News

Current information on our projects in Nepal, about what is going on in Austria, and general information on developments in Nepal. For more information, visit our facebook page, watch videos on our youtube channel, or subscribe to our quarterly newsletter (in German).

Oct 06

Support for PHASE from the Hofburg Palace!

With Ms Doris Schmidauer, motivator, consultant and wife of Austria’s President Alexander Van der Bellen, we have won a prominent supporter for PHASE Austria. We are proud and happy to have additional support, especially in these challenging times. Ms Schmidauer commented: “I am impressed with the long-term volunteer commitment of PHASE Austria, which makes sure that women in the extremely poor villages of Nepal’s mountains are able to give birth safely, that their children don’t suffer malnutrition, and have access to education and better life chances.” © Wolfgang Zajc Next, we will explore other possibilities of support from Ms Schmidauer and plan an event together. We are very much looking […]

Oct 06

PHASE Austria newsletter

Our most recent newsletter has just been published. To view it, please click here. Unfortunately, the newsletter is only published in German, but should you wish to subscribe, please write us an e-mail to newsletter@phaseaustria.org – we will be glad to add you to our subscribers’ list!

Jun 08

Cultivating PHASE’s image

Nearly always, you will find us reporting on events and projects in Nepal – now for once, the Austrian press is reporting on us! What a nice change … 😉 We are grateful to Bezirkszeitung for lending us their platform. You can find the article here.

May 17

10 years of Spendengütesiegel

Last Friday, PHASE was awarded a certificate for ten years of membership with the Austrian label of quality for donors, the Österreichisches Spendengütesiegel, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the foundation of this organisation. The label stands for efficient and transparent accounting in fundraising non-profit organisations and certifies that organisations fulfill accounting and efficiency criteria reviewed in annual independent audits. Our organistion has been a member for ten years now.

Apr 08

PHASE Austria is 15!

Time flies! This months, it will be exactly 15 years since the foundation of PHASE Austria. At the start we were a small group, but we have developed into an important mediator and supporter in development. For fifteen years now we’ve promoted and supported PHASE Nepal’s projects and thus help our Nepalese colleagues to sustainably improve the situation and life chances of people in remote and disadvantaged communities in Nepal. Access to healthcare, education, and income as well as promoting empowerment are at the core of our projects, which are documented in detail in our annual report. Looking back, it was a steep learning curve on principles of rural development, […]

Jul 01

Voices of Empowerment Workshop participants

Just before the renewed lockdown in Nepal from 1st May, PHASE Nepal was able to conduct Girls’ Empowerment Workshops in Bichhya (Bajura). These workshops aim to improve the educational and life chances of girls in these extremely remote villages and raise awareness for the importance of education, women’s rights, protection from violence, and health and hygiene, and career choices. For part of the workshop programme, boys are also included in order to increase their sensibility for gender issues.Here we would like to let the participants speak for themselves: Bimala T. – 14 years, female:“I attended the two weeks Girls Empowerment Programme that PHASE offered in our school. All sessions were […]

Jun 22

Article on Maternal and Child Health

An article on PHASE’s work in maternal and child health in the Karnali region has just been published in “Weltnachrichten”, the Austrian Development Agency’s magazine. It details the way in which a better service in primary healthcare, awareness raising, and agricultural projects interact to ensure a long-term improvement of the region’s people – one of the most disadvantaged regions of Nepal. Unfortunately, the article is only available in German.

Apr 13

PHASE Austria Annual Report 2020

We are pround and happy to present our Annual Report 2020 (in German) – in spite of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal as well as in Austria, this year has been a successful one for our organisation. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our donors as well as those who give their time and expertise to help us reach our goals! Thank you so much!

Feb 05

Funding for new maternal and child health project in Bajura and Humla

With funding from the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), we are able to expand our commitment in the Karnali Region in northwestern Nepal: In four communities in Bajura and Humla, we will support a maternal and child health programme, which will focus on the issue of nutrition like the ongoing programme in neighbouring Mugu District. By raising awareness, agricultural trainings and support of vegetable farming and cash crops like kiwi and spices, the most disadvantaged people in this remote region will be enabled to produce healthier, more diverse food for themselves and their children and thus improve their life chances. About a third of the total population of 14,100 people will […]

Dec 30

Happy New Year 2021

We wish all our supporters and friends a very happy New Year! After this year, which, in very different ways, has been so difficult for all of us but also saw some wonderful successes, we are cautiously optimistic for this coming year. Amongst others, a substantial grant from the Austrian Development Agency will enable us to support a new health, livelihoods and education programme in four communities in Bajura and Humla over the next three years.

Nov 26

Project start WASH project im Bama

In December, we are launching a new project in Bama, Mugu. The project, funded by the City of Vienna, aims to improve the commmunity’s drinking water supply, at the same time relieving the burden of carrying water for women and girls, and in general improving the sanitary situation in these villages. For more information, please see the project description. PHASE Austria has been supporting the PHASE health programme in Bama since 2018. The project duration is one year. We would like to thank the City of Vienna for its support!

Sep 21

A first baby born at the new birthing centre in Bihee, Mugu

In Bihee, where PHASE was able to launch its health programme last November thanks to funding from Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung, a first baby was born in the newly-established birthing centre last week. The baby – a boy – and his mother are fine, and they were taken home by their family and friends with music and celebrations. This means great progress for this community – Bihee is an extremely remote village, situated several hours on foot between two more frequented routes, and it will most probably take years for it to get road access.

May 11

Covid update

Nepal has now been in lockdown since March 23, which helped keep the number of cases at a low 100+. The World Health Organisation WHO currently still categorises the situation in Nepal as “sporadic cases”. This week, the lockdown was again extended until May 18; international flights are currently suspended until May 31. As expected, the identified cases cluster in districts along the Indian border, where many migrant workers have returned to the country, and of course Kathmandu – see the map below. So far, no cases have been identified in the remote PHASE project regions, even though some of them have conducted targeted screenings. As reported, PHASE Nepal already […]

Mar 27

Covid Measures in Nepal

Since Tuesday, 23 March, Nepal is in lockdown to avoid a spread of the Corona virus. So far, Nepal has only two active confirmed cases, but just as in other countries, there probably are many unidentified cases, partly because many Nepalese migrant workers have returned to Nepal over the past weeks. Already two weeks ago, PHASE Nepal set in motion a contingency plan and bought masks and other safety equipment which has been sent to the remote project villages. PHASE staff has been informed of safety measures and are now able to advise those at risk and check recent returnees – mostly migrant workers from India and the Gulf – […]

Mar 17

Corona Virus

Although Nepal has not been much affected by the Corona Virus so far – there is only one confirmed case until now – the Nepalese government and our partner organisation PHASE Nepal are preparing contingency plans to contain its effects. PHASE Nepal strongly relies on information and awareness raising among its staff and among the communities they work in, as well as planning ahead for the probable needs in additional material and medication. Nevertheless, we will have to expect the incidence to rise in Nepal as well, which means an additional burden on an already weak healthcare system. This will affect our projects, and most of all PHASE Nepal’s staff. […]

Mar 08

International Women’s Day

It is International Women’s Day – and the empowerment of women and girls in rural communities in Nepal is at the heart of PHASE’s work: access to primary health care especially for women and young children, raising awareness of women’s rights within communities, improving the livelihoods of for female subsistence farmers, women’s literacy courses and empowerment workshops for girls and boys are part of our integrated approach.

Feb 13

Food security for Mugu project completed

This City of Vienna funded project was successfully completed in October 2019. In the project, a total of 283 farmers and their 2,019 family members were supported with trainings in vegetable farming, chicken and goat rearing to enable them to provide better food for their families and gain an additional cash income, too. The project also included very successful trials for mushroom farming, and provided funds for a local collective to start a local farmers’ market in Sorukot, the municipality headquarters. In addition, PHASE Nepal staff provided trainings and information on nutrition with a focus on children under five. The end report is currently only available in German.

Jan 10

Video about the PHASE nutrition programme

This short video gives an insight into the livelihoods and nutrition compoment of PHASE’s approach: by making available some materials and, most importantly, training and knowledge, we achieve a significant improvement in the lives of the people of Mugu.

Dec 23

Season’s Greetings and a Happy New Year

This is the time of the year when it is tempting to look back and think about the past year – and this brings me to the first point of order: a heartfelt thank you to all our supporters and friends! Without private donations guaranteeing our independence, we would simply be unable to support PHASE’s work in Nepal! Women in Luma, one of the project communities In the past year, this enabled us to win substantial support from Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung for PHASE’s maternal and child health programme in Mugu, as well as funding from the City of Vienna for a Girls’ Empowerment Programme in neighbouring Bajura district. In this context, […]

Dec 15

A beneficiary’s view

In this video, a young woman from Luma, Mugu district in western Nepal, describes her views of the impact of PHASE’s health programme on the lives of local women:

Dec 12

New Girls Empowerment Project

We are extremely happy to announce a new education project: With support from the City of Vienna and PHASE Austria, a girls empowerment project will be launched this December in Bajura District in the Karnali region. Based on experiences with similar projects, the PHASE Nepal team has added another dimension to its tested approach: this time, the young boys will be involved in the project in order to inspire them to advocate for women’s rights and equality, too. The City of Vienna’s support thus enables us to provide the opportunity to address the issues of equality, education and their plans for the future. Please click here for further information.

Oct 28

Happy Tihar

These days Nepal celebrates Tihar, the festival of lights. We wish all the PHASE family, and in particular our Nepalese friends, a very happy Tihar!

Oct 02

Opening of a local market in Sorukot, Mugu

The City of Vienna supported project “Food Security for Mugu” enabled the local farmers to organize a local market – an important step, as access to markets for perishable products is one of the main barriers in these remote villages, while there is local demand for fresh vegetables.

Jun 17

Quarterly Report January to April 2019

In the two health projects in Mugu funded by Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung and Austrian Development Agency via PHASE Austria, we can report the following results for the quarter from January to April: A total of 2,948 patients were seen in the outpatientclinics, of whom 1,261 women and girls. PHASE health staff delivered 57 babies,of which 28 were home deliveries and 29 births were attended in birthingcentres – a good sign that were these facilities exist, acceptance is high in arelatively short space of time (the birthing centre in Bama was established only 2 years ago, the one in Dhainakot only very recently). Family planning services were delivered to 206 women and […]

Jun 03

Rosie Swale-Pope in Vienna

Last week, Rosie Swale-Pope (72), who is currently running from England to Nepal for PHASE passed through Vienna. PHASE Austria welcomed her on Heldenplatz in central Vienna where she arrived on Sunday after a tour de force of more than 100 km in two days. We would like to express our special thanks to Nina and Christian Burscha and their team at Folieren Austria who lovingly and beautifully re-wrapped Rosie’s trailer “Ice Chick”, her mobile home for the duration – and donated their work! On Thursday evening, Rosie went on towards Bratislava and Budapest – follow her here. We will continue to report on her journey!

May 16

#RosieRuns – Charity Run from England to Nepal

Lovely Rosie Swale-Pope is currently running from England to Nepal for PHASE – on 26 May she will be in Vienna. Of course we are planning to give her an appropriate welcome. Join us at 12 am at Heldenplatz for a meet and greet! Rosie is one impressive lady – 2003 to 2005 she went on ‘Just a Little Run Around the World’ in support of cancer research. And after that, she didn’t stop and took on challenge after challenge, for instance a run across the US. Until she broke her hip in 2018 – while doing her laundry! The doctors didn’t give her much hope she would walk, let […]

Apr 25

4 years ago the earthquake hit

4 years ago today, at 11:56 local time, the earthquake in Nepal devastated the central districts of the country – we remember the nearly 9,000 dead and the survivors who still have to cope with the aftermath. PHASE Nepal immediately began to organize disaster relief, and since then has been very active in supporting reconstruction efforts in affected communities. On this anniversary, we would also like to thank our many supporters and donors who contributed to these efforts. Four years after the earthquake, the effects of the quakes are still very present in the affected regions, as an article in the Kathmandu Post describes.

Apr 14

Newsletter April 2019

Just in time for the Nepali New Year, we are happy to present our April newsletter with information on our activities in Austria, an invitation to visit the exhibition “Nepal Art Now” at the Weltmuseum Wien with us, and the most recent developments in our Urban Health project in Kathmandu. Our newsletter is published roughly every three months, unfortunately only in German. If you would like to subscribe, please write a short e-mail to info@phaseaustria.org!

Apr 07

World Health Day

World Health Day is a reminder that the human right to health and wellbeing defined in Goal 3 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals is far from being ensured, in particular in resource-poor countries of the Global South and amongst disadvantaged groups. The PHASE family have been working to help provide quality primary health care to remote Nepali communities, in particular to mothers and children.

Mar 23

Solutions to a silent disaster

Article on the challenges in the Karnali region by Brita Pohl Recently Brita Pohl published an article focused on the situation of women and children in an Austrian feminist development journal, the frauen*solidartität. In the article, she describes the huge challenges the people in the region face, and shows how PHASE’s integrated approach, which does not address health, education and lack of resources as separate problems, but supports local communities in finding solutions in all three sectors in order to empower them. We would like to thank the frauen*solidarität journal for their permission to publish the article here! We apologize for not being able to provide a translation of the […]

Mar 03

PHASE Austria General Assembly

At this year’s General Assembly our new board team was voted in – but the highlight of the evening was our guests, Dr. Gerda Pohl and Urmila Adhikari of PHASE Nepal who gave us fascinating insights into the details of the work in PHASE communities. For all those who missed it, her presentation was posted live on our facebook page.

Feb 14

ADA funding for health project

Our Integrated Project to Improve Maternal and Child Health with a Focuson Nutrition in Mugu in western Nepal will be funded by the Austrian Development Agency for an additional three years. The project aims to reduce maternal and child mortality in one of the poorest and least developed districts of Nepal, in particular by improving health services and nutrition for mothers and children in two rural municipalities. The project continues the ADA-funded framework programme in the region and is part of an integrated programme in the district which includes a nutrition and agriculture project that mainly aims to improve food security by introducing greenhouse vegetable gardening and improving small animal husbandry.

Dec 24

Happy holidays and all the best in 2019 from PHASE Austria!

Around this time of the year, things tend to be busy, but it is also a good time to look back and be grateful for all the good things that happened last year, for all the support we received, the positive feedback, everything that went according to plan … We would like to thank all PHASE members, our donors and supporters, and wish them all restful holidays and a very happy 2019!

Dec 07

Completion of Hagam Outreach Clinic Reconstruction

In September the reconstruction of the Hagam outreach clinic was completed, which ensures the long-term health provision for the community of Yanglakot with its population of ca. 3,000 people. The building includes a birthing room, a surgery, storeroom and office, and of course has access to safe water and toilets. PHASE staff are already working in this new building since mid-September. The new building was essential as the temporary ORC quarters, where PHASE Nepal staff had been working since the earthquakes, were not only too small, but stood in the path of a landslide that had devasted the community in 2016. We would like to thank NAK Humanitas for supporting […]

Oct 27

Feedback from PHASE beneficiaries

PHASE Nepal is implementing a participatory video project, which enables the direct beneficiaries of PHASE projects to voice their opinions in short videos. The video below is from one of the project communities in Mugu District in the Karnali Region, where PHASE Nepal implements health, education and food security projects, also with support from PHASE Austria. Besides the positive feedback we noticed that one of the speakers draws attention to how hard PHASE staff work, and another already thinks ahead and suggests PHASE should also invest in market-oriented agriculture projects besides helping farmers produce enough for their own consumption.

Apr 10

Monitoring visit to Hagam

In March, Brita Pohl (PHASE Austria Chairperson) had the opportunity to visit Hagam (Sindhupalchokk District) for the first time since 2007. The group joining the Hagam PHASE staff included Rudra Neupane and Prem Bahadur Bhattarai (PHASE Nepal Programme Managers), Dr. Gerda Pohl (PHASE health advisor), Margaret Lally (PHASE Worldwide Board member) and Tom Edwards (PHASE Worldwide Director). The 2015 earthquakes and a devastating landslide in the same year, Yanglakot village, where PHASE Austria implemented its first project ever – the construction of a secondary school – was nearly completely destroyed. Currently, PHASE supports the reconstruction of an outreach clinic in this community (funded by NAK Humanitas). One of the lovely […]

Dec 12

Project introduction at award ceremony

A lovely short film introduces our maternal and child healthcare project in Mugu which was awarded the Else Kröner-Fresenius-Preis für medizinische Entwicklungszusammenarbeit. The film was shown at the award ceremony in November 2017, and beautifully illustrates PHASE’s integrated approach: health, education, and livelihoods projects combine to empower people in these remote villages and encourage them to advocate for their rights themselves. We would like to thank the Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung for usage rights and Ms Simone Utler for this film and in particular for preparing an English version, too!

Support for PHASE from the Hofburg Palace!

6. Oct 2022

Support for PHASE from the Hofburg Palace!

PHASE Austria newsletter

Cultivating PHASE’s image

10 years of Spendengütesiegel

PHASE Austria is 15!

Voices of Empowerment Workshop participants

Article on Maternal and Child Health

PHASE Austria Annual Report 2020

Spring newsletter

Funding for new maternal and child health project in Bajura and Humla

Happy New Year 2021

Newsletter Winter 2020

Project start WASH project im Bama

Newsletter Autumn 2020

A first baby born at the new birthing centre in Bihee, Mugu

Covid update

Covid Measures in Nepal

Corona Virus

International Women’s Day

Food security for Mugu project completed

Video about the PHASE nutrition programme

Season’s Greetings and a Happy New Year

A beneficiary’s view

New Girls Empowerment Project

PHASE Austria Newsletter December 2019

Happy Tihar

Opening of a local market in Sorukot, Mugu

PHASE Austria Newsletter September 2019

Quarterly Report January to April 2019

Rosie Swale-Pope in Vienna

#RosieRuns – Charity Run from England to Nepal

4 years ago the earthquake hit

Newsletter April 2019

World Health Day

Solutions to a silent disaster

PHASE Austria General Assembly

ADA funding for health project

Happy holidays and all the best in 2019 from PHASE Austria!

Newsletter December 2018

Completion of Hagam Outreach Clinic Reconstruction

Feedback from PHASE beneficiaries

PHASE Austria Newsletter June 2018

Monitoring visit to Hagam

Project introduction at award ceremony

Support for PHASE from the Hofburg Palace!

PHASE Austria newsletter

Cultivating PHASE's image