Malika Community Development Centre.

Malika provide projects focused on human rights, peacebuilding, community empowerment and awareness-raising. They combat social injustice (such as caste and gender discrimination), seeing this as being a major cause of conflict in Nepal on both local and national levels. They also aim to improve management and fair use of local natural resources – another source of conflict. Many of our projects focus on developing leadership among young people in these areas.

Youth Leadership Campaign

This project aimed to empower young people and encourage them to take action for social reform and conflict management. It aimed to address the problems facing young people who were unemployed or displaced due to the Maoist war, providing them with new opportunities.

The project began with 15 young people receiving training in human rights, conflict management, mediation and dialogue. They learnt about local natural resources, such as the river, canals, grazing grounds, and the forest, and discussed existing and potential conflicts over these. Another topic explored with them was social injustice and how to handle social conflict. These young people went on to organise ‘Youth Peace Groups’ in 24 Village Development Committees. Each group had 30 participants, male and female, and aimed to become self-sustaining after the end of the project.