Nepal, Childhood and Light

 

The reasons of the commitment of NEL with the young Nepalese girls

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Help the young Nepalese girls to go to school

to become educated women, free, responsible, happy and committed to the development of their country

 

 

Nepal is a state enclaved between China and India, a paradise for amateurs of grand summits, tourists in search of authenticity, kindness and smiles. But also ….. one of the ten countries the poorest in the world.

 

Our association has the aim to completely take care of young girls from destitute families so as to allow them to follow a decent schooling as day-pupils (for the youngest) or boarders (those in high school) in  good private schools of Kathmandu.

 

This action is essentially aimed at girls because :

 

• The rate of alphabetization which was 44.5% at the end of the 20th century has noticeably progressed but still stays inferior to the male counterparts: 80% for girls / women of 15 to 24 years old, against 90% of boys/men of the same age

• The patriarchal system drives the girls to stay at home, helping their mothers with the housework and looking after younger siblings. In the countryside girls fetch the water and accomplish heavy tasks in the house or in the farm.

• The young girls find themselves confronted with arranged marriages

 

 

According to the IRIN (Integrated Regional Information Network), service of the office or coordination of human affairs of the United Nations: “in more than 34% of the recent marriages in the Himalayas, the young girl is aged less than 15 years old, in spite of the ban on this practice. The non- governmental organizations (ONG) state that the government has failed in the control of early marriages, in particulier in the Teraï region, in the South of the country. In certain districts in the East of Teraï, more than 50% of the spouses are less than 12 years old. The dowry is a major preoccupation. If a girl is particularly young, the weddings are usually celebrated in secret by the families because a lesser dowry is exchanged. The more younger the girl, the lower the dowry. The parity of the two sexes in education is uniquely limited to the inscription, not to the maintaining of the pupil at school nor the continuity and the results and the early marriage drives the pulling out of the girl from school and, if by chance she can stay, the academic results drop dramatically as soon as the child is married and the young girl finishes by abandoning.    

More than 240 000 children don’t go to school, according to government statistics and the functionaries believe that most of them are girls, especially those married at a young age.

In July 2014, the Nepalese government committed itself to end the marriage of children by 2020.

In 2016, this objective was pushed back to 2030.

But the government hasn’t yet taken concrete measures to reach this objective, whatever the deadline.

 

The aid that NEL brings to girls schooling rings out against the phenomenon of early marriages; the family is less inclined to rid itself of a girl who is taken care of, studies and could help the family later on.  

 

• The girls are confronted by the frequent solicitations of Indians, Chinese and other foreigners who promise an easy life but lure them into prostitution.

• For the girls as with the boys, the mountain schools are often situated afar and difficult to access. The route to school can be dangerous in many ways.

 

The children are chosen in collaboration with Nepalese social workers and by the manager of the Home, in contact with the populations in need.   

 

They are recruited in the shanty towns of Katmandu or in certain villages having suffered from the last earthquake of 2015