Our History

We are part of a 50-year legacy of improv­ing nutri­tion in Nepal. 

NPCS was established in 2003 as a successor to United Mission to Nepal’s (UMN) pioneering nutrition work with Nepali women and children. We draw on almost 50 years of experience working at a community-level to improve nutrition and are recognised by the government as a major organisation in addressing malnutrition in Nepal.

Community projects
at our heart

UMN’s work during the 1970s and 80s became more focused on devel­op­ment projects that directly impacted com­mu­ni­ties. Start­ing in 1992, UMN’s Nutri­tion Pro­gramme oper­ated through their Dis­trict Train­ing Pro­grammes as part of a part­ner­ship with the Nepali gov­ern­ment. The pro­grammes involved nutri­tion train­ing for Nepali gov­ern­ment health staff and nutri­tion ini­tia­tives imple­mented by UMN field staff.

After five years, UMN’s Nutri­tion Pro­gramme began to work more closely at a com­mu­nity level and directly with mothers. This meant improve­ments to nutri­tion could be better sus­tained and led to the devel­op­ment of Com­mu­nity Nutri­tion Projects in 1999.

 

Nepalis well-nourished
and thriving

From 2002, changes in gov­ern­ment leg­is­la­tion caused UMN to shift from directly imple­ment­ing projects to instead build­ing part­ner­ships to support local organ­i­sa­tions. In 2003, Nutri­tion Pro­mo­tion and Con­sul­tancy Service (NPCS) was founded to con­tinue this legacy of improv­ing nutri­tion in Nepal. Taking over the pre­vi­ous work of UMN’s Nutri­tion Pro­gramme, NPCS is now a staff-owned organ­i­sa­tion run by Nepalis and oper­ates independently.

We have con­tin­ued working directly with com­mu­ni­ties through­out Nepal, focus­ing on improv­ing the nutri­tion of women and chil­dren in the poorest parts of the country and pro­vid­ing nutri­tional train­ing to health workers so aware­ness spreads more widely. Our vision is to see all Nepalis living well-nour­ished and thriv­ing lives — one com­mu­nity at a time.

Milestones

1964 —
United Mission to Nepal (UMN)’s nutri­tion work starts in Shanta Bhawan Hos­pi­tal in Kathmandu

1972 —
UMN expands nutri­tion work into its Com­mu­nity Health Pro­gramme in Lal­it­pur dis­trict, as well as advis­ing and con­sult­ing on projects through­out the country

1992 —
UMN’s Nutri­tion Pro­gramme is estab­lished, a sep­a­rate pro­gramme with Nepali leadership

2003 —
Nutri­tion Pro­mo­tion and Con­sul­tancy Ser­vices (NPCS) is formed and reg­is­tered with Lal­it­pur Dis­trict Office and affil­i­ated to the Social Welfare Council as a Nepali National NGO, an inde­pen­dent staff-owned suc­ces­sor to UMN’s Nutri­tion Programme.

2010 —
NPCS launches a new ‘Nutri­tion for Urban Com­mu­ni­ties’ project in Kath­mandu-Patan munic­i­pal­i­ties to reach the increas­ing numbers of poor urban dwellers living in infor­mal set­tle­ments in the city.

2011 —
NPCS is appointed as an imple­ment­ing partner in USAID’s 5‑year Nepal-wide Inte­grated Nutri­tion Pro­gramme ‘Suaa­hara’.

2015 —
NPCS engages for the first time in relief work fol­low­ing the Nepal earthquakes

Miriam E. Krantz,
pioneering good nutrition
in Nepal

Miriam has been a major pioneer in the modern nutrition movement in Nepal and was a founder in NPCS’s formation.

Born and raised on a dairy farm in Penn­syl­va­nia, USA and trained in nutri­tion, Miriam Krantz arrived in Nepal in 1963 and began working in Kathmandu’s Shanta Bhawan hos­pi­tal, run by United Mission to Nepal (NPCS’s parent organisation).

Her nutri­tion exper­tise was soon in demand for projects span­ning the country and over the decades she has reached almost every corner of Nepal — often on foot. By the early 1970’s, Miriam was working full-time in UMN’s Lal­it­pur Com­mu­nity Health Project where she led ground-break­ing research into the high levels of child mal­nu­tri­tion. This was where she also invented the recipe for Sar­bot­tam Pitho (Super Flour) and planned the first nutri­tion reha­bil­i­ta­tion home in the country.

Miriam has been exten­sively involved in train­ing, pre­sent­ing policy dis­cus­sion papers and devel­op­ing nutri­tion edu­ca­tion resources used through­out Nepal by the gov­ern­ment. She is the co-author with Dr Ramesh Adhikari of the seminal text on nutri­tion in Nepal, Child Nutri­tion and Health.

With a simple approach — people-focussed, using local foods, with rig­or­ous study to find solu­tions within com­mu­ni­ties — Miriam has left a sig­nif­i­cant legacy which con­tin­ues to benefit Nepali women and chil­dren. Almost 60 years on, Miriam remains highly regarded for her nutri­tion knowl­edge and exper­tise and, although now aged in her 80s, she still con­tributes to NPCS as an advisor.

“There is great impor­tance in learn­ing the prac­tice of keen obser­va­tion and lis­ten­ing – it is through iden­ti­fy­ing the pos­i­tives that most indi­vid­u­als can solve their prob­lems and can achieve health lifestyles.”
Miriam Krantz, aged 83, 2020.