The China Foundation for Rural Development, in collaboration with the Global Cooperation for Development, on Wednesday held a Seminar on “Child Nutrition Status in Community Schools of Nepal”.
The China Foundation, the only registered Chinese INGO in Nepal, organized the seminar to mark the first anniversary of the launch of its "Smiling Children School Feeding Program".
The Foundation has been channelizing foreign aid from China for the past seven years.
The formal ceremony of the event was jointly inaugurated by the Minister for Communication and Information Technology Rekha Sharma and Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Chen Song.
The ceremony was attended by other distinguished guests from Nepal Government, Chinese Embassy, national and international development agencies, Chinese Association and Enterprises, including various national media representatives.
Also participating in the event were school principals, teachers, students, and mothers’ group members of the beneficiary schools.
Similarly, representative students from beneficiary schools also displayed various art and craft materials at the event, as greetings to Chinese donors and people for continuous support through the meal feeding program.
During the ceremony, beneficiary schools, program-in charges, and mothers’ group members were also rewarded with New Year Gifts, as appreciation for their contribution to the successful execution of the meal feeding program under the project.
Speaking at the ceremony, the Country Director of CFRD Nepal Office, appreciated the participation of all distinguished guests, for making the event successful and has been an opportunity for the foundation to understand further policies of the Nepal Government and feedback from various stakeholders, to enhance project impact.
According to her, the foundation has been feeding more than 9,000 school children from 47 community schools across three districts of the country -- Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Dang and planning the expansion of the project further. She further said that CFRD will continuously support in the uplifting livelihood of the Nepali community and hoped to receive support and help from the Nepal Government, including Nepali and Chinese enterprises in future work of Nepal’s rural development.
Addressing the ceremony, Minister Rekha Sharma said that the China and Chinese people have always supported Nepali community, when in need and the communal relationship between the two countries will remain harmonious forever.
She thanked China Foundation for continuously supporting Nepali people, especially children during the past seven years to improve their livelihood and promotion of their health and education. She said that the country will still need assistance from such development agencies in the head, to achieve sustainable development of the country timely.
Delivering the welcome speech, Nabin Manandhar, the spokesperson of Kathmandu Metropolitan City and Ward Chairperson of Ward No. 17, thanked CFRD and GCD for organizing a fruitful event of project ceremony and seminar to further enhance project impact in future.
He added that the China Foundation has been collaborating with the Metropolitan City to implement various projects in the education sector, and the current Smiling Children Program is one of them. He said that the Smiling Children Program had contributed to the physical development as well as academic success of community school children by providing nutritional meals.
Ambassador Song, congratulated the China Foundation for its rigorous efforts for past seven years to support social welfare and development activities in Nepal and the successful one-year accomplishment of the decent initiative of feeding needy Nepali children through the “Smiling Children School Feeding Program.
He incited that the project has been successful in attracting the attention of the Nepali government and people and hoped that the foundation will be able to benefit more Nepali Children in the coming years.
He further vowed to strengthen the Nepal-China relationship and continue to support the Nepali community.
Ram Prasad Subedi, Head of Education Department of Kathmandu Metropolitan City expressed his delight at learning about the Smiling Children School Feeding Program in community schools of Nepal.
He further expressed his gratitude to Chinese people, CFRD and GCD for their exemplary support on behalf of the Education Department of Kathmandu Metropolitan City.
