Foreign assistance is an important tool for achieving peace, prosperity and promoting global stability. CARE works in the poorest countries to meet the emergency needs of those facing crises, and at the core of CARE’s mission is advocating for policies that will lift these people out of poverty and provide them with long term security. To highlight this, CARE wanted a film that followed Senator Merkley (D-OR) on a CARE Learning Tour to Nepal where he met with women leading integrated community-based development solutions that put women’s needs at the center. With foreign assistance budget cuts on the horizon at home, CARE wanted to explain why U.S. foreign assistance supporting women is vital to combatting poverty and helping people in the world’s poorest places stand on their own two feet. We filmed Senator Merkley throughout his experience and then interviewed him afterward to share his thoughts on meeting Pabitra Nepal—a beneficiary of CARE’s Sabal project living in Devitar, one of the regions hardest hit by the 2015 earthquake and most vulnerable to drought, landslides, and poverty.
"US foreign assistance is important because it contributes to lifting people out of poverty, to strengthening economies, and to contributing to global security. That's why we certainly shouldn't abandon our aid relationship with a nation like Nepal."
- Senator Merkley (D-Oregon)
Location: Nepal
Client: CARE
