Book Donation at Child Watabaran Center Nepal (CWCN)
We visited Child Watabaran Center Nepal (CWCN) on December 15 and met with the program coordinator to gather information about their organization and what role Rotaract Club of Kantipur could play in helping them. CWCN run 5 major programs consisting of 2 childrenʼs homes ( boys & girls), a youth home for older boys (YOUBALAYA), a mobile health service and a gardening training center for income generating. All programs are centered on street children.
CWCN is providing lodging, food and non-formal education to 40 children in their facilities in addition to the 100s served through their out reach programs. Non-formal education is given to the children for two years. The curriculum covers class1 through 5 in this time period, after which the students matriculate into formal education. Street children have special issues and need to be handled in a careful loving manner before they can settle in a formal classroom environment.
It is generally assumed that poverty is the main reason for the growing number of street children, but we discovered through our visit that domestic conflicts are the number one reason for children to choose such a lonely helpless life. Uneducated parents and step parents through negligence and favoritism drive the children to escape to the streets, drugs and criminal activities.
Through our interaction it was decided that the best way for us to support CWCN was to donate books to their library. CWCN educational philosophy is child centered and they want to use the book both in the classroom and in their lending library. We contributed over 150 new storybooks in English and Nepali, concept books (ABCs etc), biographies, science, activity books and puzzles. All books were cataloged in a way that will allow the organization to keep growing and managing the library. This new concept will help them in their future plans, as they are opening a community school and library.
While teaching the children the proper use and care of the books we were surprised at how well behaved and how interested they were in seeing the bright and colorful books. Coming from the streets the children are not habituated to reading or studying, but they were very happy to learn how to turn the pages correctly without folding, to return them to the shelf in a proper manner and to share and read to each other. All the staff came to the demonstration and we feel that this donation will make a big impact on all members.
By Rotaract Parvati Bhatta
