23 Mar Rasuwa, Nepal: why we chose to sow the future here
Rasuwa is a Himalayan district on the northern border of Nepal with Tibet, home to around 43,000 people. Its landscapes are defined by high-altitude terrain, mountain valleys, and sacred lakes, in a context where environmental conditions directly shape people’s lives and opportunities. Here, solidarity can generate lasting change.
This is where ASIA has chosen to build a long-term commitment, not only in response to the 2015 earthquake, but every day through its long distance sponsorship project.
To understand why this commitment is so urgent, it is important to look more closely at the territory. The following five infographics highlight its most relevant features.
A landscape shaped by mountains and the earthquake
Rasuwa lies 120 kilometers north of Kathmandu, along the Tibetan border. Sixty percent of its area is above 3,000 meters in altitude; some locations can only be reached on foot, roads are unpaved, and landslides frequently make travel difficult. In addition, some areas still lack basic infrastructure. These conditions affect economic development, access to healthcare, and social services.
In 2015, this already vulnerable region was struck by the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that devastated Nepal. Rasuwa was among the hardest-hit districts: nearly all buildings were destroyed, leaving deep material and psychological impacts on local communities. Reconstruction has progressed slowly, also due to the characteristics of the territory. Even today, many families live in precarious conditions.
ASIA was already present—and chose to stay, focusing its efforts on Rasuwa and committing to rebuild not only homes, but opportunities, starting with education.
A subsistence economy and relentless poverty
The people of Rasuwa live primarily from mountain agriculture and livestock farming — cereals, potatoes, maize, chauri, yak and goats — sources that together account for around 70% of household income, but which often fall short of covering the entire year. Harvests are frequently insufficient, and the margins for coping with unexpected hardship are almost non-existent.
The remaining income depends largely on remittances from migrants (25%): many working-age men leave the district to find employment in Kathmandu or abroad, often leaving women and the elderly to manage the fields and animals. Tourism in the Langtang area, one of the most accessible treks in the Himalayas, accounts for just 3% of income.
The consequences of this economic fragility are concrete and measurable: 41% of the population lives in poverty and food insecurity. And it is the children who pay the highest price.
The children who need protection most
In Rasuwa, child malnutrition is a silent but profound crisis. 31% of children under five are underweight and at risk of stunted growth — a form of chronic malnutrition that cannot be seen in a single empty plate, but is measured in the height of a five-year-old, in their ability to learn, in their future.
Added to this is school dropout, which remains very high — especially among girls. In a context where domestic work and early marriage are often the only alternatives to school, ensuring continuity of education literally means changing the course of a life.
It is in this context that school takes on a meaning that goes far beyond learning.
School as a space of protection, nourishment and hope
In Rasuwa, school is not simply a place to learn to read and write. It is often the only space of stability, protection and hope for hundreds of children. A place to find a warm meal, the smiles of classmates, trained teachers, and physical and emotional safety.
After the 2015 earthquake, ASIA built or rebuilt the schools of Thangdoor, Aarukharka, Namuna and Dupcheshwori: safe, earthquake-resistant, welcoming buildings. Today, across these four schools, more than 400 girls and boys study, play, eat, learn in their own language and grow up protected.
But keeping these schools open, and ensuring every child can continue their education, requires concrete and sustained support.
Sowing the Future: what it means to sponsor a child in Rasuwa
Sponsoring a child in Rasuwa through the Sowing the Future campaign means supporting an entire community.
It means food and water, school materials, trained teachers, daily protection. It means ensuring that a girl will not have to choose between school and working in the fields. It means giving a child the same opportunities for growth that elsewhere are taken for granted.
Every long distance sponsorship is a seed planted in a land that already knows how to turn resilience into a future. In Rasuwa, supporting one child means supporting an entire community.
Sowing the Future — Sponsor from a distance at www.adoptibet.org/en/