Home and Community for Orphans in Nepal

Global Family Village celebrates the year-end with Gratitude and Giving-back!

A Wonderful First Year!

Namaste friends and supporters:

The end of our very first year as a community-supported family is drawing near. We are so very proud and wish to thank all of you who have helped make this a reality. In one year we have transformed an institutional-style child facility into a Family of nine with a supportive community! The Early Childhood program, now in its 2nd year, is thriving! Parent and community participation is growing!

During the year we concluded a comprehensive survey that is helping us determine the greatest needs in the community, and develop the overall curriculum for the income-generating activities such as the Homestay Tourism Project, and most recently, the Organic Kitchen Garden Project. The success of these community initiatives will help the local families support the Family House and ECD and ultimately make them self-sufficient.

We are very proud of Global Family Village-Nepal's innovative approach to creating sustainable positive change in the community, and specifically for orphaned, abandoned and children in need.

Photos1&2: There are now 47 children in the preschool program; Photos 3&4:Subidhya (top, center) is hardly recognizable as the same girl who joined the Family just a few months ago. Here she is with her friends from the community at the school picnic, and then performing a dance for the rest of the school community. Photos 5&6: Children from the Bungamati Family House are enjoying their turn at a traditional Nepalese Dal Bhat dinner, in honor of the Dashain Festival, hosted by the Shanti Niketan Ashram, a cooperative where village elders meet, worship and celebrate. The local elders are an important link for the children who have been orphaned or abandoned. The building is next door to the local school. The "Grandparent" component of the Global Family Village program will be fully implemented in the coming year.

Global Family Village Giving Tree!

Nepal is predominantly Hindu and Buddhist but everyone celebrates and starts a new year on January 1st! Global Family Village-Nepal will celebrate the new year by reaching out to the surrounding community with gifts of fuel so that each family has sufficient gas for cooking and warmth during the cold winter months. (It costs approximately Rs 1,500 per cylinder of fuel for cooking and heating, USD $18, that could last for a few months.)

Global Family Village-Nepal will have its own Giving Tree that will be decorated with a tag each and every time a donation has been received and a corresponding gift has been made for the community support.

The children and mother of the House will package, decorate, and disburse the gifts, and they will be the greater beneficiaries as they experience the pure joy and satisfaction of being part of a community and helping others in need.

We greatly appreciate your continued partnership and friendship, and thank you for your support!

A very happy holiday and new year, from our Family to yours!

Links:

• http://www.globalfamilyvillage.org

Meet our new children!

Bungamati Family House welcome six orphaned children to their House.

The Global Family Village model of care for orphaned and abandoned children is well underway! Recent additions to the first family were brought in once the GFV supporting programs of community development and early childhood education were well developed and strong. Of the eight children (one more child is on his way) now living in the Bungamati Family House 7 of them are orphans and 1 child is supported by a mother and father from the community who cannot take care of him on a daily basis. The selection of children represents our belief in the importance of community values and integration. All of the children will grow up together, not as orphans, but as a family in the Bungamati Family House with a strong sense of family and community support. 

The Central Child Welfare Board of Nepal brought a young girl and her younger brother to us. Their father died and their mother, unable to cope as an impoverished widow, committed suicide. They, and all the other children (and the Mother) will have ongoing psycho-social counseling so that they can heal from their trauma and begin to form healthy bonds of attachment. It is our commitment that the children feel nourished and loved.

Early Childhood program is thriving!

The early childhood program is not only thriving, it is also becoming more supported locally, both financially and with volunteering parent participation. This is an important step towards this program's success and sustainability.

Working in partnership with the community!

Global Family Village-Nepal conducted a family survey in the Bungamati area, in July. Our goal is to better learn the strengths and needs of the overall community, and individuals within it. We sought information regarding their knowledge, perception and habits on the following topics: Issues around family and women's rights; early childhood development and education; child rights; orphans and widows; and nutrition and health. The information collected from the survey will allow GFV to enhance community development and economy with relevant education, workshops and income generating programs. It will also foster community participation in the early childhood development education and family programs. This participation is critical to meet our goal of sustainability.

The community needs our support now and for the next couple of years, while they take full ownership of the program and the program becomes sustainable. Then the model will be successful and complete; the children will be truly well-integrated family and community members. At that point the program can be replicated in other villages in Nepal where there are orphaned, abandoned or needy children living in an institution without the advantages of a family or community.  

Please continue your support and follow our progress at our website (www.globalfamilyvillage.org), front page, bottom under Project Update.

Namaste from the Boards of GFV and GFV-N in Nepal