Kathmandu: The China Foundation for Rural Development, in collaboration with the Global Cooperation for Development, on Tuesday held a seminar on “Child Nutrition Status in Community Schools of Nepal” to celebrate the first anniversary of launch of its “Smiling Children School Feeding Program” in Nepal.
The China Foundation is the only registered Chinese INGO in Nepal, channelizing foreign aid from China, for the past seven years. The formal ceremony of the event was jointly inaugurated by the Minister of Communication and Information Technology Rekha Sharma and Ambassador of People’s Republic of China to Nepal Chen Song.
The ceremony was witnessed by other distinguished guests from the government of Nepal, Chinese Embassy, national and international development agencies, Chinese Association and Enterprises, including various national media representatives.
Speaking at the ceremony, Country Director of CFRD Nepal Office, appreciated participation of all distinguished guests, for making the event successful and has been an opportunity for the foundation to understand further policies of Nepal Government and feedback of 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 expansion of the project further. “The CFRD will continuously support in uplifting livelihood of Nepalese community and hoped to receive support and help from Nepalese Government, including Nepalese and Chinese enterprises in future work of Nepal’s rural development.”
Addressing the ceremony, Rekha Sharma said China and the people of China have always supported Nepalese community, when in need and communal relationship between the two countries will remain harmonious forever. She thanked China Foundation for continuously supporting Nepalese people, especially children during the past seven years to improve their livelihood and promotion of their health and education. She also said that the country will still need assistance from such development agencies for further years, to achieve sustainable development of the country timely.
Spokesperson of Kathmandu Metropolitan City and Ward Chairperson of Ward No. 17, Nabin Manandhar, said the China Foundation has been collaborating with the Metropolitan City to implement various projects in education sector, and the current Smiling Children Program is one of the prominent among them. “The foundation’s support during the Covid-19 pandemic has also been a significant support to save lives and sustain livelihood of community people of the area. The Smiling Children Program had contributed to the physical development as well as academic success of community school children by providing nutritional meals.”
Likewise, Chen Song, congratulated China Foundation for its rigorous efforts since past seven years to support social welfare and development activities in Nepal and successful one-year accomplishment of decent initiative of feeding needy Nepalese children through the “Smiling Children School Feeding Program. “The project has been successful in attracting the attention of the Nepalese government and people.”
Similarly, Ram Prasad Subedi, Head of Education Department of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, thanked Chinese people, CFRD and GCD for their exemplary support on behalf of Education Department of Kathmandu Metropolitan City.
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