After volunteering several weeks in the Access project “child care center” in Nepal  we, Sina Petersen and Anne Frühauf, were confronted with the depressing reality that the involved families, namely urban poor families, do not have the capabilities to finance a profound education and therefore better future for their children. Therefore, we felt the need of finding an organized and long-term possibility to do so. Thus we decided to found the Golden Youth Initiaive. Our aim is to find individual sponsors for each child and we hope that this sponsor might not only give financial support, but actually has a long-term and personal interest in the child’s life, his/her future and the community. We wish not only to find financial support for the children’s education but also to enable parents and community as a whole  improve their parental skill and knowledge, which we find of the utmost importance for a sustainable development.

Target Group and the Problems
 

Our target group a mainly children from the Access projects “child care center” and “transitional home”, but generally any children from urban poor families can be involved as they are all victims of exclusion and discrimination.
 

Most parents in urban poor families, themselves being illiterate and uneducated, have moved from villages to the capital” Kathmandu” in desperate hope for a better life for themselves and their children and especially in hope for work. Unfortunately, they have been confronted with the harsh realities of living in a congested urban area. Having not only troubles with finding a job, most employments would result in lower wages and labor exploitation whereas living expenses are comparatively high. 
 

This means that an urban poor family would typically rent one small room in a house with up to 15 other families. Here, security measures and hygienic conditions are very poor. Not only no filtered or pure drinking water is provided, but most rooms are dirty and therefore a fertile soil for bacteria and vermin. Besides, the construction of such houses has mostly never been finished. Therefore, stairs are not secured and electric cables as well as plugs are a unprotected representing huge danger, especially for children.
 

Financial problems and bad living conditions are not the only obstacles and burdens experienced by urban poor families. Most of them will suffer from a huge fear of losing one’s livelihood and therefore huge pressure as well as frustration.  This may result in any kind of addiction, psychological and family problems, abuse or violence within or outside the family.

From all, that children are the ones that suffer the most. Parents do not have the expenses to stay at home and look after their children or have someone paid to do so. Similarly, they mostly not afford to send their children to school. As a result, children will either be taken to the working site being confronted with danger or left unattended in their home. Here, they are an easy target for violence, abuse, bad influence as well as diseases and injuries.  Older children might even be forced to work themselves when not being sent to school. Moreover, children are victims of lacking care, neglect and frustration of their parents, which sometimes results in violent or abusive behavior towards them or other members of the family.

Objectives:
 

Following these experienced problems, we formulated our objectives hoping to relieve families from the burdens they are not capable to deal with.  Similarly, we try to enable them to increase their capacity on family management and parental care skill.
 

Providing finance for school education for children of urban poor families
 

This includes school fees, transport as well as school equipment and daytime meals until school leaving qualifications.

 

Empowering the Parents on Parental Skills and Knowledge
 

We aim to counsel parents in terms of hygiene, health, nutrition, security measures and protection skills from abuse and violence as well as life and parental skills so that they can learn an enabling and correct behavior towards their children. This objective does not only result in regular family visits, but also binds the parents with terms and condition (prohibition of use of violence towards the child, smoking in front of the child etc.) to be eligible to receive our services.

 

To achieve a long-term and sustainable improvement, we try to increase parental responsibility not only by educating them, but also by giving them certain responsibilities and tasks, .e.g. parents will be asked to open up a fund in their child’s name and transferring money to it regularly in order to ensure further education of their child if possible.

 

Providing Emergency Support
 

This could be medical or psychological support if needed.

Empowering the Children on Child Rights

 

Sponsor a child
 

We are happy for every person who is interested in supporting and sponsoring an individual child on a long-term basis. In the best case we wish that the sponsor also has a personal interest or maybe basic personal relation towards the child. Child sponsors would pay for the above mentioned objectives. Costs can vary regarding each case. As a rule of thumb 1 Euro per day can be estimated.  However, costs will generally increase with growing age and school year. Small amounts of the donated money will be given to Access administration for cooperating between sponsors and their child, as well as organization of family visits, counseling, empowerment programs and follow-ups.

 

Donations
 

In case you are not interested in sponsoring a specific child, we appreciate any amount of money that is donated. This money will be used for general assemblies  of involved families, stationeries, toys, basic equipment or maybe support of child care center or transitional home. If you wish that your donations should be given for a specific use, this can also be arranged.
 

Contact:
 

We are grateful for any kind of interest from any person. If you feel like some of your questions have not been answered, do not hesitate to contact us.

goldenyouthinitiative@gmail.com

For further information about the Golden Youth Initiative (only in German language), please visit http://golden-youth-initiative.tumblr.com