Protect & Inspire Street Connected Children, Nepal

We would like to share with you a success story of one of our beneficiaries, whose life has been transformed by his stay at our shelter.

Bijay (not his real name) was just 11 years old when he was identified by Kidasha’s outreach workers. His mother had passed away and his father had disappeared. He was surviving on the streets of Pokhara by begging, collecting scrap and committing petty crime to buy food. He was involved with a street gang and started sniffing glue to numb his pain and hunger. When approached he was initially hesitant. Outreach workers took a gentle but caring approach and continued to check in on him. Over time his trust increased and he moved into our rehabilitation centre.

At first, he struggled to settle, running away several times and falling back into bad habits. Over time Bijay gradually adjusted and started to go to a school, while social workers searched for his family. However, when he saw other children go to their families on weekends and to celebrate holidays and festivals, he increasingly struggled with feelings of abandonment. After months of searching, an uncle was found, and after a number of relationship-building visits with Bijay, his uncle agreed to become his legal guardian and give him a home. Bijay is now 14 and Kidasha continues to support his school costs and provide a stipend towards food. He feels much more positive about his future and is keen to catch up academically with his peers at school.

While some children continue to run away or are abandoned by their families and end up the street, the success of our rehabilitation services means that they now benefit from earlier intervention/removal and there are now almost no children living permanently on the streets in Pokhara. Furthermore, our rehabilitation centre is the only formally recognised temporary protection centre in Gandaki Province. As such it has started to receive some federal government funding and also received excellent feedback following a visit from the Ministry of Women and Children.

None of this would have been possible without your generosity and for which we are truly grateful.

With many thanks

The Kidasha Team

Kidasha celebtrated it's Silver Jubilee in 2022 and as a result we have been reflecting on the enormous change we have made over the last 25 years to the lives of thousands of the poorest children and families in Nepal.

Since registering with the Charity Commission in 1997 (originally as Child Welfare Scheme) just a few of the things we have achieved are:-

• Establishing exemplar urban primary health centres and integrated them into government service provision.
• Supporting the establishment of quality Early Child Development provision in more than 75 rural communities.
• Helping to reduce child labour in Pokhara by over 70%.
• Reintegrating thousands of street-connected children, child labourers and victims of abuse.
• Enabling over 10,000 of the poorest children to go to school or access informal education classes.
• Providing vocational training, employment and/or business start-up support to over 1000 young people
• Supporting thousands of children and families in the aftermath of the 2015 earthquake and throughout the COVID pandemic.

None of this would have been possible without the commitment and expertise of the Kidasha team and our local partners, and of course the incredible generosity of our supporters, like you.  Sadly there is a still a lot more work to be done, so if you can donate again, we would be extremely grateful.

Thank you from all of the Kidasha Team