After years of developing, testing and scaling a new cost effective model for health care and rehabilitation of persons with a disability in the district of Ilam in Nepal, the strongly committed team of Karuna Foundation Nepal has reached a great milestone. The Government of Nepal has recently decided to adopt and scale the Inspire2Care program in the whole of Province No. 1. Starting in September 2019, the program for prevention of disabilities and rehabilitation of persons with a disability will become part of the regular healthcare system.

Congratulations to  the team in Nepal for this huge accomplishment! After numerous discussions with several ministries; politicians and government staff, and local organisations, they were able to get consensus from all stakeholders involved. The Provincial Government adopted a new policy act, agreed on the funding (€10 million which is 2/3 of the implementation costs) and implementation modalities, while a first batch of twenty municipalities incorporated Inspire2Care in their fiscal annual budgets and plans for the coming years.

Future Goals 

The main objectives of the program in Province No. 1 are:

  • 25.000 children and 75.000 adults with a disability (and their families) experience a significant improvement in their life as they participate in society, have access to education, jobs and (specialised) healthcare
  • Child birth professionally guided will increase to 74%. Incidence of birth defects will decrease by 20%. Incidence of acquired disability will decrease by 40%
  • Reduction in the development of disabilities by 62%
  • 90% of all persons with a disability receive an ID card (access to Government services)

The expected number of pregnant women per year is 125.000.

During the implementation in Province No. 1, Karuna Nepal will provide technical support, training and co-funding in the first 2,5 years in each municipality (total 129). Thereafter, the municipality and provincial government are expected to continue the program at their own accounts.

Besides Karuna Foundation Nepal will focus on developing an Inspire2Care Training and Resource Centre and lobbying with the federal government and other provinces to inspire them to adopt the program at their own account.  Karuna Nepal has the intention to exit in 2025, with the expectation that by that time the national government will have fully adopted and incorporated the I2C approach and principles in their mainstream health care system.