
Help for those who don’t get help
It only takes seconds and the weather changes. Thick fog blocks any view of the Kolti airstrip in Mugu [...]
Month after month – becoming a woman shouldn’t be torture
With the taboo subject of menstruation, we are addressing girls directly in schools. In the process, we discovered that they know absolutely nothing about their periods [...].
Biogas – active environmental protection that improves life
Improving life with environmental protection. If cooking areas are operated with biogas systems, the surrounding forest is also protected. Among many other benefits, the health of residents [...]
The end of the water shortage: 11 new taps for Bhaduwar
A fateful minute and a half for the small Nepalese mountain village in Nuwakot - Bhaduwar was almost wiped out during the 2015 earthquake. Its 538 inhabitants had to watch helplessly as their houses, cattle sheds and village school became part of a rubble wasteland [...]
Well construction
In Chitwan in the south of Nepal, Back to Life has been promoting girls from ethnic minorities so that they can attend school since 2010. Our team on the ground noticed that many schoolgirls from Piple village were repeatedly late for classes [...]
From woman to woman: our midwives help directly
Behind these figures there is a lot of help: 15 birth centres, 47 employees, 30 of them midwives, 15 assistants and 2 health officers. All these women are from Mugu and all of them are there in Mugu for women, children and families [...]
Proper hand washing needs to be practiced – Global Handwashing Day
"Global Handwashing Day" has been celebrated in schools around the world since 2008 to make children aware of the immense importance of daily hygiene. Because bacteria are only effectively combated when hands are thoroughly washed with soap for at least 20 seconds [...].
Better now than never – adult literacy
When we expanded our project radius in Mugu to the communities Seri, Kalai and Rara and their neighboring villages from 2011 onwards, we found that most adults - as in many parts of Mugu - were illiterate. There were 1202 people over the age of 15 living in and around the above villages [...]
