The Forum for Community Upliftment System (Focus) Nepal, an organisation that recovered its loans from the winter relief aid distributed in Jogimara VDC on Tuesday, has returned the amount to the quake-hit families.

After the Post published a report titled “NGO ‘recovers’ loan from relief amount of quake-hit Chepangs” on Thursday, the Prime Minister’s Office sent a letter to the local administration to recover the amount and take action against the organisation immediately. The PMO has directed local authorities to blacklist the NGO.

Focus Nepal returned Rs568,000 that was collected from 135 quake-hit households in Jogimara Wards 1, 2, 6 and 7.  There are around 650 Chepang households in the VDC. The organisation had recovered the money lent to the impoverished Chepang families for income generation programmes. The organisation had formed several groups in the settlement and issued loans for vegetable farming and goat and pig rearing five years ago under the Poverty Alleviation Fund. Bhim Bahadur, a Chepang who got the Rs5,000 back, said he would now buy clothes with the cash.