Nepal

Via the Workaway site we get many many hosts signing up from Nepal, looking for volunteer help. Many of which are children’s homes or child care centres catering for street children or children from nearby mountain villages who would otherwise be left to fend for themselves.

We decided to take a trip to visit some of the hosts here and get a deeper understanding of the situation and why these children’s homes are in such need of volunteers.

We were quite shocked on arrival to find the dire situation of many of these homes, relying totally on funding that comes from outside of Nepal. Children are often rejected by their parents due to the extreme poverty to be found in most parts of the country, especially the rural areas. However without the efforts of some of the care workers these kids would be caught in the same cycle of poverty, would not be able to receive even a basic education and would generally be left to fend for themselves.

After visiting 5 or 6 homes, two particular homes jumped out at us as great projects for the Workaway Foundation, where donations could go directly to fund the facilities in the homes (Buying decent cooking facilities, hot water heaters, blankets and paying school fees for the kids) but where also Workawayers could visit, get involved directly and see for themselves how the little money we give here can have such an instant dramatic effect.

Kathmandu.

Set in the outskirts of the capital city of Kathmandu, overlooked by the famous Swayambhunath or the monkey temple as it’s commonly known... We met a local teacher and a social worker who together with other members of his local community fund a small home for children with nowhere else to go.

We want to help get the children’s home up to a much better standard by providing among other things.

Like all our projects we intend to start small, enabling gradual change and insuring all funds go to the intended cause. We hope in the long run to be able to provide a much more secure future for this community home and enable the children to get an education…


Chitwan

Situated near Chitwan national park; famous for its wild elephants, rhinos and even Bengal tigers, there is a small village behind the tourist hotels and safari lodges. Here Sushila has set up a small children’s home set on a piece of land between the rice paddies, and takes in children who again would have no other means of being able to fend for themselves or getting any form of education. Using a minimum of funds and donations, Sushila manages to clothe, feed and send these great kids to school.

The home is VERY basic, 3 rooms set on a plot between rice fields, kids sleep on bunk beds , food is cooked over an open fire in the “kitchen" and there is no running water in any of the buildings.

With Donations from the Workaway foundation we will be:

Using the fund we intend to bring the conditions up to a much more livable standard, and slowly enable the kids to live in the kind of environment that most of us would call satisfactory.

Again if Workawayers want to get involved, it’d be an amazing experience to teach the kids, help make the place more livable, and the added bonus will be that there are two elephants that live on the land next door!