Oda Foundation’s Values and How We Embody Them
The Oda Foundation prides itself on being a locally -led, research-backed, and sustainable organization. We have exciting new projects and impact happening on the ground and wanted to share further about our work!
Please read more about how our organization is run and the values we continue to promote:
Creating Independence
As The Oda Foundation is situated directly in the community, it is imperative that we does not create a dependency on the organization for basic healthcare and adequate education. To see this through, the Oda Foundation has operated so that the initiatives created by the foundation can survive and flourish independently of the organization itself. While many NGOs choose to start private schools, The Oda Foundation has developed a public-private partnership with the local government school in the community. We believe that to sustain change, we need the government’s buy-in. The Oda Foundation works to empower our local schools by providing teacher training, school materials, and resources for capacity building. In this partnership, our organization can work cooperatively with the local government for improvements within an education system that is already established and will continue to operate beyond the Oda Foundation’s time.
Hear from two of our current teachers about the importance of this private-public partnership.
Sustainability
The Oda Foundation’s primary goal is sustainability. What does this mean? We focus on long-term health and education initiatives, and we also ensure that our work safeguards the natural environment. Our social enterprise focuses on employing women from precarious situations to grow the food our staff consumes on our campus. Our agriculture women share their practices with the local community and run the cooperative of over 100 women. By sharing farming practices, we can increase the region's nutrition variety and food security. The disadvantaged women we employ are both widowed and illiterate. We have trained them in sustaining the culture of locally processed seeds and food, rather than commercially processed ones or brought in from the cities to ensure that the genetics of the plant remains true - preventing illness and disease from hampering produce. Through permaculture training and support of understanding local growing practices, we will continue to train trainers and expand knowledge to the community.
Research-backed Initiatives
We value the importance of community research to drive our decisions. Through collecting and analyzing data communicated by the community, the Oda Foundation can better understand the community's struggles and subsequently determine which initiatives should take the highest priority in addressing these issues. For example, after conducting the 2017 household survey, OF recognized the community need for a safe birthing institution. At-home deliveries put women at greater risk for complications during labor because most often there is not a sterile environment with trained personnel for assistance. In October 2021, The Oda Foundation followed through on this data to create the region’s first birthing center with auxiliary nurse-midwives and necessary equipment for safe births. Since then, we have provided countless prenatal check-ins, births, and post-birth care in our center.
Our midwife holding the first baby born in our birthing center!
In April 2022, our team went door to door to understand current health habits and community trends. Please find the report here. The responses of which are currently feeding projects and initiatives the Oda Foundation is undertaking. To learn more about our research and implementation, please reach out!
Our Public Health Fellow ‘21-’22 conducting the household survey in the community
Lastly, our most recent and exciting research-based project is our “Ma For Mahila” program which means “I stand for Women” in Nepali. This women’s health project focuses on improving women’s menstrual hygiene, access to our health facilities and promotion of family planning. Over the last month, the project has been training local women to take the lead on the project and run workshops in the surrounding communities on women’s wellness and long-term impact.
Local Leadership
The Oda Foundation prioritizes investing in locals because we believe that people from the community should be leading their own change. 80% of our staff are from our local district, and 95% of the Foundation’s staff are Nepali. The Oda Foundation’s Scholars program takes young people from the village and puts them through professional training to create leaders who are personally invested in their home village development. Additionally, we report to two boards, one Nepali and one US. All members of the Nepali board are from the Oda community, and all organization decisions must be approved by them, fostering the importance of community-led decisions.
Our leadership team went through a 3-day management training workshop to further skills and develop as a team. For many of our team, this was their first formal training opportunity.
Operating on the Ground
Unlike many NGOs in Nepal, the Oda Foundation is situated in the village where we work. Our staff is predominantly living on the foundation’s campus, where they are better equipped to communicate and collaborate with the community. With the majority of our staff from Oda, we can quickly adapt our priorities and initiatives to suit the needs of the community at the time. Recently, our municipality saw unexpected heavy rains that caused landslides and flooding throughout the region. Because our staff lives in the village, members of our medical team and grounds team could go to the homes of people most affected by the disaster to assess their needs. Within days, Oda Foundation helped coordinate providing basic necessities such as blankets, shoes, clothes, and food to people who had lost their homes and livelihoods in the floods.
Our team supporting rice distribution to families who lost their homes to the heavy rains and floods that swept through our community in Oct 2022.
We are grateful for our continued support and partners who allow us to operate and further the community impact in Oda. If you have any questions or would like to donate, please find our giving season campaign here.
With Care,
The Oda Foundation Team