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. Children in these orphanages endure poor living conditions and both physical and mental abuse. Without rescue, children in these homes would have been further trafficking into commercial sex work or exploitative labor as they got older.

One Day’s Wages partnered with Next Generation Nepal (NGN) to rescue children who were trafficked to illegal and abusive “orphanages.” Rescued children temporarily resided in NGN’s transit home while the staff identified their families, which sometimes took months. All rescued children received appropriate health care, trauma therapy, and education until they could be sustainably reunified with their families. Reintegration with their families only took place once it had been determined by NGN’s reintegration officers that the child would be safe and cared for. NGN also collaborated with local governments and police to help take part in the monitoring of local returned children, with the goal of keeping them safe for the long term.