- Nepal Youth Foundation
-
Nepal Youth Foundation (NYF) 
Founded 1990, Sausalito, California Location 3030 Bridgeway, Suite 123, Sausalito, California Area served Nepal Focus Charity Website http://www.nepalyouthfoundation.org The Nepal Youth Foundation (NYF) is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization. The mission of NYF is to provide children in Nepal with education, housing, medical care, and support.
The Nepal Youth Foundation's partners are private foundations and individuals around the world and non-governmental organizations in Nepal. NYF was founded in 1990 by Olga Murray under the name Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation (NYOF), which was later changed to the current name. Olga Murray is still the organization's president.[1] NYF rescues and supports children in Nepal through a range of programs.
Contents
About Nepal
The vast majority of the people of Nepal are subsistence farmers, living far from roads, electricity, or social services. The average national income is $200. Most people are illiterate. Cultural and legal traditions make it difficult for women to assert their basic human rights and receive health care and a decent education.[2] According to UNICEF, half of all Nepali children under age five are malnourished, one of the leading causes of death in this age group.[3]
Liberating Girls from Indentured Servitude
In parts of Western Nepal, many indigenous families subsist as farm laborers. Unable to make ends meet, thousands of them have been forced to sell their daughters to work in faraway cities as bonded servants. An ABC News report states that many of the girls, who are as young as six, never return home, while others are abused or forced into prostitution.[4] Very few of the girls ever attend school. The fathers receive an average of US$50 a year for their daughters’ services, and the girls get nothing.[5]
The Nepal Youth Foundation's Indentured Daughters Program provides an alternative. The organization works with local communities to encourage parents to bring their daughters home from the city and provides a piglet or goat which the families can raise and sell. NYOF then ensures the girls attend local schools.[6] Thousands of rescued girls now attend school under the Nepal Youth Foundation’s auspices. There are many thousands who have not yet been rescued.[7]
Nutritional Rehabilitation Homes
At the Nepal Youth Foundation's Nutritional Rehabilitation Homes, children who are severely malnourished are restored to health while their parents are educated in child nutrition, hygiene and care. NYF funds and manages ten residential rehabilitation centers for extremely malnourished children, in Kathmandu and in rural areas of Nepal. 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 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.[8] The NRHs have rescued over 3,000 children. NYF intends to build a Nutritional Rehabilitation home in each of Nepal's 14 zones.[9]
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.[10] 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. NYF also trains teachers and builds and improves schools.[11]
Children's Homes
The Nepal Youth Foundation operates two homes for approximately 40 children: J House (for boys) and K house (for girls). These children are orphans, were abandoned by their parents, or are disabled. NYF provides them with personal attention, as well as education and medical expenses.[12] NYOF commits to provide for these children through college. Most of the children are sponsored by donors in Western countries.[13]
Notes
- ^ ABC World News, July 6, 2008. Retrieved on September 20, 2008
- ^ United Nations Nepal Information Platform. Retrieved on September 20, 2008
- ^ Putting Children First, UNICEF.org. Retrieved on September 20, 2008
- ^ ABC World News, July 6, 2008. Retrieved on September 20, 2008
- ^ San Francisco Chronicle, July 22, 2008. Retrieved on September 20, 2008
- ^ PBS NOW Program, week of April 4, 2008. Retrieved on September 20, 2008
- ^ Marin Independent Journal, December 2, 2006. Retrieved on September 20, 2008
- ^ Sausalito Marinscope Newspaper, July 17, 2008
- ^ j., the Jewish News Weekly, August 22, 2008. Retrieved on September 20, 2008
- ^ Encore.org, July 24, 2008. Retrieved on September 20, 2008
- ^ America.gov, July 10, 2008. Retrieved on September 20, 2008
- ^ Sausalito Marinscope Newspaper, July 17, 2008
- ^ Marin Magazine, September, 2008. Retrieved on September 20, 2008
External links
Categories:- Non-profit organizations based in California
- Education in Nepal
- Child-related organizations
- Children's charities
- Educational charities
- Health charities
- Social welfare charities
- Humanitarian aid
- International non-profit organizations
- International nongovernmental organizations
- International charities
- Non-governmental organizations based in the United States
- Charities based in the United States
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
