Every human being has basic needs - health is one of them.

In each and every one of our project villages, no matter if in India or in Nepal, people suffer from health problems. During our daily work, we see countless examples of this: children, women and men die from high fever, Malaria, AIDS or other diseases because they have no access to medical care and the previous arrangements were not sufficient. This means years of suffering for children or adults, without a diagnosis or treatment, while their relatives have to stand by. These families are poor and/or live in a region with no access to medical care. Some regions are... read more

In many remote villages in India and Nepal, menstruation is a reason why many girls and women are shunned and discriminated against. Due to reasons of tradition, women are forbidden to enter the kitchen, eat with the family and sleep in the conjugal bed during their menstruation period. Moreover, they are not allowed to enter the house and are forced to sleep in menstruation huts. This dangerous tradition is called Chhaupadi. In those often dirty huts, women are exposed to several kinds of danger. In addition to a lack of hygiene, they struggle with the freezing cold or are raped or beaten. News about women falling serious-ly ill or even dying in such huts are frequent. The Chhaupadi tradition is forbidden in most parts of the countries, but is still practised in many regions – people do not dare to disregard the tradition because they are afraid of bringing bad luck to the family.

Another big problem... read more

At the end of April 2015, Nepal was ravaged by several heavy earthquakes. Together with the local aid organisation Homenet Nepal, Hope is life helped the victims of this catastrophe in the field.  Apart from the processing of the traumatic experiences, families were provided with the necessary materials and temporary housings. During our work in the field, our team was asked by the organisation Homenet to visit the remote village Ghole Tole. This village had been waiting for the support of an aid organisation for a long time. What we found there is hard to put into words: About 80% of the villagers are addicted to alcohol. The children have formed small gangs and are left to themselves most of the time. At home, many children do not get food and have to provide for themselves. The boys often start consuming alcohol at the age of 10, the girls a little later... read more

While working in the villages, we reconsidered our vision of a school project. We regularly had conversations with the villagers and realised that some resources are mobilised to provide education for the children. So we decided to promote and appreciate these efforts rather than undermining them. Like this, we do not start something new – we complete what is already there. From this thought arose our godparenthood project. Many children in the villages and slums of our project regions theoretically have access to schools, but the people do not have the necessary means for the monthly school costs, school uniforms, school books etc. Parents with many children often cannot afford to pay school costs for them... read more

Hope is life deals with the fact that many women are victims of violent crimes only because of their sex. According to the UNO, especially women and girls in developing countries are in danger. The assumed number of victims is alarmingly high, but not verifiable because abuse and humiliation of women is mostly not reported to the police or made public. A sad example is the following: In India, the number of women has been dropping in such an alarming way that UNO experts complain about it to the Indian government and ask them to take action immediately. But the sad reality is that, even today, countless female foetuses are aborted and little girls as well as grown-up women are brutally abused, exploited or killed… read more

In the remote villages of Odisha, there are some schools up to middle school level which are paid by the government. The schools are often badly maintained, the teachers are either notably absent or there are never enough of them to form a complete team. The small number of teachers is most notable in the remote regions.

Another problem is the culture of violence lived out in these regions, either within the family or because of ethnicity (caste system), religion, terrorism and poverty. Because there are no colleges for young people, the SFDC decided in 2003 to found the Karuna Shanti Residental Ashram in Golenthera, Odisha... read more