Facts about Nepal and the Mountain Village Jiri

Nepal is a gorgeous and fascinating country, where around 125 ethnicities live together. There are around 123 different languages, of which 90 are spoken actively. Nepal is also a very poor country where the especially minors have to suffer the burden. The children’s death rate is 39/1,000, around 13 times higher than that of Germany. About one third of the five year olds are malnourished (Germany 1%) and approximately 34% of the 5- 14 year olds work instead of getting an education (Germany: < 1%)

Jiri in the District of Dolakha

Jiri - a Mountain Village in the District of Dolakha

Nepal is subdivided into five development regions; which are divided into 14 zones and 75 districts like Village Development Communities. Besides the Administration Divisions, Nepal is categorized into so-called Eco-belts such as Mountain, High Altitute Areas and Valleys. The Future Citizen program in Jiri, lies in the middle of the development region of the Eco-Belt Mountain location in the Janakpur Zone of the Dolakha District. Based on the last census in 2011, there were 45,000 Households in the District of Dolakha in which 186,000 people lived in. From that, 53% were women. The District covers 2,200 km² of land. To compare, this would be the population of Saarbruecken living in an area 13 times its size.

Jiri-Kids during the rice harvest

Earthquake in the Himalaya Region in May 2015 had a serious impact

Around 7,400 people live,approximately 2000m above sea level; about a day's drive away from the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu, in a mountain village called Jiri. This used to be the starting point for Mount Everest expeditions, yet nowadays a flight to Lukla in the Khumbu- area is a lot shorter. Jiri was the epicenter of the May 2015 earthquake.

House in Jiri after the 2015 earthquake