Education is one of the keys to escaping poverty. NLT runs a child sponsorship programme to help children attend and excel at school.
Brief summary: the programme pays school fees, books and uniforms for children. In some cases funds may cover meals or other physical needs. Our programme caters for children living in the Kathmandu valley, through our head office, and in the rural south-eastern Terai district through our hospital in Lalgadh.
The programme covers ten years of schooling.
Donation can be paid monthly at €21 or annually at a cost of €252.
Programme in detail:
Help Educate a Child Programme is a sponsorship scheme set up to enable children from very poor families, affected by leprosy or other disadvantages, to receive an education. Without this support these children would most likely be sent out to work. A child labourer can earn from €35 per month in rural Nepal. Sometimes they are paid in farm produce.
Girls are more likely to become child labourers and much less likely to go to school.
Education is one of the key ways to lift families out of poverty and to prevent poverty in future generations. Among its many benefits, education
- Enables people to earn higher wages and boosts economic growth
- Reduces inequality, especially for girls. Those who go to school gain skills, knowledge and social confidence, which equip them for the workforce and can improve the quality of life for themselves and their families
- Lowers infant and maternal deaths
- Builds resilience against uncontrollable shocks such as climate change, conflict and economic downturn; those with more skills are better equipped to adapt and thrive.
Your €21 a month will go a long way towards providing food, uniform and school books for these children.
€252 per year provides enough support for a family to send a child to school. Continued support to a family is dependent on receiving annual school reports, etc., proving that the child is attending school.
Children are recommended for the programme by Lalgadh Leprosy Hospital’s Community Health Development team who carry out a family socio economic assessment. More than 60 children are currently sponsored through our Help Educate a Child programme. Our school sponsorship programme in Kathmandu has been running successfully for many years. One of the children who was sponsored through school went on to study medicine and, in 2012, qualified as a doctor. Several others have become trained nurses. Education is one of the key ways of lifting families out of poverty. With your support we can help to transform young lives in Nepal.
Commitments to the relationship
The Help Educate a Child Programme will:
- Send an annual update on your child’s school progress and welfare
- Inform you of any change in the child’s or family’s circumstances.
- The Community Health Development team will visit the family and the school up to 4 times a year to check students’ progress and attendance. They have a relationship with each family in the programme.
YOU will:
- Give a life-changing opportunity to a child to improve their quality of life and that of their family.
- Commit to supporting a child through the Help Educate a Child programme for up to 10 years, i.e. the duration of their schooling.
- Inform the Help Educate a Child programme 6 months before terminating sponsorship. In the event that prior notice of cessation of sponsorship is not possible, please inform the programme as soon as you can.
Note:
- Occasionally a child may terminate their schooling unexpectedly, possibly because they obtain paid employment. In this case sponsors will be inform you as soon as we are notified of this.
- Due to the remote location of many of the children in the scheme it will not be possible to facilitate sponsors sending additional gifts, letters etc to the children.
- Nepal uses a lunar calendar which differs from the European calendar. This may cause some confusion among sponsors in relation to the ages of children, school term dates etc.
To sponsor a child send an email expressing your interest to info@nlt.ie or fill in the standing order form here. If you would like to pay by a different method, please let us know.
Thank you so much. Your support is a priceless contribution to the life of a child in Nepal.
Our Child Protection Policy 2016 is available on request.