Update from Nepal

I'm starting to find out more about the great work done by the Britain Nepal Medical Trust.  Examples of the projects the team in Nepal are working on are now starting to come through and they are really interesting.

BNMT’s Child Rehabilitation Project

Supported by the European Union

The overall objective of this project is to contribute to the socio-economic rehabilitation and reintegration of children and their families, youths and women affected by the armed conflict in Nepal.


Children affected by armed conflict attending the bridging course

This project, that runs for 48 months (June 2009 to May 2013), has already picked up momentum with the successful completion of a bridging course for “dropped out” students in order to reintegrate them into formal education.

Only 51 percent of children from the lowest income-quintile attend primary education, compared with 87 percent from the richest income-quintile (The World Bank). Students from disadvantaged groups such as dalits (lowest Hindu caste) and janajatis (indigenous groups) attending schools are rare and enrolment and continuation in school of these DAG communities’ children is rarer. The recent conflict in Nepal has had serious effects on the enrolments of school age children and many of them experience trauma and mental illness.

This initiative adopts an innovative and holistic approach as it takes into consideration all the factors that contribute to creating an enabling environment for the reintegration of children and their families.

The families of the conflict affected children are provided with income generation opportunities to ensure continuity of the formal education of their children. Owing to the conflict many of the women have been widowed or their husbands have migrated to India and the Gulf countries to find work. The mantel of continuing the hand to mouth existence lies on the widows. The income generation opportunities provided by the project enables them to save money to send the children to school. At the same time the School Management Committee (SMC) is sensitized and oriented on quality education and monitoring of the system. This generates a sense of ownership by the SMC and thus facilitates the creation of an enabling environment for the reintegration of the “dropped out” children into formal education system. The teachers and health providers are also given training on mental illness so they can deal with the children appropriately in the schools and at health centres.

The project will reach out to a total of 738 drop-out children (381 girls and 357 boys) during the course of the project.

1 comment:

  1. Great that you this, John! May all citizens of the European Union become your sponsors and help these children!
    Menno Wolters

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