Host Organization Details
ECCA
Environmental Camps for Conservation Awareness,(ECCA), is a non-governmental organization that is focused on educating individuals about environmental issues that are currently prevalent in Nepal. The main environmental issues that this organization is working to improve includes: contamination of fresh water supplies through fecal matter and textiles, air pollution in urban centers caused by vehicular and industrial emissions, deforestation and land degradation.
ECCA strives to encourage citizens of Nepal to learn about how to improve one's quality of life by learning how to maintain and preserve the resources that are naturally provided. This organization also strives to provide educational forums for people of all ages to learn about what natural resources are and the different ways that people can reuse or reduce the amount of natural resources that they consume on a daily basis.
ECCA actively investigates options of different forms of renewable energies and how they can be implemented within their country. This organization believes that their main role is to promote social mobilization through education, find new forms of renewable energies and try to implement these ideas by educating their peers on why it is important to be conscious of the environment and how each person can make little changes to improve the situation.
Currently ECCA has a number of programs that their members are organizing and implementing. One program is ECCA's," Youth Empowerment Program." which is an environmental awareness program that strives to educate Nepali youth on environmental issues and how they can become social agents for change.
ECCA has implemented the, "Nature Club", concept at different schools in Nepal for environmental improvement and awareness for children. The "Nature Club" is for children in classes from 6 to 9 and their ages range from 11 to 17 years of age. The "Nature Club" works as a small organization/club with a president, secretary, accountant and other members that are elected to the board by all "Nature Club" Members. They meet frequently and perform environment related activities within the school premises and community.
ECCA also strives to develop programs that are not only for children. Although educating youth is a primary focus of this organization, ECCA strives to diversify their programs to include research, adult education workshops, leadership seminars and create and implement programs that are designed to promote recycling and water purification.
Water purification and conservation is an important topic as the water levels in Kathmandu are continually dropping. Traditional water reserves are either becoming contaminated or drying up. This problem is exemplified as the population growth continues to increase as more people move to the city in hopes of finding employment. Nepal has the poorest drinking water and sanitation coverage for its population in South Asia and a large percentage of its drinking water contains fecal matter on a regular basis. ECCA strives to help address this issue through their water purification program.
ECCA also implements educational seminars for people from all over Nepal where an individual who wants to become an active environmental leader in his or her community can attend seminars to help them receive the education and tools to be able to share with their peers environmental issues and teach others about possible solutions. At the end of these seminars, many of the attendees become active leaders in their community. Currently ECCA has trained over 4,000 people in 46 districts of Nepal and a few people in Bhutan and India to be environmental leaders in their community.
ECCA has been recognized as one of the leading organization in their sector for social mobilization and community development. ECCA has renovated 20 schools in Nepal where they have improved the environment to include toilets, better classroom space and provided safe drinking water for all children who attend that school. ECCA has also trained over 100 youth counselors to help implement the "Nature Club" groups in schools that helps promote educational awareness seminars to youth. Currently there are 30 Nature Clubs in different schools where children focus on environmental issues through art, nature-related competitions and presentations to their schools and communities.
ECCA has also won many awards for their efforts and contribution to environmental issues in Nepal. A few awards that they have won include: "Nepal Development Marketplace (for safe-drinking-water campaign)", "Global Development Marketplace (for Solar Tuki)" given by World Bank and awarded in 1991 by the Government of Nepal, the first NGO to be awarded CITATION (for conservation awareness).
Does this organization have any religious affiliations?
No, This organization does not have any religious affiliations.
ECCA was founded in 1987 by a group of Nepali individuals who decided that they wanted to start an organization that addressed many of the environmental issues that were continuing to increase in their country. At first they decided that education campaigns and research were the primary goals and since they were founded they have vastly extended the programs. ECCA was established in 1987 as a non profit, non political, non government organization. ECCA is registered in Government of Nepal, District Administration Office, Kathmandu and affiliated with Social Welfare Council, Kathmandu. ECCA Constitution enables trained members to vote for a policy when 11 members or more are present. ECCA now has a network of over 4,000 trained manpower in 46 districts of Nepal and a few places in Bhutan and India. ECCA pioneered the concept of the children's," Nature Club", (in Nepal), in 1992. ECCA was the first NGO to establish a paper-recycling unit, (named Pap Again), in 1994 with the objective of producing recycled paper from the waste paper collected from offices and schools, etc. ECCA Head Office was shifted to its newly constructed building in Kopundol, Lalitpur on March 14, 2004 (Chaitra 1, 2060).
ECCA has over 46 branches throughout both Kathmandu and rural regions of Nepal. The primary goal of ECCA is to provide training to youth about the environmental issues that are impacting Nepal.
ECCA trains their volunteers to be knowledgeable on certain environmental issues that they have chosen to highlight in their workshops. These volunteers then conduct workshops to children ages 9 to 17 years of age in both Kathmandu and rural communities throughout Nepal. The primary focus is to have these youth become facilitators and teach others in their schools and communities about the importance of conserving their environment.
In addition, they conduct a number of campaigns that demonstrate the use of alternative energy sources in hopes that more adults throughout Nepal will decide to adopt some of these alternatives in their daily lifestyle.
ECCA`s main office is located in the Kathmandu valley which is where all of our volunteers are placed. However, volunteers may be able to travel to other branch offices in rural communities if work is required.
ECCA has a number of funders. All of their educational projects are funded by a Finnish group called Taksvark. ECCA has also received funding for short term projects through government grants, international non-government organizations and private donors.
Any kind of donations will be greatly appreciated as ECCA is continually trying to find resources to run all of their programs.
The members of ECCA have suggested donations include: pens, papers, books about environmental issues, overhead projectors, notebooks, cameras, prizes for essay writing competitions, solar powered flashlight, facilitator materials, file folders, markers, lamented maps, books about different alternative energy resources that are used in other parts of the world and paints for art murals.