About Us
Nepal is a landlocked country situated in the lap of the Himalayan range. Inheriting vast diversity in geography and ethnicity it is locked by China from the North and India from East, West and South. It is the poorest country in South Asia and ranks as the 12th poorest countries in the world. It is one of the least developed countries in the world and relies extensively on foreign aid. The main sector of the economy is agriculture, which employs over 70 percentage of the population and accounts for 33 percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). There is a woeful lack of social and economic infrastructure in the country as a whole, especially in rural areas, where income levels tend to be lower than the national average. It has also different religions present, most significantly Hinduism and Buddhism, but minorities of Muslims and Christians are present. People in lower castes and marginalized ethnic minority groups, in particular, suffer from poverty and exclusion, within these groups, women suffer the most. Although the Nepalese economy has been securely growing in recent years, lack of governmental institutions, growing population and remnants of social instability are sources of concern. However, over the last decade, the country has made considerable progress in reducing poverty but is still falling behind. According to analysis, the urban poverty declined from 22% to 10% and rural poverty declined from 43% to 35%.
In Nepal, it is already a proven fact that NGOs can be effective vehicles for social transformation, economic-advancement, socio-economic empowerment and democratic governance. During the decade-long conflict in Nepal and a massive earthquake, thousands of children lost their parents and adult civilians injured often lose their means and ability to make an income to sustain their families. More than 80% of the people live in the rural areas while more than 80% of the qualified doctors' work in the urban sectors. Until there is an improvement in the doctor-patient ratio in the rural area, primary medical care will largely depend upon the locally available, economically affordable and socially acceptable traditional healers and unqualified rural practitioners. A recent research on health care providers in Nepal reveals that 60 to 80 percentage of illness is treated by an ‘uncategorized’, ‘non-recognized’ and ‘outcasted’ lot of rural practitioners. Thus, it seems quite impossible, mainly due to the poor economy, to provide effective primary care to a large population in the absence of adequate trained manpower and supporting facilities.
Precisely, the people with disabilities are citizens with equal rights, who given the opportunities are able to contribute economically and socially to their households and communities. According to the survey of different international organizations, about 15% of the world’s population lives with some forms of disabilities in terms of physical capabilities. Though the rate of growth of disability in Nepal is not like that according the different census and recent country wise disability detect survey the rate is increasing in an alarming way. This significant numbers of people fall in unexpected helpless situation unwillingly and lead a measurable life. Most of their life is so difficult that not only their own lives but also to save their lives it is required to contribute others workforce. Self-income generation activities are essential towards economic self-reliance of people with disabilities. So NGOs responsibilities are augmented on activating and promotion of human rights, people' welfare and democracy in this transitional phase of political, economic and social transformation.
Same as, the education of girls, which already was receiving very less attention in Nepal, is now almost ignored in poor rural communities. In many societies, parents place importance on furthering boys’ education. Girls should prepare to be someone’s wife. They should worry about having children, especially having sons. They should focus on cooking and cleaning, not math and literature. Boys should focus on learning and building careers. This is an outdated mindset. So we should be given the first priority to girls` education as only girls are capable of leading for social changes. Educated women are more likely to encourage the education of their children. Educated people have the ability to make a change in not only their small communities but also their countries as a whole. Women’s literacy is necessary for the development of the nation along with it undeniably helps in breaking the cycle of poverty.
So far as we know that Nepal Matri Griha (NMG) is an autonomous and politically non-partisan organization that works to promote the rights, welfare and development of children living on the margins of society. It works directly with the children and their families, helping them to break away from the effects of discrimination based on caste, disability, gender and social status. NMG was established in 2000 registered in District Administration Office (DAO) under NGOs Act 1974 and also affiliated with Social Welfare Council (SWC) and Municipality Office. Its foremost aim at that point was to spread awareness on this issue, to children, to parents and as a society to everyone around. Knowledge is power, and with this knowledge, the younger generation will have the power and confidence to defend them from the outer world. Parents are more willing to hear things out. Survivors are more open to talking about their suffering and get help. One-to-one its mission is to protect and provide support and services to every poor, orphan, discarded and physically challenged children and contribute to their physical and mental development by preventing them from abuse and exploitation. Therefore it offers a prospect of promoting human rights and providing social justice and equal opportunities for women, youth and children in the vulnerable areas of Nepal. It always implements, coordinates and develops relationships with the government and development agencies at the local level. Instead of bringing new policies, there is the need to build a strong mechanism to monitor the implementation. Ever since its founded, with dedicated its team, NMG hopes to grow progressively touching and changing lives of thousands poor and needy people of Nepal throughout the NMG`s projects - Educational Scholarship Children Project (ESCP), Physiotherapy Children Project (PCP), Primary Health Care Project (PHCP), Medical Support Project (MSP) and Vocational Trainings (VTs) and many more others- are put into actions to exist a dignified life. Every year approximately 7000 children and adults had been given the amenities from the organization.
In the forthcoming days when NMG have become successful to be well-established then it extended the wide range of activities. At this time, NMG runs a scholarship program to the children who live in slums with extreme poverty, homeless and orphan children on top of that physically challenged children are also attaining an appropriate edification. Likewise, NMG`s physiotherapy centre has treated more than 100 patients a day. The patients who are not able to visit at the centre due to their chronic disorder, that moment of time the centre will offer her/him as of the door service.
Every year hundreds of children will receive books, school bags, grocery and other stationery items so that they will not be compelled to drop out of their schools. NMG`s primary clinic helps to heal the minor injuries to the underprivileged who are even not capable to buy a tablet for fever. The clinic has been also awaking people regarding family planning and other sensitive matters. Furthermore some additional events are like - street dramas to raise awareness, doctor support to patient, physiotherapy appliance support, picnic and excursion for children, conducting adult literacy classes, general physiotherapy training to parents of disabled children, teachers training and empowerment, empowerment of school structure, networking with line agency and crisis counseling, as well as it focuses on providing employment to disadvantageous group of the society. The organization timely offered vocational trainings such as beauticians, handcrafting, tailoring, computer hardware & software and mobile & electric items repairing and so on.
It is the child rights and an advocacy organization with a focus on child labour, street children, child abuse, trafficking in children and other related issues; it works directly with children and focusing its activities on the relief, socialization and social re-integration of children living. Ever since 2000, NMG has been working to reduce and prevent child labour by promoting education, health and awareness-raising locally-initiated projects. NMG has already outreached in 77 districts throughout the various projects. NMG actively participates in numerous national development issues and its various projects support to the underprivileged and neglected children who have either lost a parent due to the conflict, or have been physically impacted by a bomb explosion or congenital at the time of birth and /or cannot afford to pay school fees/medical expenses/ physiotherapy charges for cure of their disabilities. They are under the defined as organization target groups. Those targeting group is basically based on their scarceness. The selection criteria are based on organization guidelines.
There are overall 32 members in the NMG`s board, among them 7 are democratically elected members, including a chairperson, vice-chairperson, general secretary, secretary, treasurer and 2 general members. All the members of the central and provincial committees are experienced and established personalities in NGO management. The BOD (Board of Director) meets once a month. NMG follows a highly participatory approach in the delivery and implementation of its services. Its focus is on a qualitative capacity building of local member NGOs and, in particular, on improving their management, governance, skills and competencies.
Educational Scholarship Children Program (ESCP)
Education is very necessary for all to go ahead in the life and get success. It opens various doors to the opportunities of achieving better prospects in life so promotes career growth. It develops confidence and helps to build the personality of a person. School education plays a great role in everyone’s life. The whole education has been divided into three divisions such as the basic education, secondary education and higher education. All the divisions of education have their own importance and benefits. Basic education prepares the base which helps throughout the life, secondary education prepares the path for further study and higher education prepares the ultimate path of the future and whole life. It brings a feeling of equality among all people in the society and promotes growth and development of the country. It makes us able to become a good learner and understand every aspect of life. It provides the ability to understand all the human rights, social rights, duties and responsibilities towards the country.
Nepal is a country with an approximate geographical area of 147 thousand square kilometres and a population of 29.62million people. The population of Nepal increased from 11.5 million persons in 1968 to 29.3 million persons in 2017 growing at an average annual rate of 1.92 %. The population density in the year 2011 was 180 people per square kilometre, the literacy rate of male and female are 75.1 and 57.4 percentage giving on average of 65.9 percentage. All of the above factors have also resulted in a lax growth of fundamental institutions such as basic education for everyone in the country. This has resulted in a meagre literacy rate of only 48.6% in Nepal, of which 62.7% are males and 34.9% are females.
As the result is that children from socioeconomically, marginalized families and those that do not have a family simply cannot afford to pay for state-provided education, many of these children are required to work instead in order to support the family. So since 2000, NMG offers sponsorship program to the children who are socially, culturally or monetarily marginalized and who are out of government access to date. After their home-visits, it has delivered 100% scholarship amenities under the scholarship program that includes school`s uniforms, school`s fees, books & stationery items, medical checkup & medicines if s/he would be required, and their daily school`s snacks, so that the program helps them with their basic rights, it covers all expenses of the children to ensure that not a financial burden to their family as well.
Nepal Matri Griha School (NMGS)
(Changed Name: Scholastic National Academy-SNA)
By synchronization with Nepal Matri Griha, SNA started to provide a formal basic education to children who are socially, culturally or economically marginalized from mainstream education since 2006.
`The school was established on site in Kathmandu. It provides free education to overall 365 children a year. It also provides educational materials and resources required to support their learning including uniforms, books & stationeries and also a healthy lunch (cooked-food).
The demand for basic education is huge. The school has an infrastructure that can hold 500 students, but our running costs only allow us to fund 365 students per year. There are close to 135 students waiting with a hope to find a seat in our school soon. If these students do not get enrolled at the school, then they are at high risk of being exploited or being lost from the pages of our history forever.
Curriculum and Activities
The school follows the national curriculum and runs a yearly academic session with three terminal examinations taking place. The students are taught by trained staff and given adequate practical exposure in each subject. We also hold extracurricular activities alongside the educational program:
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Sporting activities and after-school games which enable us to bring out a healthy competitive spirit among the students.
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We have a specialist computer and science room to assist the students in their learning and increase basic IT skills.
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We also take students on study trips and excursions so that they can learn more about their environment.
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Family support services which include one-to-one sessions between the child, their family and staff at the school. These sessions aim to identify a child’s aspirations whilst raising the families' awareness and understanding of the importance of the child’s education.
As the result, after completing basic education from SNA, the less than half of children go on to the secondary education. This is because their parents cannot afford costs associated with the secondary education. Instead, children often go to work to provide further income for their families and still millions of children are compelled to struggle without education. Currently, there are in total 74 sponsored children are still getting the secondary education in the different schools of Kathmandu Valley. The sponsored children who are about to come into the secondary education and who have the skills and desire to continue their studies but whose parents are unable to enrol their children at the school has fully-supported by way of its several programs. Along these lines, Nepal Matri Griha reaches out to these children and provides them with support, so that they can educate themselves and we can help them with their basic rights.
Procedures and Guidelines
WHAT: This is a comprehensive package offered to those children in the greatest need, under this scholarship program. This enables the child to receive secondary schooling in an environment that will enable them to thrive.
HOW: Where possible, the child is kept with their parents, single parent, responsible relatives (in form of paternal or maternal grandparents, uncles, aunts etc.) or foster parents in cases of orphans and those abandoned. Since most of the caretakers also come from economically weak backgrounds, they cannot meet the additional costs of raising the child from their income. Thus we cover all expenses for the child to ensure that their education is not a financial burden to their family.
MONITORING: Our team frequently monitors the progress of the child. Home and school visits are made to ensure that the child is receiving a good level of care and education and that the funds and resources provided are not being misused.
Distribution Children Program
Nepal is one of the world’s poorest countries, with alarmingly high malnutrition rates- 25 percentage of Nepal’s population lives below the national poverty line on less than US$ 0.50 per day.
Therefore the children have obtained under distribution programs with the necessary educational aides & materials (books, copies, uniforms etc.), nutrition foods (rice, pulses, kidney beans, grams, peas etc.), sanitation & health kits (toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, vitamin supplements etc.) and many more other items that the children are unable to purchase in his/her day-to-day life.
There is a huge shortage of educational infrastructure in Nepal, specifically in the rural community and its beneficiaries are single parents, Dalit, indigenous, and poor of the poorest families. In other hands, their parents haven’t had a fixed income, are poorly illiterate and unqualified with having lots of children and had to live an extremely complicated life.
In conclusion, in the context of Nepal, the prices of daily living requirements are frequently high to higher because of its challenging infrastructures and political turbulence. For that reason, our motto is to lead the global fight against scarcity, we save the life of children and their families. We constantly search for more effective solutions, we will never give up our support even the program doesn't have any particular fund. If you are interested, you can Donate Now for protect a life of each child.
HOW: A team visits, these addressed areas based on local agencies or Village Developmental Committees (VDCs) requisitions. These children are distributed with the above-mentioned materials which are adequate for an academic year.
The team regularly monitors on child’s progress report from their schools' visit and on the lookout for whether s/he needs additional support.