Photo Courtesy: Navaraj Kharel The Disabled and Helpless Children’s New Life Centre is a non-profit and non-government organization established in 2010 AD by 7 member committee, mainly focusing on the disabled and handicapped children. Currently, the DHC New Life Centre Nepal is home to 20 children, with a ratio of 70% children who have disability and 30% children who are normal. [caption id="attachment_3941" align="aligncenter" width="768"] DWIT Team Members with DHC Children
Photo Courtesy: Navaraj Kharel[/caption] Among the 7 member committee, the DWIT News team got the special privilege to interview Mr. Amrit Pudasainee, the Chairperson and caretaker of DHC New Life Centre Nepal. Mr. Pudasainee strongly believes that “The Care House should be the last option for any children.” Let’s read more of his thoughts. What is the main objective of this organization? The main objective of this organization is to help differently abled children, and those children from situation of severe poverty, in other words, those children whose family is either unable to provide the basic requirements of food and clothing, or those children who have been deserted by their parents. This organization provides such children, a friendly and loving home environment with facilities of education, health care and sessions for the development of life skills necessary to assist them to become self confident, self-reliant and independent adults. One of our aims at DHC New Life is also to teach the children independent life skills so that they can look after themselves when they eventually move from the Care House into independent living. What inspired you to start this organization? In 2005, I got an opportunity to visit Rasuwa, Dhading, Sindhupalchowk and many other remote areas in the course of my work. During my visit, I realized that the situation of the disabled and handicapped children in some of those areas wasn’t good. I saw many disabled and handicapped children who lacked a homely environment and good care from the parents. However, I do not mean to say that the parents are irresponsible. They are just compelled to go to their jobs for survival. Furthermore, I also saw that many of the children were deprived of good education as they had to walk for three to four hours to reach school, which in case of handicapped children was worse a situation. This inspired me to establish this organization to provide those children a caring home with good education, health care and many more other facilities to develop their abilities and help them to integrate into the mainstream society. Can you tell us a little bit about your background? I completed Masters in Sociology from Pashupati Multiple Campus .At present, I am studying LLB (Bachelor of Laws) from Nepal Law Campus. From 2006 to 2010, I also worked in a handicapped children organization to gain experience and knowledge to establish my own organization. Can you tell us about the education of the children of this organization? Considering education as the highest priority, the children are enrolled at East-Pole Higher Secondary School. It is very important for these children to attend a proper school where they can study and socialize with other students from wide cross section of Nepal. This not only provides children with opportunity to learn, but also assists them in changing attitudes of the society towards those who have disability and are disadvantaged. After S.L.C, they are free to join the college of their choice which provides the courses which they want to undertake. How do you provide emotional support to the children? Sometimes, we send our children to self-training courses associated with SOS. I also take some of the outdoor counseling classes for the disabled and handicapped children and share my experience and knowledge with them. As we have small number of children, we can easily give our time and talk with them face to face. So, we have not faced any problem in the emotional part yet. How do you help the children who are living in Humla, Jumla and other remote areas? How do you reach them? There are organizations that help us to reach the children in those areas. Bal Kalyan Samiti has its offices in every district and from the applications they have got, they refer and inform us. Likewise, there is APANGA BAL HOSPITAL in Banepa which conducts health camps in many remote areas and provide pre-treatments to those children who are physically disabled. From them, we get recommendations. What kinds of programs or activities are held for the children in this organization? All the children go to school in the weekdays. As for the long holidays, we go for picnics, temple visits and educational tours. For the holidays like Saturday, they are free to do whatever they want like watching TV, playing with each other and so on. How does this organization run? This organization mainly runs on donations. When I was in Rasuwa, I got a chance to meet Rose Falconer from New Zealand and Sue Driscoll from Australia. With their suggestion, advice and help, I was able to start and run this organization.  Also, one of the US organizations, The Rose International Fund for Children (TRIFG), helps us with our educational part. What is your future plans regarding this organization? I am thinking of expanding this organization. So, construction of a building is being held. If there is a possibility, I am also thinking of establishing a school for the children nearby and hiring new people for taking care of the children. At last, how can we help you? There are many ways to help us. If you have books which you don’t need then you can donate it to us or rather help us to build a library. Similarly, if you have unused computers then you can give it to us and help us create a computer lab. You can also help us by teaching our children some of the subjects which they have difficulty in.