CEDAR is designed to exceed the typical notion of childcare in Nepal, by encouraging each child to develop as educated, social beings ready to address the challenges that life will pose them upon their reintegration into society.

The School for Deaf Children, Bhairahawa

Deaf children are severely marginalised within Nepal. Many are unfortunately disregarded by their impoverished families, deemed as a financial burden who will never be able to bring money into the family.

We have taken great strides to combat this, and help children and their families to overcome something which should never be an obstacle in the first place.

In addition to helping children to study at this excellent school in Bhairahawa (southwest Nepal), we have helped the school itself capacity build - to the extent that it is now able to offer students the opportunity to study in Class 12 and achieve their School Leaver's Certificate (SLC - roughly equivalent to GCSEs in the UK).

Furthermore, graduates from the school can learn a range of vocational skills once they have finished their formal education, through our Integrated Art Workshop programme.

What We Do - CEDAR
Child Education, Development And Reintegration Programme

CEDAR caters to the specific needs of a range of children whose lives have been blighted by Nepal’s chronic poverty.

Street children, the children of prisoners (who until our intervention were forced to live alongside their convicted relatives in putrid jails) and at-risk siblings of trafficking victims all enjoy compassionate yet structured residential refuge.

Education
Through formal and non-formal education programmes, each child is helped to find an academic route that best fits their needs. Many of the former street children display pronounced behavioural difficulties which mean they can find the classroom environment particularly challenging – but with gentle nurture and private tuition, many have now successfully completed non-formal education and are now enrolled in school.

We believe that wherever possible, children should be supported in finding hobbies that aid their rehabilitation and development – whether through sport, the arts or academic stimulation.

To complement this - with the support of the Body Shop Foundation - we have recently introduced The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award to children in our CEDAR programme.

Within the Award, children will have opportunities to experience new activities through its Service, Skills, Physical Recreation and Adventurous Journey categories.

Development
We also encourage the pursuit of social activities that enable the children to find happiness in whichever field suits them: for example, Bijay and Aman are now two of Nepal’s leading young gymnasts, while Bhejendra is a budding playwright who has already written and produced a play acted out by his peers last year.

Reintegration
Our approach is not so much about asking children to strive to be the absolute best as showing them how they can develop as people - in the sense that during their Service aspect of the DofE Award, for example, they cease to be beneficiaries and learn how to help other people themselves in the community and in the process become community leaders: something of key import upon their reintegration into society.

In a society as fragile as Nepal’s, young people with an education and social confidence will stand a good chance of remaining independent from the clutches of poverty and in the process break the cycles that led to their own miserable start in life.