Today we celebrate women around the globe for their extraordinary contributions in all areas of society – as professionals, as bread-winners, as caregivers and caretakers.

At a time when over six hundred elected Constituent Assembly members hold the country’s future in their hands, every citizen can also hold the health of their family in their hands, with a small bar of soap. October 15, 2008, has been declared the first-ever Global Handwashing Day by the UN General Assembly. Nepal’s government and other hygiene and sanitation development professionals have joined hands to celebrate handwashing across Nepal.

Nepal has achieved amazing reductions in child mortality rates in the past ten years - an accomplishment that has largely gone unheralded. One reason for this may be the quiet success of affordable programs such as the Ministry of Health and Population’s National Vitamin A Program, which provides high-dose vitamin A supplementation twice a year to children in all of Nepal’s 75 districts.

If you want to know who’s really making a difference in child survival today in Nepal, you probably don’t have to go beyond the next village. That’s because thousands of women in villages all over the country are advancing community health with their hard work and dedication every day. The efforts of the National Female Community Health Volunteers have contributed to stunning reductions in child mortality rates nationwide. In fact, the number of children who died before their fifth birthday was reduced by 42% in only ten years. Today - National Female Community Health Volunteer Day – provides an opportunity to honor the more than 48,000 active Volunteers whose sustained commitment saves so many children’s lives.

Social inclusion. Women’s empowerment. Poverty reduction. Participatory government. Sustainable development. These are important goals in Nepal, but to achieve them, one must take a closer look at the root causes of obstacles standing in their way. One large, common obstacle is an overwhelming lack of basic literacy. According to UN data, just 49 percent of Nepal’s population is literate. Only 35 percent of Nepal’s women are literate in comparison to 63 percent of men. And only 24 percent of Dalits are literate as compared to 56 percent of upper castes.

In support of World Population Day, the U.S. Mission would like to use this opportunity to draw attention to the issue of family planning and to highlight the seriousness of the situation.