Help for Narayangarh’s Street Children
In Narayangarh there are about 75 street children. Most are aged from 8 years, but there are children as young as 3 or 4 living on the streets. The vast majority are boys as girls are often trafficked into prostitution. The children wander the streets by day “rag-picking” to raise enough money to buy food to eat. They sleep in doorways or under bridges. As in all countries, drugs are common, particularly glue sniffing, and the boys will often spend their rupees on drugs to relieve the pain of their lives.
Our outreach workers and volunteers work with street children in Narayangarh. The children are provided with nutritious food on a regular basis, with basic first aid, clothing, drugs advice and a potential route into a home and education.
Our Street Our Children was created to ensure continuity of the work with street children. Created by members of the local community who want to help the children in their community, OSOC is a Non Government Organisation that is managed by Nepalis for Nepalis. Funding for the work is raised by the UK branch of Our Street Our Children.
Supporting Education for Children in Poverty
Chameli School is a government school in Narayangarh where Jackie Britten worked for a year teaching English. The school caters for children from grade 1 to Grade 8, ages 6 to 13. The Nepali government, in conjunction with overseas donors, has built a network of schools so that almost all children now have access to education. However resources are limited and students in government schools come from the poorest families who often cannot afford to provide resources for their children.
Dave Britten worked in the local home work club during his time in Nepal, helping students with Maths, Science and English, but not Nepali! The club caters for pupils from private schools and from government schools. For pupils from government schools the parents do not have the money to send them, so they are reliant on donations to help them. The pupils work from 7 AM until 8:30 AM when school starts and continues when school finishes at 4 PM until 5:30. Long days, and school days are six days per week!
There are many ways that we can support local children’s education and support schools which are such a vital part of the community. We have provided basic resources for pupils and for staff, including books for a library, play equipment for nursery classes and science equipment for older pupils in Chameli School. We sponsor students at the local homework club. We have also provided computing equipment and training to Indrayani Lower Secondary School in Amsapur, a remote village school.
Following the 2015 earthquake, OSOC Nepal visited Gorkha district to support a school that was critically damaged.
During the recent pandemic, OSOC Nepal supported the street children and children in poverty by providing medical equipment and PPE.