New Zealand
Nepal
Helping children with disabilities win their right to go to school
Only 2% of all disabled children in developing countries get an education. Many parents can’t afford to send all their children to school, so children with disabilities are usually overlooked.
In western Nepal, a rural isolated and conservative area, disability is seen as an act of ill fate which the family somehow deserves, bringing shame and embarrassment for the family. For this reason, children with disabilities are ignored, hidden at home or excluded from school. Low-caste children, especially low-caste girls, are also shut out of education. In the area where Save the Children works, low-caste Dalits make up 40% of the population, but very few children from this group go to school.
Save the Children’s project in western Nepal gives children with disabilities a platform to speak out about their right to an education. Children and young people with disabilities take an active role in the project, leading the way in changing attitudes and elevating the status of marginalised groups.
There are 3 projects within the Social Movement for Education Programme:
Listen to Us: A group of educated children and young people with disabilities are spreading the message that education is the key to a better future for all children. These ‘Pioneer Children’ hold community meetings and visit parents of disabled children, convincing them to send their children to school.
The Voice for Education: This project supports the parents of disabled children and children with disabilities who want to go to school but face a number of challenges, including the fact that schools are often ill-equipped to meet the needs of disabled children, and teachers lack training in how to integrate children with disabilities into the classroom. Save the Children has set up support groups so families can share and solve problems together, and advocate their right to an education with the strength of a group behind them.
Right to an Education: Save the Children is spreading the message amongst schools and community groups that children shouldn’t be discriminated against because of caste or gender. This project helps Dalit children, especially Dalit girls, and school enrolment has increased dramatically.
Seventeen-year-old Khim Bahadur lives in rural Nepal. He had polio as an infant but against the odds, he’s getting an education. Now he's campaigning for other disabled children to have this opportunity.
"When I was small I couldn't walk. I had to crawl on my hands and knees. In the beginning my parents carried me on their backs to an adult literacy class. They used to say: 'Your profession is education. There is no other work for you."
Later, I used to crawl to school, with one brother walking in front and the other behind. When I was about ten, my father carved me a stick and taught me how to use it to walk.
In my village there are 6 or 7 disabled children, but they're not in school and are shut out of education. I convinced 2 of them to go to school. I also organised a meeting in a nearby village. I shared with them how disabled children can unite and all get an education.
Disabled children often feel shy because of what others feel about them. If all disabled children are united, there's no shame. Before being involved in this project, I didn't like going outside my home into the village. Now my shyness has gone. I can speak and address big meetings.
In Nepal we say that if you provide light, you can understand the whole world. Education and ideas provide light. Save the Children encourages us to come up with ideas. With ideas, you can see the whole world."
Mobilising the community to fight against HIV/AIDS
The rise of HIV/AIDS in the Far West of Nepal has had a huge impact, particularly on women and children. HIV/AIDS infected children live with discrimination and are outcast by their community. Women who have lost their husbands to AIDS face loss of income and extreme poverty.
The 'Social Movement Against HIV/AIDS' programme aims to help people in three districts of Western Nepal understand the threat posed by the AIDS epidemic and to prepare and respond to it.
By recruiting and training local volunteers, Save the Children hopes to educate local communities about the dangers and myths of HIV and AIDS. Specifically, it aims to:
- Enlist large numbers of volunteers from all sections of local society
- Help the volunteers to engage with their peers in an exploration of the present and likely future impact of AIDS in their communities
- Help the volunteers encourage activities and plans amongst their peers so that communities adapt to the developing threats posed by AIDS
- Link the volunteers into a movement
Experience has shown that the programme is more successful if volunteers are recruited to work with their own peers. In this way they can slowly mobilise and energise whole communities. Children are actively involved as volunteers and are well respected by adult volunteers. By providing support to local community groups and encouraging all stakeholders to take part in the programme, Save the Children hopes that local people will develop a new understanding that community involvement can influence and affect change.