Education for Children of Migrants Workers – Nepal

EVERY CHILD DESERVES EDUCATION

Classroom of Nepalese children in a village of Nepal

Every year, many Nepalese children have to leave school and to stop their education due to the poor economic situation of their family. Our project of education campaign has been developed for educational support targeting the children of deceased, injured and missing migrant workers. Indeed, to face the problem of poverty, many family fathers are going in a foreign country to find a job, and to send their salary to their family in Nepal. Thanks to this amount of money, children can continue their education at school. In Nepal, a large part of the schools are private schools, and the public system is totally underfunded in relation to needs. Consequently, the fees to have the access to education and to provide school supplies represent a lot of money for those families living in poverty.

However, even if foreign employment has become an integral avenue of various opportunities for many Nepalese migrant workers from last few decades, the phenomenon of labor migration generates also terrible consequences, for both the migrant and his family.

Every year around 1200 to 1500 Nepalese migrant workers have been reported DEAD, more than 50,000 returned back home being handicapped and with severe health problems and more than 200 Nepalese migrant workers have undergone missing in Gulf countries and Malaysia due to unfavorable working conditions, inhuman behavior. These types of tragic incidents affect the families of migrant workers with a decline in the quality of life. The children of those migrant workers are forced to discontinue their education due to lack of money.

According to data from the last census, the literacy rate of the population was ONLY 53.7%. This rate is much higher among boys than girls and also higher in urban than in rural areas. However, most of the migrant workers children are living in rural areas.

Children of migrant workers, playing at school.

The Center for Migration and International Relations has already helped many children, but we need your help to continue the project.

Dichan Mahato is 6 years old. He is studying at Shree Nawajagaran Higher Primary School. Giriraj Mahato, his father, died in Malaysia as a migrant worker in the year 2015.

It had been only a year since Mahato went to Malaysia, where he would draw RM 900 per month ( approx. Rs. 25,000). He used to save all his earning and send money home. He was the only source of income for the family. But after 8 months in May 31, 2015, he had a heart attack which led to his death. He was 32 years.

The family lost their sole breadwinner so their economic condition started falling down. Now the family is running from the compensation provided by FEPB and Giriraj’s insurance money that will soon run out.

Amista and her family

Asmita Gharti is studying in grade 7 at Shree Janata Higher Secondary School. While he was a migrant worker in Malaysia, her father suffered from health complications.
Khem Bahadur Gharti Magar, Asmita’s father went to Malaysia in 2011 for foreign employment. He used to regularly send his earnings back home. But in 2014, he met an accident. The accident made him paralyzed. He returned back to Kathmandu after one month.

Amista’s father, paralyzed.

The medical expenses of Khem Bahadur, daily household expenses, and the education of children - the family is having an extremely difficult time . Farming is the one source of income to fulfill all the needs which is not sufficient at all.

Samir (small boy in bleu).


Samir Pakhrin is 8 years old, he is a third grader at Bal Ujjwal Secondary School. Subba Pakhrin, Samir’s father, died in 2014 while he was a migrant worker in Saudi Arabia.
Subba had gone to Saudi Arabia in 2013 for foreign employment. There he sent money home from his earnings as a heavy truck driver. The family expense was running smoothly until they heard about Subba’s death from heart attack in 2014. The heart attack occurred while he was sleeping.
Subba could only send money for one year. Later, Kumari Maya Thing, Samir’s mother, married another man and abandoned Samir and his two brothers. Samir’s seventy-two-year-old grandmother has been taking care of the boys. Samir’s grandmother, who has no any source of income, is having difficult time to support the boys' education.

Even if we already helped children, many of them are still living in poverty and need your help to go to school.