Nepal

The streets of Boudha have turned into a muddy puddle as monsoon and sewer water mix while frantic community members work to lay down pipes before the waters rise over their feet.

In the last parched weeks of the dry season before the monsoon arrives-- an eight month drought that has starved the fields, wells, and power generators on which Nepal depends-- the villagers of Pattan take the hulking figure of a rain god from his temple home and parade it through the streets in a plea for better hydrological fortunes.

Imagine a collaboration between Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, China, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal and Afghanistan. It sounds nearly impossible, but they all seek help to solve a common problem: The Himalayas are changing and everyone fears the consequences.

The streets of Kathmandu yesterday looked like a set of a western movie just before the high noon showdown — shuttered and quiet at midday in the June heat. The reason: Nepal's dominant ethnic group had called for a general strike to press for their demand to declare Kathmandu an autonomous region.

A few days after my colleague and I arrived in Nepal, the Prime Minister resigned. Since his departure, street protests have brought the potential for violent clashes and the derailment of a nascent peace process that ended a 10-year Maoist insurgency in 2006. When I showed up at the World Bank office in Kathmandu last week asking about climate change, my interview subject seemed pleasantly surprised.

"Wow," said Claudia Sadoff," it's nice to see people are still interested in the environment."

Anna-Katarina Gravgaard introduces our latest water project, direct from the field in Nepal.

For many, Nepal conjures up notions of Mount Everest, Buddhist monks, and hippies seeking a Himalayan high. But this next story shows another side of Nepal -- a country recovering from a decade of civil war in which Maoist rebels recently brought down the long-standing monarchy. It faces the age-old problem: how to integrate former adversaries into a single army.

Produced and reported by Jason Motlagh

Edited by Robin Bell
Bell Visuals

Produced in association with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

Olga Murray of Sausalito, Calif., has dedicated her life to helping the children of Nepal, and her nonprofit, the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation, is hoping to abolish the kamlari tradition.

Olga Murray is fighting for the abolition of the kamlari, or the indentured servants in Nepal.

For the past two decades, Sausalito's Olga Murray has worked to free Nepal's domestic slaves, or kamlaris. The girls are sold by their families to work in the homes of strangers.

Anita Chaudhary, 18, speaks as if all emotion has been kicked out of her. She stares into the distance, her voice is barely a whisper, and her shoulders are slumped forward in defeat.

A henna co-op by Friends of Needy Children is saving Nepali girls from indentured servitude.