6000 Street Children in Nepal: Give Them a Home

Beginning of the winter in Nepal means a lot of festivals. We celebrated Dashain and Tihar festivals and a few other regional ones. The boys were very happy with all the celebrations and beautiful new clothes that got specially chosen for them by our wonderful home manager Bindu. These sorts of occasions are great to make the boys feel special and a part of our big family.

Recently we welcomed a new boy who was referred to us by the local government. His dad had passed away and he was staying with his mum, 4 sisters and grandfather. The grandfather has leprosy and is not able to help the family in any way but needs looking after himself. The boy used to escape from home and stay on the streets where he begged and of course not attended school. The authorities asked us to help and we welcomed him to our home. Luckily, he is healthy and not affected by leprosy. Our boys are now very happy to have a new little brother that they can take care of. 

From one of most shocking news that we received recently is finding out that our 12 year old boy and his 10 year old brother got married off by their family to 6 and 7 year old girls when the boys were staying with them. This is illegal in Nepal but cultural differences mean that we have to deal with that in a very delicate way. We are discussing now with the authorities and other organisations how to best protect the boys and their new young wives. We are doing what we can and at the moment they are all safe. 

Our Child Helpline has been officially launched and we have been assisting more and more children. The mayor, local authorities, police and local businesses have been cooperating with us in an amazing way so we hope that we will be able to make Birgunj street children free in the near future. 

We will be launching a winter campaign shortly so please do check out our social media for any updates, and we do hope you can support us further. With your continuous support we are able to help more children who desperately need that help.

As always, a massive thank you!

We have been very busy for the past few months. First, we managed to sign an MOU with the municipality which means that we will be starting to operate a child helpline in Birgunj starting immediately. This is great news as it means that we can help even more street children. We will be moving to a larger building that we have now signed the lease for. The building is much more suitable for the project and has an outside gated area where the children can play safely. So any future volunteers and our boys will be assisting in decorating it over the next few months. 

Our boys scored very well at their exams. Our oldest boy got highest marks at his final school exams so he is now ready to start his college soon. He has now become our Project Assistant at the Children's Home so he can work part time and study at the same time. We are very proud of him. 

During their school holidays one of the boys was getting his work experience at the local carpenter's workshop - and he loved it. Another boy got his singing training in Kathmandu - his dream is to be a famous singer, so let's see. Another great news about one of our boys who cannot speak and is having learning difficulties - we have now linked him with a group of young workers who also cannot speak. They are now teaching him sign language and showing him how they run their shops and other small businesses. He loves spending time with them and all the learning. 

The boys are back at school now after their holidays so let's hope this school year will be as good as the previous one!

As always, thank you all so much for your continuous support. Please feel free to get in touch anytime if you have any questions about the projects, boys or if you'd like to volunteer.

Links:

• Video of the everyday walk to school