Dzi Foundation

Dzi partners with communities for three multi-year stages to support complementary health, education, and livelihood programs that unlock local opportunity, build more unified communities, and create lasting solutions to complex local challenges. Dzi begins by creating a shared, inclusive vision with the entire community and forming critical partnerships with local ngos and community development groups. The first several years, communities focus on improving food security and building essential infrastructure, such as drinking water and irrigation systems, bridges, and earthquake-safe schools, which remove the barriers to progress and help meet basic needs. Three years into the partnership, quality of life improves through increased access to cash and consumption of healthier food, and the economic condition of the community changes as 50% of residents are earning and spending more. Infrastructure improvements and the increase in educational opportunities encourage youth to stay in the village. In the final years of the partnership, Dzi communities are more unified, earning more income, and leading safer, more productive, and more connected lives. Communities have the skills and systems in place to lead and maintain these gains for a lasting impact. Over the past 25 years, Dzi has grown to serve more than 44,000 people in an expanding network of rural villages in the solukhumbu, khotang, and bhojpur districts of eastern nepal.