Written by Sandup Lama, NGN Reintegration Manager
In April, I needed to go from Kathmandu, where I live and work, to Humla, in the far northwest corner of the country, to help four formerly trafficked children enroll in Next Generation Nepal’s scholarship program.
This trip is not a simple one: a 14-hour bus journey along the longest highway in Nepal to Nepalganj, and then a 45-minute flight to Simikot, the capital of Humla. On this occasion, I was based in Simikot so I didn’t need to prepare for the six-to-14 hours of walking to the villages each day that I normally do when I visit Humla!
NGN’s scholarship project was created in 2011 to provide further education for the talented, sincere and willing children from NGN’s two transit homes, Karnali Home 1 in Kathmandu and Karnali Home 2 in Simikot. Other Humli children are also eligible, as we believe that education is the single most important element in helping a community—and this country—prosper. There are too many bright Nepali children who spend their lives in the darkness of illiteracy.
You might think it would be easy to enroll trafficked children for further education, but there are challenges. At the age of 16, Nepalis are granted the right to hold a citizenship card, which is necessary for higher education. Since many trafficked children have been registered as dead or missing, re-registering their existence can be difficult. One of my primary jobs while I was in Humla was to register two of the four children nominated for the scholarship program for the citizenship cards that would allow them to study towards their Plus Two (equivalent to senior year in the U.S.), paid for by NGN.
An NGN criteria for winning a scholarship is that a child be fully and legally reunified with his or her family. Since two of the four children nominated for a scholarship hadn’t been fully reunified, I needed to work with the Child Rights Officer in Humla in an effort to complete the necessary papers. NGN works with local governments to help rescue children from illegal orphanages and to formally reunite families with lost children through the proper legal channels.
Sadly, due to absences, I wasn’t able to complete the legal processes for the two children so they will have to wait a little longer before they join us in Kathmandu to study. However, the other two children, Priya and Sweta, traveled back with me and began studies in earnest. They love being in school again!
My job takes me to many places, often at great personal risk, and allows me to interact with families and children affected by trafficking and the exploitation that comes with it. Families innocently send their children away because they are offered the option to educate their kids in the capital—and this is what traffickers take advantage of.
The NGN scholarship program is a next step for children who have been successfully returned to their families. The program’s selection criteria ensure that the children have become fully and legally reunified and are rooted in the family, village and culture of where they are from. Families can send their children to a Kathmandu school knowing they will stay in contact and see them during the holidays. Children are given a second chance at a better future.
For me, a child is like clay and we are like a potter. For a short time, that child’s future is in our hands. We have the responsibility to connect these children with their families and to shape them into educated and prosperous citizens for a brighter Nepal.
