Rural communities that can sustain themselves

While public high schools located in or near the villages are affordable, outstanding students who wish to pursue undergraduate degrees in STEM fields lack the financial means to attend college.

Subsistence farming communities cannot fund their children's education in bigger towns and cities where these degrees are offered. These scholarship opportunities will target a few bright students each year, sending them to college and supporting them fully for four years.

Subsistence farming communities in remote villages in Nepal, particularly in the hills and mountains of Sudurpashchim Province, produce enough food for less than six months a year.

These farmers struggle with land fragmentation, declining soil quality, increasing pest infestations, lack of pesticide control systems, climate change, unpredictable weather, and reduced agricultural productivity. Many youths leave in search of jobs; some want to migrate permanently.

Support with agricultural technologies, training, and environmentally sustainable farm-based entrepreneurship will help communities secure household food security and keep the rural population intact.