Freeing nearly 13,000 girls from indentured servitude has been a major accomplishment of the Nepal Youth Foundation (NYF), a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The mission of NYF is to provide children in Nepal with education, housing, medical and nutritional care, and general support.
NYF was founded in 1990 by Olga Murray after she retired from a career as an attorney for the California Supreme Court. First called the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation (NYOF), the name was later changed to Nepal Youth Foundation. In 2012, Som Paneru, who joined NYF in 1995 as a program assistant, was elected president of the organization. Olga Murray is the Honorary Board President and Founder.[1] NYF rescues and supports children in Nepal through a range of programs. The Nepal Youth Foundation's partners are made up of private foundations and individuals around the world and non-governmental organizations in Nepal. The Nepal Youth Foundation also partners with UniversalGiving, an online non-profit organization to raise funds for its projects.
NYF prides itself on long-term, community-led, culturally-appropriate programming. Though the organization is U.S.-based with a mostly-American Board of Directors, the staff distribution is primarily Nepalese. A small U.S.-based team of three to four individuals provides messaging and fundraising support in English, while the entire Nepal-based team of around 70 members is composed of Nepalese citizens. This includes NYF's President, Som Paneru, who designs and manages programs from Kathmandu. This community-led approach allows NYF to target interventions in culturally-sensitive ways that address the specific problems faced by beneficiaries.
Though NYF's focus is on long-term programs rather than emergency relief, the organization has provided crucial support to communities following disasters. Immediately following the April 2015 Nepal earthquake, NYF provided safe housing, medical support, nutritional care, and rebuilding aid to devastated communities. Many children left orphaned by the disaster have remained under NYF support, receiving housing, educational scholarships, and other benefits. NYF routinely supports communities impacted by deadly floods in Nepal. During the COVID-19 pandemic, NYF has provided important interventions including K-12 education in lockdown, nutritional aid, safe quarantine housing, and a COVID-19 isolation center. The organization has also been proud to count many of its past medical school scholarship recipients among the front-line workers battling the pandemic in Nepal's hospitals.
Before the devastating April 2015 Nepal earthquake, NYF earned twelve consecutive 4-star ratings, the highest possible, from Charity Navigator for its efficient use of donations.[2] Fewer than 1% of charities earn so many consecutive 4-star ratings. A sharp uptick in donations in response to the earthquake, followed by a return to NYF's more modest budget in the years following, has resulted in the false appearance of a shrinking organization, leading to a brief drop in this rating. Currently NYF possesses a 3-star "Give With Confidence" rating.
In addition, NYF has earned five stars and a spot on the "2020 Top-Rated" list at GreatNonprofits.org, the leading online consumer review site for charity organizations.
Liberating girls from indentured servitude
From January 2000 through June 2020, Nepal Youth Foundation was deeply involved in eradicating the practice of Kamaiya and kamlari among the Tharu people in Western Nepal. Through the Kamlari system, Tharu girls as young as six years old were sold into domestic servitude for an average of $30 per year, only returning to their homes once per year and often working well into puberty or until adulthood. An ABC News report stated that many of the girls never returned home, while others were abused or forced into prostitution. Most were denied an education. At the time NYF became involved, an estimated 20,000 girls were currently in Kamlari bondage throughout Nepal.[3]
The Kamlari practice was rooted in systems of oppression and predatory lending between the Tharu people and wealthier ethnic majorities in the regions affected.
The Nepal Youth Foundation's Indentured Daughters Program - later called the Empowering Freed Kamlaris program - worked with local communities to encourage parents to bring their daughters home from the city and provided a piglet or goat which the families could raise and sell. NYF then ensured the girls attended local schools.[4] During NYF's 20-year program, nearly 13,000 were rescued.
This multi-pronged program involved advocacy, educational support, psychological counseling, legal action, and training allowing the rescued girls and young women to agitate on their own behalf.
On June 27, 2013 the government of Nepal declared the abolition of the Kamlari system, a major development in NYF's campaign to end child slavery. This means the government is finally committed to enforcing existing laws that have long been ignored, a move prompted by the growing power of the freed Kamlari girls and a shift in the attitudes of people throughout Nepal.
The final phase of the Empowering Freed Kamlaris program was to support the establishment of a new nonprofit organization called the Freed Kamlari Development Forum(FKDF), led and operated locally, by the freed women themselves. In June 2020, full control of the program passed from NYF to the FKDF, which continues their work through microlending cooperative programs which prevent the cycles of predatory lending which led to the kamlari practice. The FKDF is also focused on reducing child marriage in their communities.
NYF remains connected with the FKDF communities by providing job readiness programs, educational scholarship opportunities, and other leadership training.
Nutritional rehabilitation homes
At the Nepal Youth Foundation's Nutritional Rehabilitation Homes(NRHs), children who are severely malnourished are attended to and usually restored to health while their parents are educated in child nutrition, hygiene and care. At the urging of the Ministry of Health, NYF has constructed 17 residential rehabilitation centers for extremely malnourished children, in Kathmandu and in rural areas of Nepal, each associated with a government-run zonal hospital serving a large rural area.[5] The children and their mothers live at these centers for an average of five weeks. By the time they leave, the child is in good health and of normal weight, and the parent is educated in child care, including preparation of nutritious meals using foods readily available in rural Nepal. NYF's field workers later follow up in the villages.[6]
The majority of the NRHs built by NYF were intended to become part of Nepal's government-run health infrastructure, and most have successfully made the transition from NYF control to Nepal's health system's control. These facilities, each standing near a major hospital, receive children discharged from the hospital who no longer need medical care but do require significant intervention for malnutrition in order to prevent future infection. Staff members for each facility are specially trained at NYF's flagship Nutritional Rehabilitation Home in Kathmandu Valley. This flagship facility remains under NYF control.
Since 1998, the NRHs have provided care to thousands of mother-child pairs. Each year more than 1,000 children's lives are transformed by this project.
Scholarships
The Nepal Youth Foundation provides scholarships for children who have no other way to attend school. The organization supports thousands of youngsters from kindergarten through medical school.[7] These students attend private and government schools in the city of Kathmandu and in rural villages that are often more than a day’s walk from any road. In rural areas, this is usually the first generation to receive an education. The cost is only about $100 a year per child. An education will best prepare these youngsters for the very difficult future that awaits them, since an increasing number of the next generation in Nepal’s overpopulated hills will inherit no land and will have no choice but to compete for jobs in the cities.
The scholarships motivate parents other than those whose children NYF supports to send their children to school, too. There is social pressure in the village when some kids go to school and others do not. NYF also trains teachers and builds and improves schools.[8]
NYF's Vocational Education and Career Counseling Center (VECC) sponsors children in training programs for dozens of different careers, such as website designer, hotel manager, nurse-midwife, electrician, cook, and lab technician, and the number continues to grow. VECC also provides career counseling.
NYF also helps educate disabled children, advocating for them in a culture which still heavily stigmatizes any disability.
Children's homes
Olgapuri Children's Village is a spacious complex housing 80 young people who have been orphaned, abandoned, or otherwise left without reliable housing and care. Opened in 2017, the complex became the new home for the 40 residents of J&K House (NYF's original children's homes) as well as many other children and teenagers.
The campus comprises four houses for boys and girls (Junior Boys, Senior Boys, Junior Girls, Senior Girls), a dining hall, farmland, large play area, a vocational education center and a guest house. Each 20-child house is staffed by a married couple of "house parents" who serve as attentive parental figures for the children.
NYF provides these children with personal attention, as well as education and medical expenses.[6] NYF commits to provide for these children through college. Most of the children are sponsored by donors in Western countries.[9]
Flood relief
Severe floods hit Nepal mid-August, 2014, leaving hundreds of families without shelter and basic necessities. NYF and its supporters raised over $32,000. By August 31, NYF’s distribution of flood relief supplies had reached 831 families in the Bardiya and Banke districts. Of these, 137 are the families of former Kamlari girls, and 76 of them became completely homeless.
NYF was the first humanitarian organization to reach out to these villages and distribute a complete set of relief materials. The team was led by Man Bahadur Chhetri, Regional Manager of NYF’s Empowering Freed Kamlaris program. The distribution was organized in coordination with the Red Cross and the local government, which provided security to ensure the process was safe and fair.
In addition to the relief support, NYF designated $29,000 to rebuild two schools destroyed by the flood, one in Dang District and another in Bardiya District. This project was in coordination with District Education Office of the government and local people.
Hadassah, The Women's Zionist Organization of America is an American Jewish volunteer women's organization. Founded in 1912 by Henrietta Szold, it is one of the largest international Jewish organizations, with nearly 300,000 members in the United States. Hadassah fundraises for community programs and health initiatives in Israel, including the Hadassah Medical Organization, two leading research hospitals in Jerusalem. In the US, the organization advocates on behalf of women's rights, religious autonomy and US–Israel diplomacy. In Israel, Hadassah supports health education and research, women's initiatives, schools and programs for underprivileged youth.
Bhaktapur District (Nepali: भक्तपुर जिल्ला; Nepal Bhasa : ख्वप देश located in the eastern part of Kathmandu valley, is the smallest among Nepal's 77 districts. It is part of Bagmati Province. Bhaktapur District Post Office is 44800. The district, with Bhaktapur as its district headquarters, covers an area of 119 km2 and in 2011 had a population of 304,651 of whom 9,701 people were absent.
Chitwan District is one of 77 districts of Nepal, and takes up the southwestern corner of Bagmati Province. Bharatpur, largest city of Nepal after Kathmandu, is its administrative centre. It covers 2,238.39 km2 (864.25 sq mi), and in 2011 had a population of 579,984 people. Bharatpur is the commercial and service centre of South Central Nepal and a major destination for higher education, health care and transportation in the region. Chitwan lies in the Terai region of Nepal. It is in the drainage basin of the Gandaki River and is roughly triangular, taking that river as its meandering northwestern border, and a modest watershed border, with India, as the basis of its southern limit. Local government: Bharatpur Metropolitan, Rapti Municipality, Ratnanagar Municipality, Kalika Municipality, Khairahani Municipality, Madi Municipality, Ikshyakamana Gaupalika
In 2022, Freedom House rated Nepal’s human rights at 57 out 100.
Kamaiya and Kamlari were two traditional systems of bonded labour practised in the western Terai of Nepal. Both were abolished after protests, in 2000 and 2006 respectively.
Founded in 2001 by Rye Barcott, Salim Mohamed, and the late Tabitha Atieno Festo, CFK Africa is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) based in the informal settlement of Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya. Registered as an NGO in Kenya and a 501(c)(3) in the US, CFK Africa is a pioneer of grassroots participatory development, and leads a community-based sports program, girls' empowerment centre, medical clinic, maternity centre, nutrition centre, young health and wellness centre, community-health outreach program, scholarship program, entrepreneurship and economic development initiatives, and a research-based initiative to improve educational quality in informal schools in Kibera. FK Africa is also an affiliated entity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has an office at the university.
Raising Malawi is a charity non-profit organization that was founded by Madonna and Michael Berg in 2006. It is dedicated to helping with the extreme poverty and hardship endured by Malawi's one million orphans, primarily through health and education programming. Initially, the "Raising Malawi Academy for Girls" was to be constructed but following an audit by the Global Philanthropy Group, which questioned expenditure on salaries and benefits as well as the management capacity and culture, the charity's school headmistress resigned in October 2010 and the project was scrapped.
Maiti Nepal is a non-profit organization in Nepal dedicated to helping the victims of human trafficking. Currently, it operates a rehabilitation home in Kathmandu, transit homes at the Indo-Nepal border towns, preventive homes in the countryside, and an academy in Kathmandu.
Child Workers in Nepal (CWIN) is a non-governmental organization working as an advocate for children's rights. CWIN supports street children, children subjected to child labour, children who are sexually exploited, and also those victimized by violence. The organization's objective is to protect the rights of children in Nepal. It was established in 1987 by a group of students at Tribhuvan University who, upon investigating the conditions of children living on the streets in Kathmandu, Nepal, recognized the need for advocacy in this area. As a "watchdog" in the field of child rights in Nepal, CWIN acts as a voice for the disadvantaged and exploited children. It does this by lobbying, campaigning, and pressuring the government to protect and promote children's rights, and to end exploitation, abuse and discrimination against children.
Health care services in Nepal are provided by both public and private sectors and are generally regarded as failing to meet international standards. Prevalence of disease is significantly higher in Nepal than in other South Asian countries, especially in rural areas. Moreover, the country's topographical and sociological diversity results in periodic epidemics of infectious diseases, epizootics and natural hazards such as floods, forest fires, landslides, and earthquakes. But, recent surge in Non communicable diseases has emerged as the main public health concern and this accounts for more than two-thirds of total mortality in country. A large section of the population, particularly those living in rural poverty, are at risk of infection and mortality by communicable diseases, malnutrition and other health-related events. Nevertheless, some improvements in health care can be witnessed; most notably, there has been significant improvement in the field of maternal health. These improvements include:
Olga Murray was a retired lawyer and the founder and president of the Nepal Youth Foundation (NYF), a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that provides education, health care, human rights, and housing for disadvantaged children in Nepal. The Nepal Youth Foundation was formerly known as the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation or NYOF.
The World Association of Children's Friends (AMADE) is a charity organization founded by Grace, Princess of Monaco, to support the development, education, and health of children worldwide. AMADE operates through a network of 12 local organisations in Europe, Asia, South-America and Africa. The Association has consultative status with UNICEF, UNESCO and the United Nations Economic and Social Council, as well as participative status with the Council of Europe.
Friends-International (FI) is an international social enterprise and registered non-governmental organization focusing on children's empowerment established in Cambodia in 1994. Its mission is "to build a future where all children are safe from all forms of abuse, are able to become productive citizens of their countries and contribute to a more equitable and sustainable world." FI works in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Thailand and with almost 50 partners around the world, providing social services to marginalized urban young people and their families.
The Primary Health Care and Resource Center (PHCRC) is in the rural village of Chapagaun, Lalitpur in Nepal. Chapagaun is in the wider Kathmandu Valley. The health centre was first established in 1972 as a Maternal and Child Health (MCH) clinic by the United Mission to Nepal. It is notable for its international volunteer programme and its micro-insurance service which reduces the cost of health care for those with the insurance. This is an important service in a country where more than 30% of the population are below the poverty line of US$12 per month and lack basic amenities such as primary health care.
China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA) is a nongovernmental charitable organization in Beijing, China, registered under the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs in 1989 and professionally supervised by the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development.
The KAT Centre Nepal is a nonprofit organization in Nepal. The KAT Centre Nepal’s goals are to create a healthy, sustainable street dog population, reduce animal cruelty, and eliminate rabies, around Kathmandu, Nepal.
Pushpa Basnet is a social worker and the founder/president of Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) and Butterfly Home, non-profit organizations, in Kathmandu, Nepal. Her organization works to strengthen the rights of children living behind bars with their incarcerated parents.
Prayas Nepal is a non-profit, non-governmental organization in Nepal. It is registered with the District Administrative Office of Kathmandu. Prayas Nepal aims to protect the rights of children and the underprivileged including orphans, women and elderly in Nepal by helping them to access essential services such as education and health care.
Nepal has a labour force of 16.8-million-workers, the 37th largest in the world as of 2017. Although agriculture makes up only about 28 per cent of Nepal's GDP, it employs more than two-thirds of the workforce. Millions of men work as unskilled labourers in foreign countries, leaving the household, agriculture, and raising of children to women alone. Most of the working-age women are employed in agricultural sector, contributions to which are usually ignored or undervalued in official statistics. Few women who are employed in the formal sectors face discrimination and significant wage gap. Almost half of all children are economically active, half of which are child labourers. Millions of people, men, women and children of both sexes, are employed as bonded labourers, in slavery-like conditions. Trade unions have played a significant role in earning better working conditions and workers' rights, both at the company level and the national government level. Worker-friendly labour laws, endorsed by the labour unions as well as business owners, provide a framework for better working conditions and secure future for the employees, but their implementation is severely lacking in practice. Among the highly educated, there is a significant brain-drain, posing a significant hurdle in fulfilling the demand for skilled workforce in the country.
Early childhood education in the United States relates to the teaching of children from birth up to the age of eight. The education services are delivered via preschools and kindergartens.
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