Our partnership with Next Generation Nepal

Over 85% of children living in “orphanages” in Nepal have living parents. Orphanage trafficking began during Nepal’s 10-year civil conflict during which children displaced from their families were placed by traffickers in exploitative institutional care. Traffickers take advantage of the aspirations and vulnerability of rural families who want their children to have a good education by promising parents that their children will be well cared for. For-profit orphanages are a lucrative business model, financially supported by well-intentioned foreign volunteers and donors who are touched by the tragic stories traffickers tell about the children. The lockdowns which followed the outbreak of the global pandemic put immense economic stress on the whole country. In rural communities, many families were unable to meet their basic needs, making them even more vulnerable to exploitation as they struggled to feed their children.

One Day’s Wages partnered with Next Generation Nepal (NGN) to provide emergency support to 56 families with children who had been rescued from exploitative orphanages. As economic hardship pushed these families into deeper vulnerability, the risk of further exploitation was heightened. NGN intervened in ongoing support of these families with both food relief packages and hygiene kits. The food relief packages sustained families for 2 months, containing rice, lentils, noodles, eggs, biscuits, legumes, vegetables, oil, and spices. The hygiene kits distributed contained masks, hand sanitizer, soap, and detergent powder.