For the past 26 years, our organization has supported marginalized communities across the Himalayan region so they can take action, make decisions, and shape their own future.
Poverty has many deeply interconnected causes: fragile health, lack of water, distant or poorly equipped schools, insufficient income, difficult farming conditions… We respond through an integrated approach, within the same territory, by implementing a coherent set of actions that reinforce one another.
Our approach also relies on the direct involvement of communities: projects are co-designed through a cycle of listening and shared action. By participating in both decision-making and financing, communities become the guarantors of the sustainability of solutions and regain their full dignity.
474,000 individuals supported
8,000 animals treated
393,300 indirect beneficiaries
Our programs
Intervention areas
Since 2000, Karuna-Shechen has worked alongside children, women, and men living in highly vulnerable contexts, regardless of origin, gender, or belief. What unites them above all is a shared aspiration: improving their living conditions and building a more dignified and autonomous future.
The organization operates in India, Nepal, and Tibet, in remote and often hard-to-reach regions where essential needs remain insufficiently addressed.
Today, our actions are carried out across six intervention areas, each tailored to its local context.
Intervention strategies
Our programs are built around intervention methods that guide our actions and permeate every employee in the field.
Intervention model
Drawing on more than 25 years of experience, Karuna-Shechen has formalized the Altruism in Action Model, which places community participation at the center of every stage of a project through a process of co-construction and shared responsibility.
This model strengthens the partnership between Karuna-Shechen and the communities it supports, in close collaboration with local authorities, while fostering transparency and continuous improvement.
Projects are developed together with local residents, based on their priorities and realities, in order to support locally rooted and sustainable solutions.
In each intervention area, Better Future Councils bring together village representatives who participate throughout the project cycle, supported by Karuna-Shechen teams.
