Nepal project improves livelihoods

SURKHET, Nepal - Forty-six-year-old Lila Ram Acharya, a resident of a small village in Babai Valley, around one hour's drive from the western Nepali city of Nepalgunj, still remembers how hopeless he was as a household head about three years ago.

Born to a poor family, he was a grade-three dropout without a skill. His wife is illiterate and their two sons are students.

With only slender earnings form his land, in and out of other work, he couldn't earn enough to cover all the household expenses.