Nepal Youth Foundation
Donation protected
The Nepal Youth Foundation is a fantastic charity that helps the most impoverished children of Nepal to get shelter, medical aid, food and an education. This is something that Tom and I care deeply about. I remember speaking with him in a little village in Nan on the border between Thailand and Loas about our passions for education. I spoke about my aspirations to start a website to promote engineering and he spoke about his desire to teach English to impoverished children across the world. He never got the chance to fulfill that dream, so this is our way of remembering and honoring his life.
Here is some information from the Nepal Youth Foundation Website.
"Nepal has virtually no social programs for people who, for whatever reason, end up destitute – no food stamps, no welfare, and no social security.
Women and girls in particular are disadvantaged. Only about half of girls are able to read or write, and their older sisters and mothers are even less likely to be literate. The legal system also discriminates against women. Cultural mores make it difficult for women to assert their basic human rights and receive health care and a decent education. Lack of education among girls usually means early marriage and child-bearing (34% of Nepali girls are married by arrangement before they are 16 years old, and seven percent are under 10 years of age). For such young women, there is little family planning, poor child care, and a lower likelihood that their own daughters will be educated. The cycle of poverty continues.
Infant mortality in Nepal is one of the highest in the world (6.4%). According to a UNICEF report, half of all Nepalese children under the age of five who do survive are malnourished – a preventable condition that nevertheless can leave them with physical and mental problems for a lifetime. (It is estimated that one in ten people in Nepal, or over 2 million individuals, suffer from some form of disability.)
The majority of Nepal’s population are children under age 18. These young people are hardly prepared for the challenges that lie ahead of them. While 70% of Nepalese children begin elementary school, half of them drop out before the fifth grade. Fortunately, the internal armed conflict in Nepal that caused millions of children to suffer and almost 1000 to be killed or injured, came to a relatively peaceful resolution in 2006. Even so, a decade of violence has left 40,000 children displaced, 8000 orphaned, and many in great need
Some children face special challenges. Because family connections are everything in Nepal, the burden of poverty falls severely on children whose parents have died or are too sick to care for them, or are themselves destitute. These children end up begging and sleeping on the streets. Some young children work as servants. Girls are in special need of protection and education because many thousands are sold or kidnapped each year to serve in brothels.
The most disadvantaged of all are children with disabilities. In Nepalese culture, these children can be considered curses. They are seen as something shameful, perhaps a punishment for a sin of the family. In Kathmandu, a child with a disability – crippled from polio, blind or deaf, burned or without limbs – often will end up on the street. In the villages, disabled children rarely receive an education.
And yet – beneath all this tragedy lies enormous potential, like a Himalayan spring hiding beneath the snows.
However impoverished or disabled, and however difficult the circumstances that surround them, Nepalese children have an enormous capacity for happiness and success. We have seen it countless times. So many of them have that special light in their eyes that speaks of hope, if only someone would give them a helping hand. When we clothe and feed these children, send them to school, and provide love and support, they blossom, growing into active, happy, healthy individuals who are capable of giving back to their society."
If you want to learn more about the charity the link to their website is below:
http://www.nepalyouthfoundation.org
Here is some information from the Nepal Youth Foundation Website.
"Nepal has virtually no social programs for people who, for whatever reason, end up destitute – no food stamps, no welfare, and no social security.
Women and girls in particular are disadvantaged. Only about half of girls are able to read or write, and their older sisters and mothers are even less likely to be literate. The legal system also discriminates against women. Cultural mores make it difficult for women to assert their basic human rights and receive health care and a decent education. Lack of education among girls usually means early marriage and child-bearing (34% of Nepali girls are married by arrangement before they are 16 years old, and seven percent are under 10 years of age). For such young women, there is little family planning, poor child care, and a lower likelihood that their own daughters will be educated. The cycle of poverty continues.
Infant mortality in Nepal is one of the highest in the world (6.4%). According to a UNICEF report, half of all Nepalese children under the age of five who do survive are malnourished – a preventable condition that nevertheless can leave them with physical and mental problems for a lifetime. (It is estimated that one in ten people in Nepal, or over 2 million individuals, suffer from some form of disability.)
The majority of Nepal’s population are children under age 18. These young people are hardly prepared for the challenges that lie ahead of them. While 70% of Nepalese children begin elementary school, half of them drop out before the fifth grade. Fortunately, the internal armed conflict in Nepal that caused millions of children to suffer and almost 1000 to be killed or injured, came to a relatively peaceful resolution in 2006. Even so, a decade of violence has left 40,000 children displaced, 8000 orphaned, and many in great need
Some children face special challenges. Because family connections are everything in Nepal, the burden of poverty falls severely on children whose parents have died or are too sick to care for them, or are themselves destitute. These children end up begging and sleeping on the streets. Some young children work as servants. Girls are in special need of protection and education because many thousands are sold or kidnapped each year to serve in brothels.
The most disadvantaged of all are children with disabilities. In Nepalese culture, these children can be considered curses. They are seen as something shameful, perhaps a punishment for a sin of the family. In Kathmandu, a child with a disability – crippled from polio, blind or deaf, burned or without limbs – often will end up on the street. In the villages, disabled children rarely receive an education.
And yet – beneath all this tragedy lies enormous potential, like a Himalayan spring hiding beneath the snows.
However impoverished or disabled, and however difficult the circumstances that surround them, Nepalese children have an enormous capacity for happiness and success. We have seen it countless times. So many of them have that special light in their eyes that speaks of hope, if only someone would give them a helping hand. When we clothe and feed these children, send them to school, and provide love and support, they blossom, growing into active, happy, healthy individuals who are capable of giving back to their society."
If you want to learn more about the charity the link to their website is below:
http://www.nepalyouthfoundation.org
Organizer
Brian McManus
Organizer
