NEPAL YOUTH FOUNDATION

Nepal Youth Foundation’s goal is to provide opportunities to children in Nepal through a holistic approach, which includes what is every child’s birthright: education, health, shelter, and freedom.

Every day, NYF provides interventions that saves the lives of malnourished children; scholarships that offer opportunities to bright, impoverished youth; support that empowers young women who spent their childhoods in servitude; safe, healthy homes for children, and so much more.

Our strategy is holistic and our programs are varied and interconnected.

We take seriously the trust that a dependent child places in us, and we take a highly personal and holistic approach to the children and families we serve, even when that takes more time and energy. We ensure that we have the necessary financial and logistical stability before we support children who will depend on us. We will not abandon these children once they enter our fold.

Likewise, we ensure that we have sufficient logistical and financial support in launching programs before making promises to Nepalese communities. Since we cannot do everything, we do thoroughly what we can do – whether a small act or a major program – from inception to completion and follow-up.

We manage NYF’s growth carefully, developing programs in the context of local need, potential, and participation – not in terms of organizational ambition. We favor “slow but sure” growth that involves Nepali communities and organizations. We do so because we deeply admire and respect Nepalese culture and society, and strive to promote them in the children.

At the same time, we value our nimble ability to cut through red tape and act quickly – and strategically – exactly when needed. We prioritize interventions that can make significant, enduring improvements in children’s lives. For this reason we emphasize education and vocational training, as they provide opportunities for children and young adults to leverage what they've learned into lucrative careers in Nepal’s workforce, allowing them to build brighter futures for themselves, their families, and their communities

We creatively “bundle” our interventions with sustainability measures. For instance, when we restore a child with malnourishment back to health, we also teach their caregiver(s) how to prepare locally available foods to prevent future malnourishment. We also train caregiver(s) to share this valuable information with other families back at their villages.

The Nepal Youth Foundation's US headquarters is based in San Francisco, CA, while the Nepal headquarters are located in Kathmandu. Programs are implemented through a close partnership with NYF-Nepal, an autonomous Nepali NGO with local Board leadership. Chapters based in the UK, Hong Kong, and Germany help increase local awareness of the issues facing children and youth in Nepal, while raising funds to support NYF's work.

NYF invests entirely in local, Nepali staff and leadership. We are proud that there are no expatriates on the in-country staff of either the locally-based NGO nor the INGO.

As a locally-led NGO embedded in Nepal, NYF is the antithesis of the many "drop-in" international organizations that build a project that's not sustainable in the long term. When we launch new programs in response to identified needs, our commitment is to exit in a strategic manner that recognizes the impact on the lives of those we serve. Our goal is always to assist the beneficiaries of a program or project to maintain the benefits as we exit.

Being locally led and with over a 30-year record of integrity, NYF’s in-country leadership has strong relationships, well-earned credibility, and the ability to navigate bureaucracy and shifting political environments.

Our long-standing partnership between US resources and the local Nepali leadership integrates the strengths of each. NYF's programs are culturally appropriate and embraced by the communities we serve because they embody Nepali values and principals - not Western values being imposed from the outside. The President of the International NGO, Som Paneru (a prior NYF beneficiary), is Nepali and works directly with the US Board.

Our Empowering Freed Kamlari program is a great example of NYF's capabilities. After rescuing almost 13,000 young women and girls from servitude and pressuring the government to abolish the practice, NYF established an organization led by the young women themselves to advocate for their rights (Freed Kamlari Development Forum). We funded the establishment of over 40 local co-operatives that provide micro-loans—creating economic capacity and repositioning these formerly indentured and unvalued girls as small business owners and leaders in their communities.

Similarly, our Nutrition Program is succeeding on a national scale in partnership with the Nepali government. To date, we've transferred 15 Nutrition Rehabilitation Homes as planned to the government.

2018 marked the 5 year anniversary since the Nepali Government officially abolished the Kamlari System, a development in NYF's campaign to end this form of child servitude. Since first tackling this generations-old practice in 2000, NYF has rescued and empowered almost 13,000 girls and created economic opportunities to prevent the illegal continuation of the practice.

Our nutrition program, which started in 1998 to save severely malnourished children discharged prematurely from hospitals in Kathmandu, is succeeding on a national scale in partnership with the government of Nepal. The 17 Nutritional Rehabilitation Homes (NRH) we've built have saved over 15,000 malnourished children. We're proud of our NRH model where we transfer the operations to the government over the course of five years. Fifteen of the 17 have been handed over to date and NRH-17 is in its second year of operations. Our first flagship NRH remains our permanent treatment, training, and monitoring center.

For more than 20 years, J House for boys and K House for girls, have long provided a sanctuary for some of the most desperately needy children in Nepal. The finished construction of NYF's permanent Olgapuri Children’s Village in 2016 is truly a dream come true-providing a reliable social safety net, and a secure, home-like environment for up to 80 children each year. Our Kinship Care program keeps an additional 400 children with their own relatives each year -- especially important in Nepal where family is one of the highest values.

NYF scholarships enable children and youth from extremely poor families and very marginalized communities to attend school and even university, where they previously may have become child laborers, homeless, or worse. Over 50% of these scholarships are supporting girls in a country where they still lag well behind. In fiscal year 2018, 80% of NYF scholarship recipients passed the higher secondary exam, a tremendous success in the context of the 45% countrywide average.

Our vocational training program addresses the systemic problem of unemployment in Nepal, helping to break the cycle of poverty and creating lasting change for generations to come. In fiscal year 2018, 91% of graduates from the new Olgapuri Vocational School secured employment by the end of June 2018.

Our New Life Center program provides treatment for annually for approximately 70 children and their mothers living with HIV/AIDS, one of the most stigmatized diseases in Nepal.

NYF’s Ankur Counseling Center, the first children’s mental health program in Nepal, intersects with our other programs to help youth heal from abandonment, neglect, and stigma. For over a decade, NYF has provided traumatized youth with the support they need to turn a life of unimaginable hardship into one filled with hope and opportunity.

What's next: meeting ongoing commitments while strategically assessing new and expanded program areas to address the vast needs of impoverished Nepali people.