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Key figures
Location:
Nepal
Theme:
Health care , Street children
Net4kids project since:
2004
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Nepal: Mobile Health Service for Street Children

More than 5000 children in Kathmandu live on the street. Without shelter, food or an opportunity to attend school and often little knowledge of hygiene. The mobile health service operated by Child Watabaran Center Nepal (CWCN) seeks out these children, provides them with medical assistance and organises health camps where they are taught about health and hygiene.

Street children in Kathmandu are confronted with drugs, prostitution and theft. They often sleep under bridges that cross a polluted river in the city. They find their food in refuse dumps. They are frequently found with wounds that they have covered with mud to stop the bleeding or with wounds bandaged with dirty clothes or plastic. Ignorance about hygiene and the lack of access to medical care mean that these children run a great risk of contracting diseases such as scabies, diarrhoea, tuberculosis and HIV/Aids.

Contribution to Mobile Health Service 2012

Funds are used to operate the mobile health service: operating costs of the van, medical kits, salaries of the counselors and peer educators. Also, funds cover the organization of 3 health camps, street dramas and 3 awareness poster campagnes.

01 Jan 2012 - 31 Dec 2012: 1x 

Contribution to Mobile Health Service 2012

Funds are used to operate the mobile health service: operating costs of the van, medical kits, salaries of the counselors and peer educators. Also, funds cover the organization of 3 health camps, street dramas and 3 awareness poster campagnes.

01 Jan 2012 - 31 Dec 2012: 1x 

Contribution to Mobile Health Service 2011

Funds are used to operate the mobile health service: operating costs of the van, medical kits, salaries of the counselors and peer educators. Also, funds cover the organization of 3 health camps, street dramas and 3 awareness poster campagnes.

01 Jan 2011 - 31 Dec 2011: 1x 

Mobile Health Service 2010

Funds are used to operate the mobile health service: operating costs of the van, medical kits, salaries of the counselors and peer educators. Also, funds cover the organization of 3 health camps, street dramas and 3 awareness poster campagnes.

01 Jan 2010 - 31 Dec 2010: 1x 

Mobile Health Service 2009

Funds are used to operate the mobile health service: operating costs of the van, medical kits, salaries of the counselors and peer educators. Also, funds cover the organization of 3 health camps, street dramas and 3 awareness poster campagnes.

01 Jan 2009 - 31 Dec 2009: 1x 

Mobile Health Service 2008

Funds are used to operate the mobile health service: operating costs of the van, medical kits, salaries of the counselors and peer educators. Also, funds cover the organization of 3 health camps, 4 street dramas and 3 poster publications.

01 Jan 2008 - 31 Dec 2008: 1x 

The objective of this project is to improve the health of Nepalese street children by providing them with medical help and information about health and hygiene. Yet a very important secondary goal is to use this contact with health care workers to open the way to reintegration into society.
The CWCN mobile health service visits the street children of Kathmandu three times a week. A team of health care workers goes to places frequented by many street children such as bus stations and refuse dumps where they offer these children medical assistance and information. They encounter many children with wounds, broken bones and breathing problems caused by glue sniffing. The children are treated and provided with the medication they need. Health care workers also offer psychological support and try to get the children back on the right path. When necessary, children are provided with temporary shelter in the transit clinic or, for a longer period, in one of the shelters run by the CWCN foundation where they are offered education, shelter and a chance for a new life. What makes this project special is that it is run by former street children previously rescued by CWCN as well. This means that the children quickly develop the kind of trusting relationship they need to talk with the staff and move toward leaving street life behind.

CWCN also organises a health camp three times a year. At these camps, the street children are provided with information about the importance of hygiene and the dangers of HIV/Aids. Specialists teach the street children basic skills for healthy living. Each camp is attended by around 300 children. Poster campaigns are another way to raise awareness about the problems encountered by street children. The themes for these posters focus on HIV/Aids, drugs and the risks of child trafficking.

Donations made to this project are used for keeping the mobile health service in operation: purchasing medications as well as paying the salaries of health care workers and communications specialists. Donations are also used for setting up the health camps and the awareness-raising campaigns.

Child Watabaran Center Nepal (CWCN)

Child Watabaran Center Nepel (CWCN) is an NGO established in 2002, to work with the street children of Kathmandu providing them shelter, health care and education. This is the story of Tirtha Raj Rasaili, the founder of a children’s home in Nepal, and, but far most the story of the street children of Nepal. When you look at him, he is just an ordinary person. But if you hear what he has established, you know he is not. Tirtha Raj Rasaili was a radio reporter in Nepal when he saw the awful conditions of the street children in Nepal. He was convinced that there was a way of helping the street children turn their life into a positive direction. Tirtha turned this idea into practice in 2002 by offering street children a home, health care and education. The CWCN was born.

Net4kids cooperates with CWCN since 2004. The first supported project was the mobile health service, over the years support was extended to building a girls home, running costs for this home and a transit clinic for street children.