Cary-Grove graduate launches Peace Corps Partnership Project to alleviate water insecurity of Nepali rural village

Olivia Richter, a Class of 2013 Cary-Grove graduate, departed in April 2018 to serve as a volunteer in the Peace Corps Nepal Food Security Project.

She is working with farmers, women and children to improve the livelihood and nutrition of a water scarce rural community.

Having spent a year getting to know the language, culture, and her residence village and its people, Richter is passionately spending her second year of service attempting to alleviate the effects of a devastating dry season lasting from September to June each year.

During this season, fields run barren, the village composed primarily of farmers has little to no financial income, and a disproportionate number of women and girls are wasting hundreds of hours lugging jugs from the community water tap that runs drier as the season presides.

Women and girls' equality, economic income and nutrition all suffer as a result.

Along with community leader, Bandana Sijapati, Richter has initiated a Peace Corps Partnership Project to implement rainwater harvest systems on the homesteads of the village Farmer's Group.

In just three months of monsoon season, the torrent rains can provide sufficient volume of potable water for a household of five to last the whole year. Successful implementation of the rainwater harvest project aims to create leadership opportunities for these village women, a more diverse and abundant crop for the farmers and contribute positively in the life paths of these village children.

To read more about this project, contribute to and/or spread the word in support of this pursuit, visit www.peacecorps.gov/donate/projects/rainwater-harvest-lgl-19-367-005/.