NEXT GENERATION NEPAL

Next Generation Nepal prevents children from being trafficked into abusive children’s homes and helps reconnect and rebuild family connections that have been torn asunder by traffickers.

We envision a Nepal free from the threat of child trafficking; a Nepal strengthened by thriving agricultural communities populated by generations of children living together with their families in strong, safe communities that provide the care, education and life skills necessary for a productive life in rural Nepal.

Driven by our fundamental belief in the strength of families, Next Generation Nepal offers temporary care and education for children trafficked into exploitative children’s homes. The rescued children stay temporarily in the safety of our transitional home while the process of family tracing and re connection begins.

The NGN-funded search teams travel for days on foot through the remote mountain villages of Nepal to find the families of trafficked children, and provide news and photos of these children to their families. We work to reunite these children with their families, conduct thorough assessments of village conditions and family capacities all in an effort to permanently reunite as many children as possible with their families. Once children are reunited with their families, we conduct regular monitoring visits and provide support to prevent re-trafficking.

NGN was the first to take steps to not only rescue children displaced by trafficking but to set up the organization, NGN, and train Nepali staff to not only rescue these children but find their parents and bring them home. NGN is passionate about the concept that "every child has the right to a family environment; right to be cared for by parents; right to live with parents and the right to maintain contact with parents". Next Generation Nepal provides these basic rights to all the children it rescues.

Rescue and reunification are the core and mission of NGN’s work, and are the driving force that all of us at NGN work daily to achieve.

NGN rescues children that are being kept in illegal, abusive children’s home/orphanages, who have no hope of seeing their families again during their childhood.

It has been reported that there are over 15,000 children living in “orphanages” in Nepal, yet at least two-thirds of these children are not orphans. Despite International and Nepali laws and policies against the use of children’s homes, except as a last resort, hundreds of children continue to be trafficked to the Kathmandu Valley into such institutions. “Orphanages” have become lucrative businesses in Nepal with profit to be made from both the families of children who are deceived and manipulated by traffickers that their child will be provided with sponsorship of education and care in Kathmandu. To parents living in extreme poverty, this appears as an unbelievable gift not knowing that this decision will bring pain and suffering to the child and in the end to their parents.

The Government of Nepal works closely with NGN who provides the resources, skill and commitment to provide a safe and caring facility, while NGN teams search for the child’s family.

Once a child has been rescued from an abusive orphanage, the reintegration process begins. This takes time. Children are re-homed in a safe transitional home, taken care of, rehabilitated and provided with an education during this tracing process. NGN staff use innovative counseling play techniques to spark children’s memories of family and home which were long ago forgotten. Using this and other information, search teams set out to the, often, remote regions of Nepal, in search of the families. Once found, and once the family has been assessed by our team, and we are assured that the child would be safe and provided for, only then can re connections take place with the family. NGN continues to monitor all its reunified children for up to 3 years to ensure that they are safe, continuing their education and free from the risk of being re-trafficked.

In 2015, Nepal was shaken by an earthquake that once again put families at risk of having their children trafficked. NGN quickly implemented awareness campaigns to educate parents and communities about the dangers their children faced, and to address questions from concerned parents. Under this program we created radio jingles warning families of the potential threat of child trafficking; street dramas that enacted out traffickers deceiving families; and posters and fliers to educate and help parents understand the impact of trafficking to both family and community.

Through these preventative measures, NGN has been able to use real-life situations to raise awareness and educate. This has had a huge impact in helping to decrease child trafficking.

We partner with 3 local NGOs on the ground in Nepal which gives us a way into some of the most remote and poverty-stricken areas of Nepal. These areas are always hubs of trafficking and by partnering with the local NGOs there, NGN is able to accomplish more than we would ordinarily be able to. We also have our own, all Nepali staff who have been working in this field for years.
It is rare for an INGO in Nepal to have a local country Director, but we do, and it gives us increased credibility and trust among local people. Nepal is a country of diverse ethnicities many of which are represented among our staff. We have the trust of the government of Nepal, and we work with their child protection divisions when we carry out rescues.
As our collaboration with the Government of Nepal continues to increase our work becomes easier to do as the levels of red tape are decreased.

At NGN we are very proud of the progress we have made working in child protection in Nepal. The statistics below outline clearly what we have been able to accomplish. NGN has also accomplished things that can not be measured so easily.

NGN has been one of the international leaders in spreading the word about voluntourism, and its role in supporting child trafficking globally.

Statistics cover the period from February 2007 -to January 2019

433 missions have been organized in 36 districts of Nepal. These included family tracing, re connections, reintegration, reunifications, and monitoring.
Found the families of 613 displaced children and reconnected them through facilitated communication.
506 trafficked and displaced children have been reconnectedd with their families.
23 working relationships have been created between NGN and other I/NGOs through which we have helped to reconnect and reunify children.
54 civil society organizations, government bodies or individuals have been trained and/or technically advised in our methodology and approach
33 youth have been supported through some or all of the following: support towards educational fees and material support at SLC, +2, diplomas or Bachelor level; as well as one-to-one mentoring, shelter, food, medical costs and leisure costs.

At least 6 diplomatic missions in Nepal have changed their travel advice to warn against orphanage voluntourism as a result of NGN advocacy.
65 talks and events have been delivered to spread awareness of the dangers of orphanage voluntourism and our advocacy work has been covered in 105 media reports.
11 child-friendly spaces supporting 1,418 children have been established following the 2015 earthquake to protect the children against trafficking.
81,612 vehicles have been stopped and searched in earthquake affected areas, out of which 132 ‘at risk’ children have been intercepted and protected.
Over 81,125 families have been reached in earthquake affected areas to warn them about the dangers of trafficking and the importance of family preservation.