What Orphanages in Nepal Are Like - Part I

Working in Orphanages is a very popular volunteer program in Nepal. You’ll find plenty of orphanages in most major cities of Nepal but most are located inside the Kathmandu Valley. The Valley is where the wealth of Nepal is concentrated, it’s also the place where many poor people arrive to get rich and but end up living in dreadful conditions in the hope of one day becoming rich.

For wanna be volunteers in orphanage, I have a word of warning – it can be a tough place to work but it’ll also be the most rewarding and personally very satisfying.

It’s not the children or the staff that’ll make working in the orphanage tough, it’s the working conditions itself. Most orphanages in Nepal don’t have their own building and rent the property. They often choose dingy buildings with cramped rooms and with lack of playing area. The rent is cheaper in these buildings. Orphanages in Nepal are resource poor and they try to save as much as possible on rent. While working in the orphanage, if you live and work in the same building, it’ll be pretty difficult. But there’ll always be children to cheer you on and staffs of the orphanage to pull you through it.

Opening Orphanages in Nepal

Opening an orphanage isn’t an easy job. If you want to do it, you’ll have to write the constitution and clarify such points like objective, write name (both in Nepali and English), provide a stamp, and include names of committee members. At least 7 members are required for the committee. You’ll have to disclose the president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and members.

The orphanage will be registered as a social organization at the district office. Before the district office gives a go ahead to open the orphanage, they’ll send the names of committee members to police, who will search for records of the members and see if any of them have any criminal records. When the police do not find anything, they’ll advice the district office of this. Only after this the district office will give a go ahead to open the orphanage.

You’re then free to rent the room or buy a property and establish an orphanage.

After you move in your orphanage into a rented property, you’ll need to register with Child Welfare Organization. It’s the duty of the Child Welfare Organization to make sure the orphanages are following the rules set out by the government. They’ll visit orphanages and conduct surveys to see if the orphanage fulfills criteria set to them.

According to Child Welfare Organization, an orphanage must have:

· play ground for the children to play
· The building must be in an open area
· Room must be large, spacious and well ventilated
· Depending upon the size of the bed, not more than two children can sleep in the same bed
· The children must have individual blankets

There are many more criteria like this which an orphanage must fulfill. If they fail to do so, they can be closed down. If any volunteers working in an orphanage encounters poor living conditions, they can take up this issue with Child Welfare Organization if the orphanage fails to improve the situation.

Ask your placement organizer to follow up the matter if you don’t want to be personally involved. It’s their responsibility to make sure the orphanages they are sending their volunteers to are following all the rules.

Family Run Orphanages

You’ll find many orphanages in Nepal run by a family, who stay inside the orphanage and raise their own kids along with other children. These families mostly have migrated to urban centers like Kathmandu from remote villages and it’s easier for them to run the orphanage and sustain the orphanage and their family like that.

This is not a bad setup. But many families running these orphanages something eat different meal and treat different meals to other children. I’ve discovered several cases where these families live in a luxury inside the orphanage, while the orphaned children live in very poor condition. There is nothing wrong to have a more luxurious bed for yourself than for the children but if you’re eating better food, watching TV, your children are wearing better clothes, while the children of the orphanage are deprived of such things, this is wrong.

Often, it’s these kinds of families who frequently complain to foreign volunteers who are working in the orphanage that they lack of fund to improve children’s working condition. They’re directly hinting to the volunteers for money. There is compulsion on volunteers to contribute, as the orphanage receives money from placement organizers who place volunteers in these orphanages.

If you feel like giving, provide the orphanage with material goods, e.g. blankets, mattresses, beds, instead of money. In Nepal, the orphanages are not supposed to take any money from volunteers. They’re supposed to pay any money to the volunteers also. Your placement organizer will donate the money for hosting to a volunteer in an orphanage as a contribution. It’s not a fee.

I’ll write more in my next article about the orphanage. If you have any questions on any of them, please feel free to leave a remark and I’ll answer them.