History & Background

Executive Director, SAMDAN

The Executive Director for Social Awareness and Multipurpose Development Alliance Nepal (SAMDAN), Mr. Devendra Adhikari, used to work with a local project focused on garbage management named EDEN from 2005 November to 2009 August. EDEN project was running garbage management activities in local communities in Kathmandu and later phased out in 2011. Due to the work & caste hierarchy together with other socio-cultural values and norms, working with garbage was assumed to be a low-respected job.

His personal stories are very touching. His schooling life was a struggle with economic poverty and many other obstacles — the same until he was doing his bachelor's degree. When he went to Norway as an exchange student at Hald International Center for 'Cross Cultural Communication Study' for one year in 2009, he saw the clean & healthy environment in Norway. He started to realize the importance of the work that EDEN project was actually trying to do in Kathmandu. Mr. Devendra got very impressed by the Norwegian habit of waste separation from early childhood. He visited many waste recycling and processing centers. He realized that health, sanitation and hygiene issues were one of the main causes for the difference in life expectancy between Nepal and Norway.

In 2010, after completing his one year course, he came back to Kathmandu and did two years of commitment service to NBCBS (IFES Nepal). During his free time, he tried to establish an interest group with local communities and the church he attended. He made trips to Singapore and Japan to learn the best ideas and strategies for long-term impact on pollution reduction in Nepal. From his personal research and discussion with many wise people, he finalized that: "Building/creating the positive habit of waste management in young children via school education is more effective, important and sustainable than working with adults. Adults are already determined with all socio-cultural phenomena and hard to change their mindset."

He organized a committed group from his church, friendship circle and local communities and cast his vision among them. The vision of working with poor and needy children and working in the environment sector with school children became the vision of the entire group.

He then registered a non-profit human welfare umbrella organization called Social Awareness and Multipurpose Development Alliance Nepal (SAMDAN), officially registered under National Guideline Act 1977 (2034 BS) in Nepal. It started its activities with two main projects: Children Education Support Program (CESP) and Children Based Environment Education Program (Children-BEEP). CESP is a scholarship program under which 53 children are getting monthly scholarships for their educational needs. Children-BEEP focuses on creating new aware generations for a clean and green environment. Now Children-BEEP is working with 18 different schools and around 13,000 students plus teachers in and around Balaju areas of Kathmandu Metropolitan City.

For organizational economic sustainability, the Executive Director has established supporting businesses like Noah Creative Arts and Crafts, Homestay, Travel & Tour Company, etc. A certain percentage of income from these activities helps fund SAMDAN's work.