Next Generation Nepal: Update

No Comments | March 17th, 2007 | Trackback

I am happy to report that I successfully pestered Conor of Next Generation Nepal into sending me no less than three back issues of the NGN newsletter –there’s a chance you could do the same (I’m pretty persuasive though, so don’t count on it!), but why not catch up at How Conor Is Spending All His Money, and just sign up for the next one.

In each monthly newsletter is more of the good stuff that’s on the blog – somehow more compact and more in detail at the same time. Conor presents a summary of the coolest and most important happenings of that month – and stories and updates about individual kids seem to be the norm as well. There is also information about how you can help and some sample expenses a donation can cover.

Here’s a rundown of December through February…backwards. Note that as each newsletter is a four page Adobe document, I’ve just chosen an event that stuck out the most to me.

February: NGN was able to hire the mother of three children living there; she lost her home in a family dispute and was duped by a trafficker, who collected nearly two years’ salary, claiming she (this trafficker was a woman) would bring the children to a good home and boarding school. In fact she only dumped the children in another part of Kathmandu; when the mother found out, a few years later, that her children were living at NGN, she simply couldn’t make the two-hour-on foot journey to visit them regularly or afford the bus fare. She now works in the home, along with two other women and for a small salary, helping cook and clean for (all of) the children. She stays at NGN and so can see her children; she also can save the fee she was struggling to pay as rent.

January: Nearly one year ago, pre-NGN, (future) founders Conor and Farid located and started caring for a group of seven street children, arranging for them to stay in another shelter until NGN was established. Later, these kids went missing, moved by the same people who had trafficked them in the first place. In the space of ten months, Conor and Farid founded NGN and recovered six of these children – but only in January did they find the last one – Barke Buddha. He’s now safe and sound at NGN after working as a domestic slave.

In December of course, a four-person NGN team made the journey to Humla to locate families. Conor’s blog is updated regularly; you can also visit the NGN site to find out more. On the blog, find details on how to subscribe to the newsletter at the end of any post. If you subscribe soon, you’ll be in time to get the March newsletter