‘OLGAPURI Village’ in-progress

On behalf of Nepal Youth Foundation, I wish all our children, donors, board, staff and well wishers around the world, a very happy and peaceful year ahead! On the occasion of this very first day of 2015, we announce that the new J & K House village, which is under construction right now, has been named as “OLGAPURI Village”. The word “Puri” means a ‘little oasis’ in Nepali. So, it is Olga’s little oasis for children. What could be better name!!

We also announce that the grand inauguration of “OLGAPURI Village” will take place on November 7, 2015. Here is a picture of “OLGAPURI” in-progress.

Som Paneru, President

“Girl Rising” Tells Story of Suma and NYF

Millions of people around the world have watched the film Girl Rising — which features a segment about Suma, a courageous girl that Nepal Youth Foundation rescued from Kamlari child slavery and is currently supporting in vocational school.

Girl Rising tells the stories of nine remarkable young women and their fight for an education — including Suma, whose tale is very much like thousands of other young girls NYF has freed from indentured servitude.

When Suma was only nine years old, extreme poverty forced her family to “sell” her labor to their landlord as part of a sharecropping arrangement. For years, Suma slept in a goat shed and ate scraps from her master’s plate, spending long days and nights doing housework and chores.

In 2007, after six years of servitude, Suma was rescued by Sita Tharu, an NYF staff member. Since then, NYF has provided Suma with variety of services to help her build a new life. She attended school and is now enrolled in a Medical Assistant training course as part of NYF’s Vocational Education and Career Counseling Program. We also provided Suma with leadership training, which she uses in her work with the Freed Kamlari Development Forum. Suma has also been trained as a peer counselor to help girls like herself overcome the trauma and grief in their lives.

Suma has grown to be a strong and confident young woman. She was selected to represent the women of Nepal at the prestigious Women in the World Summit in New York, organized in 2012 by Newsweek and the Daily Beast. Through her song, Suma has let the world know the plight of thousands of girls trapped in slavery and their struggle for freedom and a life of dignity.

Help spread Suma’s message. Be sure to tell your friends and family about Girl Rising — and about our Empowering Freed Kamlaris program which is supporting Suma and thousands of other girls and young women in building a new life after slavery.

Learn more:

Watch the ABC7 News video about NYF’s work to free girls from slavery.

Read about the Freed Kamlari Development Forum that NYF supports.

Nepal Youth Foundation Earns Top Ranking Again

For the tenth consecutive year, Charity Navigator has awarded Nepal Youth Foundation its highest 4-star rating for financial accountability and transparency. We’re particularly honored because only 1 percent of charities evaluated earn ten consecutive 4-star ratings. It’s an important measure of our efficient use of our donor’s gifts. Get complete information at www.charitynavigator.org.

And once again, our supporters helped us earn five-stars and a spot on the “Top-Rated” list at GreatNonprofits.org, the leading online “consumer review” site for charity organizations. Thank you!

Here is a recent GreatNonprofits review from Betty Woodsend, a resident of Kathmandu, Nepal:

“When the news about the floods and landslides reached Kathmandu I wanted to contribute to the most direct project to reach the affected people. When I received the appeal from the NYF I was tempted to send my donation to NYF because of the US tax deduction but I decided to support a local drive because of the time element. After living in Nepal 40 years and knowing Olga and Som almost 20 years I should have known better. The NYF, with funds collected in the US, was the first relief service to reach the devastated area!! Next time…. “

NYF beneficiary, Sahadev Parajuli, wrote:

“I am one of the student who survived and did something good by the unforgettable help of Nepal Youth Foundation. I have been taken care from the grass root level till now and my achievement up to now is all attributed to NYF. I would like to thank from my heart inside and would like to help at any point of my life if I am given a chance…”

You’ll find dozens of reviews from donors and volunteers on our profile page at www.greatnonprofits.org.

Update: Flood Relief Campaign

Thanks to our caring community of donors, our Flood Relief Campaign raised over $32,000 in just one week to help families who lost everything in the devastating floods in August.

NYF staff and volunteers distributed survival kits packed with tents, sleeping mats, blankets, cooking pots, and utensils to aid 1,200 families in the Bardiya, Dang and Banke districts of western Nepal. The first organization on the scene to offer help, NYF also provided funds for families to begin rebuilding their houses.

Rebuilding schools that were hit by floods
The flooding in western Nepal threw the education system into disarray. Many schools were destroyed, and people whose houses were ruined are using the remaining schools as temporary shelters.

NYF is providing funding to help children buy new books and supplies lost in the flood, and we are rebuilding six classrooms in three schools in the affected area.

NYF offers families a lifeboat
Suma Tharu’s family was grateful to receive NYF’s help after the flood. Suma, who was featured in the film Girl Rising, was left homeless by the flooding and is currently staying at a temporary shed with her mother. Her father and 16 other family members have sought shelter in a nearby school building. Suma also lost all her books and notes from college.

After the flood, we were able to provide Suma with blankets, mattresses and utensils, as well as some rice, lentils and oil. She also received funds to buy books, a uniform for college, and money to rebuild her house.

Raj Kumari Tharu and 20 of her family members fled their home in the middle of the night and lost everything: their house, belongings, food and grains.

The family went to the neighboring village and sought shelter with relatives for a few days. Like many of the villagers affected by the flood, they are now struggling to build a more permanent shelter of their own.

NYF provided Raj Kumari with supplies of food, blankets, mattresses and utensils. She also received money to replace the textbooks and a school dress that she had lost in the flood.

Tirthi Tharu and her family of seven also lost their house and belongings, and are now taking refuge with relatives in a neighboring village. Tirthi is studying in grade 7 and will return to school when life is more settled. NYF provided the family with emergency supplies and funds to begin rebuilding their house and their lives.

Many thanks to our donors around the world for helping Suma, Raj Kumari and Tirthi rebuild their lives.

Learn more:

Read an earlier article about our Flood Relief Campaign.

NYF working to stop early marriage

Using street theater, leaflets, posters, counseling sessions and house visits, NYF staff and counselors are working hard to encourage young women in western Nepal to stay in school and resist family pressure to marry early.

Last year, counselors reached nearly 2,500 teachers, parents, community members and girls who were formerly indentured servants through orientation sessions, street drama, house visits and leafleting public bulletin boards. Staff registered several cases of early marriage with the local police.

The project is part of NYF’s Empowering Freed Kamlaris program which helps former Kamlari girls become healthy, happy and independent young women. NYF has rescued more than 12,000 girls since launching our campaign against the Kamlari system in 2000.

Changing attitudes and ending the practice
While marriage before the age of 18 is illegal, police and community members have tended to ignore the issue. Families often view their daughters as an economic burden and pressure them to marry, and this has been a particular problem for the girls we have rescued from Kamlari slavery.

NYF hopes to end the practice of early marriage by making girls, boys and their families aware of the negative health and economic consequences of dropping out of school and marrying young.

We have also formed 21 support groups for boys, with a total of 225 members. We’re happy to report that boys have enthusiastically embraced the cause and are sharing information with their families and communities.

Finding a way forward
NYF helped sixteen-year-old Santoshi, a former Kamlari servant, resist family pressure to get married. Suffering from severe depression, Santoshi’s friends encouraged her to join a NYF counseling support group where she learned to talk about her problems and develop strategies to deal with them. Counselors also visited her family and talked about how early marriage could negatively affect Santoshi’s life.

It’s working. Santoshi is now in NYF’s Vocational Education and Career Counseling program, where she is learning job skills and working hard to build a bright future for herself.

(Santoshi gave us permission to use her name and photo for this report.)

Learn more:

Read about our Empowering Freed Kamlari Program.

Watch the ABC7 News video about NYF’s work to free girls from slavery.

Read about NYF’s Vocational Education and Career Counseling.

Flood Relief: NYF helps 1,200 families

Thank you! In just one week our Flood Relief Campaign raised over $32,000.
With your support, we’ve helped 1,200 families who have just lost everything.

On August 24-25, just one week after the flood hit, NYF staff and volunteers began distributing survival kits packed with essential items: tent, sleeping mat and mattress, blankets, pots and pans, utensils and more. This initial distribution aided 216 families in the Bardiya district in west Nepal.

By August 31, our distribution of flood relief supplies had reached another 615 families in the Bardiya and Banke districts, bringing the total number of families served to 831. Of these, 137 are the families of former Kamlari girls, and 76 of them are completely homeless.

By mid-September, we had delivered supplies to a total of 1,200 families.

NYF is the first humanitarian organization to reach out to these villages and distribute a complete set of relief materials. The NYF team was led by Man Bahadur Chhetri, Regional Manager of our Empowering Freed Kamlaris program, seen on the left in the photo above.

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.

Flood Relief Campaign was a success!
During the month of August, devastating floods caused widespread damage in Nepal, as reported on FOX News and the New York Times.

Particularly hard hit were the districts of Banke, Bardiya and Dang in western Nepal, the area that is home to the thousands of former Kamlari girls that NYF serves.

We launched our Flood Relief Campaign right away — and in just one week our friends and supporters raised over $32,000, enough to complete our distribution of relief supplies to families in the affected areas.

We immediately purchased food, tents, cookware, clothing and medicines, and we’ve now distributed survival kits to the hundreds of NYF participants who have lost their homes.

Thank you for caring about children and families in Nepal!

Here are more photos from our distribution in Bardiya, August 24-25:

Kamlari co-ops grow with your help

Thanks to supporters like you, we raised over $20,000 during the month of June for the Freedom Loan Fund — a micro-lending program that gives young women in Nepal who spent their childhoods as Kamlari slaves the opportunity to start a business and make a new life.

The freed Kamlaris have formed 37 business co-ops, now with 3,000 members, to support each other in building businesses. So far, more than 750 young women have used co-op loans to launch businesses such as vegetable farms, sewing shops, beauty salons, and even a motorcylce repair shop. And now, thanks to your support of the Freedom Loan Fund Campaign, another 70 former Kamlaris will be able to get a loan and start a business.

Co-ops get more organized
The Kamlari co-ops recently formed a network to give the young women the opportunity to share their experiences and improve the way they work together. Representatives from each co-op will meet regularly to share progress reports, create action plans and to review opportunities and challenges. NYF has also recently hired a manager to coordinate the rapidly expanding co-op movement.

Thanks for your support!
Thanks to all of you who have helped these amazing young women to build a better life for themselves and their families. We look forward to updating you on their progress.

Learn more:

Watch the ABC7 News video about NYF’s work to free girls from slavery.

Read about our Empowering Freed Kamlaris Program.

NYF news: Victory! Kamlari Child Slavery System Ends.

J&K Village: From dream to reality

Surrounded by their J&K House brothers and sisters and other well-wishers, five children laid the cornerstone of their new home on Saturday on July 19.

The joyful ceremony brought us closer to our dream of building a permanent residence for the vulnerable children in our care.

Crews began construction of the new children’s village last month. The complex will have houses for the boys and girls, a dining hall, two hostels for the teenagers, farmland, large play area, a vocational education center and a guest house.

We are booking the movers for October 2015. We hope you will join us for the inauguration!

One thing we’re still working on is coming up with a great name for the new village, and you can help. Please send your suggestions for a new name to Jackie Frost, our Development and Communications Manager at jfrost@staging.nepalyouthfoundation-old.flywheelsites.com. Thank you!

Learn more:

Read about our children’s homes.

NYF’s Freedom Loan Fund on ABC7 News!

From child slaves to free business women — a transformation in Nepal.

Many thanks to ABC7 News for telling the story of our campaign to end the Kamlari system of child slavery. This 3-minute video shows the former Kamlaris at work in their new businesses, and talks about the co-op loan program that is making this transformation possible.

Please share this video with family and friends, and let them know they can help by joining the Freedom Loan Fund Campaign. With your support, we’ll give hundreds of former child slaves in Nepal the opportunity to start a business and make a new life.