WHO WE ARE
This is our story
Nepal is an underdeveloped country. More than 21% of its citizens live under the poverty index. The Nepalese government has guaranteed the right to education as the fundamental rights of every citizen. Nevertheless, some communities in rural areas, parents cannot continue to send their children to school due to poverty and ask them to work instead. They are unable to allocate their earning for their children's education since there are other costs associated with education besides tuition fees and textbooks, such as stationery, uniforms, and other educational materials.
10-15% of girls drop-out from the lower Secondary to Secondary schools
Civic Independence Development (CID-Nepal) is a non- profit, non-political, non-governmental organization with the great aim of enabling equal education opportunities for girls having only 4.5% of its budget for administrative cost. The organization operates in Eastern, Morang district, to a marginalized area of Nepal. Due to poverty, a certain percentage of girls do not continue school as they have to support their parents for extra income. Because of this situation, it is likely that the girls will be headed towards an early marriage around the age of 14-17.
We recently learned that about 22% of the students did drop out at grade 11 in the same area. We went to schools to discuss with the registration officer in two different areas of the same municipality. We examined that more than one-fourth of students did discontinue school. If we have some extra resources, we could do the survey to investigate the cause of drop out. So far we do not have a resource.
Mr. Jeff Jenner, president of "my 100 percent" with the teachers of Devata Basic school, Patharghatta-2, Morang
WHAT WE DO
CID-Nepal provides educational scholarships for the 80-100 girls who attend government schools having a partnership with the Canadian NGO "My 100 percent". The money raised for the schoolgirls, cover for both educational material and hygiene kits. We make sure that these girls have an appropriate environment to study by purchasing solar light for households without electricity. We also encourage the girls to continue school by providing 2nd hand bicycles if they have to walk more than 20-30 minutes.
We also assist them with their health care. In case of illnesses, or if any sponsored girl needs a medical treatment that they cannot offer, we make sure that they obtain it. Recently, our partner organization "my 100 percent" raised more than 10,000$ to the treatment of leukemia of one of our sponsor students but unfortunately, we could not save her after the 3rd cycle of chemotherapy at Cancer hospital. it is a heartbroken experience although we tried our best. We miss her forever.
We share non-violence, a child-centered teaching methodology for the teachers. Traditionally, teaching methods in Nepal do not involve interactions between student and teacher, did not respect individuals to differentiate in learning ability. CID-Nepal tries to make learning a more enjoyable experience for the children. Our work concerns not only the children but also the community.
SMALL CHANGES WITH BIG DIFFERENCE
Dr. Arjun Mani Guragain, founding chair & Director of this organization, visited this community several times since February 2018. He discussed with 20 girls who were selected for sponsorship by Jhamtse Canada/InReach Nepal. He noticed many improvements. Girls who got regular support for their education materials perform academically better, They develop confidence, ambition a positive attitude towards their studies. As a result, the school drop out rate minimizes, child marriage drops down and girls from this society have an opportunity to get out of poverty through education.
The program has also a positive impact on the local people. Awareness raises among the community towards child marriage and perceptions slowly evolve.