Beneficiaries
4300 inhabitants, mainly semi-nomads

Secluded populations
The village of Tsebum Sumdo, the 35 km long Bamkhog valley and the neighbouring Tsemkhog Valley are located at an altitude of about 4500m, near a road which connects the towns of Kandze, (the capital of the Tibetan prefecture of Ganzi) and Sershül (main town of the Serxi district).
All services (hospital, station, public phones, secondary school, Internet…) are concentrated in these two cities, respectively located at 180 km and 120 km.

Livelihood and lifestyle
The Bamkhog valley population lives off breeding yaks, sheeps and goats (meat and milk, skins, ropes, wool…). People still follow a very traditional lifestyle and most of them are semi-nomads: the families settle at the bottom of valleys in hamlets of 2-3 houses during the coldest winter months. During the summer, they live in tents and travel with their herds through the valley heights. Their primary diet consists of meat, roasted barley flour, butter, milk and cheese.

Disadvantaged regions
This program is all the more necessary as nomadic regions benefit from less public aid than region with sedentary populations, and the scarce private initiatives or from international cooperation are the only ones to provided health infrastructures in these regions.

This secluded region seems to have been left behind by economic growth and modernism; in such conditions of poverty, the traditional solidarity system is not enough to provide decent living conditions for the nomads.

According to the Tibet Environmental Watch, « A proportion of Sershul's population is officially admitted to suffer from a low economic level. In 1990, 2’145 households (11’382 people) were registered as ‘under-developed’ under the provincial classification scheme started in 1988. This number constitutes one sixth of the county population, a gloomy economic indicator.”

Local partners
An initiative group was created in Tsebum in 2006 to launch projects for the improvement of living conditions in the area; it is composed of students’ parents, local leaders, one officer at the regional government (who is originally from Tsebum) and a school teacher.
This team works with regional authorities, companies and with the valleys’ population. They follow Norlha’s projects in the village, involve the population in the decision making process, send Norlha regular news and pictures, give us updates on the project’s progress and they are in charge of making sure the budget is respected.

Synergies with other NGOs in the field
For two years, we have established ties with several NGOs from the North working on development projects in the same region. During each field visit, we meet various NGOs working in the region in order to share both experience and resources and collaborate directly within the scope of our respective projects.  

Among the NGOs, we focus on building partnerships with The Bridge Fund (www.bridgefund.org), Kham Aid (www.khamaid.org), Clean Planet Association (www.cleanplanetassociation.org), Golden Jewel Energy and ASENT, as they all intervene in the Kham region and/or in the fields of Education, Health and Environmental Conservation.

Cross-cutting approaches
- Promote gradual auto-financing of the project
- Aim to develop projects which can be replicablicated in neighboring valleys.
- Pay special attention to gender equality in access to medical services
- Ensure local ownership and contextual validation of the project through a community-based, participatory approach.
 - Reinforce local capacities and encourage other measures favouring self-reliance. 
- Aim for sustainability in all social, environmental, and economic development projects.
- Embrace political neutrality, while keeping a critical reflection.