No abstract

Street children refer to the children who have not reached adulthood, for whom the street has become their habitual abode and/or a source of livelihood. The reasons for their connection to the street will vary from nation to nation, city to city, and from person to person. This research envisaged to explore the causes of being street children and assess their health status of two study areas, Kathmandu and Birjung, Nepal. The research followed descriptive, exploratory and applied 'QUAN-qual', quantitative dominant mixed methods. The two: semi-structured questionnaire with 150 participants for quantitative data and Key-in-depth interviews (KIIs) with 18 participants for qualitative data were employed in this research. The research areas were purposively selected as per the researcher's pre-observation and respondents on the basis of convenience sampling. The quantitative data were analyzed using the Statical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) software version 20.0 and qualitative data were thematically analyzed using content analysis. The findings of the study depicted that the dominant causes to be street children are family-based causes. Economic, social, and other causes are second, third, and fourth respectively in the study area. Additionally, gender and alcohol consumed behavior was found significant where education level and age had no significance to determinants of the health status of street children. The overall implication of the study signifies that the attention has been shifted from treating the biological to encouraging street children to gain positive necessary health skills that are based on self-care and self-management behaviors including knowledge, beliefs, attitude, motivation, and behaviors.

To identify the effects of whole crop maize silage (MS) as a substitute for rice straw (RS) on feed intake and milk production of mid-late lactating buffalo and cattle in Tarai, Nepal, eight Murrah and eight Jersey-Hariana were fed the basal diet, RS (ad libitum) with concentrate (0.68% of bodyweight [BW] on a dry matter [DM] basis). A 4 x 4 Latin square design experiment was conducted in each animal species with graded levels of MS substitution for RS (0%, T1; 33%, T2; 67%, T3 and 100%, T4). The MS had higher digestibility and total digestible nutrient (TDN) than RS. The DM intake per BW of the both species was highest in T3. The substitution of MS for RS increased the crude protein intake and the TDN intake in the both species. Although the buffalo showed the highest milking performance in T4, the cattle showed no significant differences in their milking performance among the treatments. The substitution of MS for RS improved the feed intake and milk production in the buffalo. On the other hand, the milk yield was not raised in the cattle, though the feed intake was increased by the substitution.

Regular handwashing with soap and running water is one of the effective ways to stop spreading of germs that protects us from the disease. The aim of this study is to assess the handwashing knowledge and practice among the selected school students of Bardiya district in Nepal. To address this objective, the school-based descriptive cross-sectional design was applied. A total of 327 students including 9 to 12 grades were taken from four secondary schools using the multistage sampling technique. The validated self-administrated questionnaires were used to collect the data from the selected students. Similarly, the univariate (frequencies and percentage) and bivariate analyses (chi-square test for association) were performed to analyse the data, using the Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS) 26 versions. Out of the total participants, 29.7% were between the ages of 15-16 years, 60.9% were male, and the majority (95.7%) were from Hindu. The study showed that 36.9% participants had the poor knowledge relating to handwashing. In contrast, it was found that 43.42% participants were found with the low practice of handwashing, which was higher than the knowledge level of handwashing. So having a good knowledge is not associated with good practices as regards to handwashing. It was noticed that the poor handwashing practice level remains higher as compared to the poor handwashing knowledge level. The study suggests that the schools have the responsibilities to give handwashing education to their students to raise the knowledge as well as the practice level of handwashing.