Case Studies

Veggie Mogar, age 7, came to the brick factory with her parents and younger sister from a village in Western Nepal.She helps her mother carry bricks in the mornings and evenings and comes to the CDP program in the daytime.She used to always come to CDP in the same old unclean dress, and when we asked her to wash her clothes, she said “But I have only this”.

When we gave out new jackets to the160 CDP-children, it was her first time everto weara new jacket.It was also the first time for 42other children.

Children Development Program

In Nepal, not every child is permitted the luxury of attending school. The children of brick factory workers, in particular, rarely are exposed to structured education but instead grow up around the hazards of the brick factory until they are old enough to join the work force, still as children. To address the need for education, the Children Development Program (CDP) was founded in 2006. CDO rented a building to house the “CDP-School”, and teachers and a cook were hired. In the years since, the initial student body of 30 children has grown to 160 children now in 2014. They are divided up into three classes,and the classes are supervised by four teachers. Since the work in the brick factories is seasonal (from December to May/June the following year), CDP school years occur during the work year. The children have a daily routine of hygiene, breakfast, lunch, indoor-outdoor games, a nap hour, academic education (reading, writing, basic arithmetic), extra curricular activities (art and painting, storytelling, dancing and singing), sometimes a picnic, and the viewing of educational cartoons.

The goasl of CDP are:

To provide a safe and clean environment for the healthy growth and development of children, which also helps their parents to increase their daily income, as they can work the whole day without having to look after their children
To provide nutritious food twice a day
To educate the children with on health awareness: This includes personal hygiene training, Proper hand washing, and tooth brushing (hopefully the children will bring these skills home and will teach their parents as well)
To educate the children on the ever-present dangers of human trafficking
To conduct regular health checkups, and provide medicine and follow-up counseling, if necessary
To provide moral education through video cartoons and the example of teachers
To provide basic academic education and prepare the children for the rigor of formal school according to their ages and abilities
And if children show particular academic prowess, we will enroll the children in a formal school when the CDP-program is completed. (CDO provides full scholarship.)