STRATEGY
PLANNING TO BRING LASTING CHANGE
MountainChild has devised a strategic plan to expand our relational network throughout the Himalayas by implementing regional operating bases supported by numerous gateway projects for development work within our targeted villages of Nepal’s remote northern districts. These regional operating bases and gateway projects are the foundations for the Children’s Hope, remote schools, health posts, water projects, health and sanitation WASH programs, and various other community development projects. Through doing ethnographical worldview studies, we have been able to define and prioritize the needs found. MountainChild has developed plausible action plans aimed at administering aid, which creates lasting transformation for the people of the Himalayas through remote projects.
Anti-Trafficking
Human trafficking in the Himalayas remains a rampant injustice in the form of commercial sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude. 15,000 – 20,000 children, with an average age of 12 years old, are trafficked every year in Nepal. Trafficking of girls from Nepal to India for forced prostitution is perhaps one of the busiest slave trafficking routes anywhere in the world. Below is more information about what MountainChild is doing to fight human trafficking in Nepal in the areas of education, prevention, enforcement, recovery, skills training, and job creation.
Education / Prevention
Lack of education leaves children and families in remote regions of the Himalayas more at risk of human trafficking. Through our partnerships with local schools, MountainChild is working to bring education to parts of the Himalayas where it has never existed before. We are also educating villagers on the truths and dangers of human trafficking. Through these activities, we are helping educate and protect young children and prevent them from being exploited by human trafficking.
Enforcement / Legal Reform
Without appropriate laws or the enforcement of those laws, traffickers operate without the fear of being brought to justice. MountainChild is partnering with international lawyers and experts in the field to bring about legal reform in Nepal and bring traffickers to justice.
Recovery / Restoration
MountainChild runs a unique recovery program for women who have been rescued from trafficking. Our program uses art restoration class to lead the women through the process of recovery and healing.
Skills Training / Job Creation
We are also involved in helping rescued women develop vocational skills and find job opportunities to find success in their new life of freedom. We closely partner with an organization which provides job opportunities and a brighter future to women who have been rescued from trafficking.
Fostering National Partnerships
We understand that by joining hands with other like-minded organizations, we can accomplish more in our fight against trafficking in Nepal. MountainChild’s Anti-Trafficking Center (ATC) provides the meeting space for a network of 30 organizations that work together to fight trafficking in Nepal. Our ATC also provides a venue for training programs, collaboration, and joint activities to fight trafficking.
POVERTY ALLEVIATION DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS
Deep poverty affects every aspect of life for those living in the Himalayas of Nepal. These villagers have no access or very little access to health care. Every year 24,000 children born in Nepal die before the age of 5, mainly due to diarrhea from unclean drinking water. There are also very few schools in these areas. Children must often walk more than 7 days to reach the nearest school. The few schools that do exist are usually poorly staffed with few resources. Below is more information about the development work that MountainChild is doing amongst these people to end their cycle of suffering.
WASH Programs
WASH stands for WAter, Sanitation, & Hygiene. MountainChild is engaged in a number of WASH programs in various regions of the Himalayas. We are improving sanitation by building toilets where none exist. We are installing clean water systems in villages with no access to clean drinking water. We are also developing irrigation systems to bring water sources to villages and farms.
Health Training
MountainChild believes that building toilets and clean water systems is not enough. We are actively involved in training villagers on topics such as hygiene and sanitation in an effort to prevent sicknesses that lead to the staggering death rates.
Health Post
We are currently in the process of building a health post in a very remote area with no access to medical aid. Our health post will have a pharmacy and will provide inpatient, outpatient, and birthing services. This is a model that we hope to replicate in other parts of the Himalayas, as well.
Education
MountainChild is partnering with local schools to bring education where it has never existed before. Children in remote areas are now able to attend school and receive an education. This is a powerful way to bring lasting change.
Gateway Project
Through the implementation of Gateway Projects as part of our strategic plan, we are creating launching pads from which we carry out development projects in further remote villages and communities. A Gateway Project is also a community center in which we can build on existing relationships and forge new ones. It is part of our strategic plan to create Gateway Projects across northern Nepal, where we can provide a wide range of trainings, carry out development work, and foster relationships in an effort to impact the communities around the Gateway Projects and further into our targeted remote villages.
Vocational Training Center
Training and education are important tools in bringing lasting change to remote regions of the Himalayas. Most villagers are subsistence farmers, yet due to erosion and antiquated farming techniques, they experience a 40% annual crop loss. This often means that children need to begin working on the family farm as early as 5 years old in order to help their family survive. Training in modern farming techniques as well as vocational, and other types of training are desperately needed. Below is more information about how MountainChild is bringing training to remote regions to empower villagers to create a brighter future.
Vocational Training Center
MountainChild has a training center near Kathmandu in which people from remote regions can be trained with the knowledge and skills to return to their villages and become agents of change.
Agricultural Training
Students are trained in modern farming techniques which they can pass on to villagers to help them increase their crop yield, providing more food for their family and freeing up their children to receive an education.
Vocational Training
Students are also trained in vocational skills, management, and other areas, which they can use to further community development work in remote areas.
Mobile Training
For those that cannot make it to our Training Center, we go remote with our training each spring. We take our training to extremely remote areas to train those that are unable to make the journey to the city.
Education
MountainChild is partnering with local schools to bring education where it has never existed before. Children in remote areas are now able to attend school and receive an education. This is a powerful way to bring lasting change.
R.A.N.C.H
R.A.N.C.H. stands for Remote Areas of Nepal Children’s Hope and is a key component of our strategy. Through our R.A.N.C.H. program, we are raising up a new generation of young people from remote areas of the Himalayas to become carriers of hope to their own people. Below is more information about how MountainChild is carrying hope to Himalayan villages through our R.A.N.C.H. program.
Children’s Homes
As part of our R.A.N.C.H. program, we support children’s homes, which raise children who have been rescued from desperate situations in remote Himalayas villages.
Brighter Future
In the children’s homes, these children are safe from child labor, trafficking, and the cycle of suffering that comes from a lack of health care and education. These children not only have a brighter future, but they have a desire to create a brighter future for their own people. These children are the future generation that will bring lasting change to those living in desperate situations in the Himalayas.
R.A.N.C.H. Next Steps
The Next Steps program is for the children in our R.A.N.C.H. program that have graduated from school and wish to develop vocational skills to be used for the community development of the villages they come from. MountainChild is currently funding the higher education of students in fields such as medicine, education and management. These are future health post workers, teachers, and community leaders that will help lead villages into a brighter future.
