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CWIN Educational Support

INTRODUCTION

Poverty, underdevelopment, mass illiteracy, ignorance, rural backwardness and conservatism cause a majority of children in Nepali to be deprived of their basic rights to education. Nepal has a tremendous magnitude of child labour with 2.6 Million engaged in the labour force in the organized sector for their own and family subsistence being unable to pursue education. Various other social problems such as child marriage, girl trafficking, bonded labour system, discrimination against girl child, etc. leads towards the undermining of children’s right to education. A decade long armed conflict too has contributed in further deprivation of children from the education. Similarly ineffective educational policy, lack of strategic planning and investment in child education sector, absence of proper applicable and alternative education system and high rate of unemployment among people all contribute towards the low rate of school enrollment and retention in education. Children of migrant families, migrated child labours, street children, children from slum and squatter settlements, orphaned, abandoned and destitute children, who are an integral part of Nepal, are amongst the most deprived group towards an access to education.

In this scenario, CWIN has been trying to ensure the education rights of the most deprived children from the risk areas like street children, child workers, conflict affected children and other underprivileged children. Under the CWIN Education Support Program, CWIN has been providing education support to around 5 thousand children annually. Education Support is both immediate and long-term approach for the socialization and rehabilitation of children at risk.

OBJECTIVES

General Objective

The general objective of this program is to be committed to the cause of establishing the right to education for child workers and children living and working at difficult circumstances, and ensures them the opportunity to enjoy their childhood through education and awareness opportunities.

Specific Objectives

  • Provide educational support through scholarships and educational materials to children in need and at risk
  • Provide education and awareness opportunities to the community focusing the children at risk by means of literacy and social concientisation activities.
  • Motivate the communities and concerned sectors to create a healthy environment for the children to grow up with their full potential and protect the children and adolescents in their milieu from abuse and exploitation.
  • Carry out advocacy and awareness campaigns and provide advice, suggestions and pressures to the concerned authorities for the formulation and implementation of proper plans of action in the field of children’s education in Nepal.

FOCUS GROUPS

The followings are the target groups of the Education Support Program of CWIN:

  • Children of low income families in slums and squatters.
  • Street and homeless children
  • Conflict affected children
  • Orphans and abandoned children
  • Rural poor children
  • Children of oppressed castes, ethnic minorities and backward communities
  • School-age children working in risky and dangerous circumstances
  • Bonded children and children in servitude
  • Children with disabilities

APPROACH

Parental awareness

One of the major approaches of CWIN Education Support Program is to aware the parents of the children regarding the importance of education in the human life and their role to provide quality education to the children. Through this approach CWIN encourages for the role and contribution of guardians/parents for the children’s education. In this way, CWIN and guardians jointly make effort to ensure the education rights of the children.

Local Resource Mobilization

Local resource mobilization is another approach of the CWIN Education Support Program. Under this approach, CWIN creates awareness on the social responsibility of the people and institutions to provide support to the underprivileged children especially for their right to education. There are number of cases that children have been studying with the support of schools being realized with the background and situation of the children. Further more, CWIN has established a Basket Fund Initiative to collect the contributions from the well off families/ people so that the resources may reach to the needy ones through the CWIN’s program. .

MAJOR ACTIVITIES

  • Organisse awareness and advocacy campaigns on educational rights of underprivileged children and children at risk.
  • Educational Support for schools integration: School integration is one of the major activities of
  • CWIN Educational Support Program. Under this program CWIN provides educational support in two categories. The first category is partial support which provides support only for the school enrollment and educational materials to the children. The second category of full scholarship/ sponsorship support to the children provides full sponsorship/scholarship to children at risk who have no parental support and need full fledged support such as residential support, school enrollment, educational materials and other emergency support such as medical support.
  • CWIN takes total responsibility of these children from its hostel.
  • In whole process of the program, local recourses are mobilized. In this regards the participation of schools and guardians is sought. From 2006, CWIN has introduced the basket fund program to mobilize the local resources to ensure the education of the children at risk.

SELECTION PROCESS

Though all the children from the above mentioned focus groups are eligible to get educational support from CWIN, the number depends solely on the availability of resources. For the selection of children, CWIN has set a selection criteria and process so that most needy children may get the priority and opportunity. Accordingly in the constituent communities, the already established selection committee comprised of community based organizations, child clubs and youth clubs make recommendations of the children. CWIN’s front line programs like Helplines, Transit Centers, Contact Center, and Community Conscientization Program also recommend the name of the children. In addition, the guardians of the children and children themselves directly contact CWIN for the support. Collecting all the names of the children, the program team finalizes the name list after verifying and studying of the cases. The verification and prioritization of the names of the children is carried out with the help of the field workers of the respective programs.

FUND

Fund for the education support comes from various fundraising initiatives from ‘Friends of CWIN’ groups and donations from groups and individuals.

PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT

The Programme is run with a steering committee of CWIN team which consist of Executive Coordinator, Programme Coordinator, Programme Officer and Finance Officer.

Programme Coordinator and Programme Officer are responsible for carrying out advocacy and awareness activities on educational rights of underprivileged children and children at risk situations. They coordinate and collaborate with various stakeholders including the national networks and Ministry of Education.

Field work is carried out for enrollment of children in schools, for follow-up of students in various schools and for family contacts of the children. Regular meetings are carried out with school authorities, school teachers and parents to ensure retention and provide needed support to children. CWIN field workers stationed in various 10 districts also assist in this process.

Children’s meetings are organized to keep track of their development and progress and listen to their issues and problems. A children’s forum is also created by children receiving educational support from CWIN- where they share their feelings, empower their peers and also participate in raising awareness about importance of education among underprivileged children and their families.

YOU CAN BE A PART OF IT

  • Your small grant can ensure a bright future of a child.
  • Cost for First Category (School enrollment and educational materials): NRs. 5000 (US$ 70) per child per year
  • Cost for Second Category (Full Sponsorship/Scholarship including residential care): NRs. 5400 (US$ 760) per year per child (NRs 4500 per child per month)
  • You can contribute through cash, travel check and through bank transfer. CWIN has a dedicated bank account number for CWIN Educational Support Programme.
  • Bank Account number: 0110013969001, Nabil Bank Ltd., Kantipath, Kathmandu.

For further details:

CWIN-Nepal

Phone : 977-01-4282255, 4278064,4274503

Rabibhawan, Kathmandu

P.O.Box No. 4373 Kathmandu

Email: cwin@mos.com.np

URL: www.cwin.org.np

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