EcoHimal has been ac­ti­ve in re­mo­te moun­tain re­gions of Ne­pal sin­ce 2015. The Kali­kot re­gion is one of the poor­est in the coun­try. At 38.5%, li­ter­acy is be­low the na­tion­al aver­age of 67%. The Dalits (so-called "caste­less") make up a quar­ter of the po­pu­la­tion. Since the Da­lits face dis­cri­mi­nat­ion at ho­me, many of them emi­grate to work ab­road.

 

In 2023, EcoHimal do­cu­men­ted a needs as­sess­ment. They spoke to young people and com­munity re­pre­sen­ta­tives. These peo­ple con­sider the lack of train­ing as a key chal­len­ge and want to have a place where they can train and or­ga­ni­se them­sel­ves. A "Youth Lear­ning Cen­tre" is there­fore to be built in Ram­ni with the lo­cal go­vern­ment and the Chil­dren's Fund Foun­dation. 

 

The centre will pro­vide trai­ning in ma­nual tra­des such as car­pen­try and plum­bing. In or­der to cre­ate job op­por­tuni­ties in the vil­lage, the fo­cus will be on agri­cul­ture, tour­ism, en­tre­pre­neur­ship and other prac­ti­cal skills. The young people are in­vol­ved in the con­struc­tion work as trai­nees. In this way, they ac­qui­re skills and con­tribu­te to the con­struc­tion of their youth centre.