What Kids Experience – Life in the Safe Home
Compared to where our kids come from, there is no substitute for a stable, loving environment that feels like a home. It’s the single most important part of what we’re doing in Nepal.
The kids are cared for by two house parents who live on site, 24 hours a day. It’s their home too. (Visit staff page to meet them). Here’s a quick rundown of what your support makes possible for kids in the WPC safe home:
- Community and Friends – Kids make friends with their new housemates, and form bonds that will last a lifetime. It’s safe, accepting of anyone, and completely free of caste divisions, which shocks kids who’ve been subjected to the abuse and discrimination of that system.
- Healthy, Consistent Meals – All kids eat together. And they eat good food prepared by the safe home staff. Nepali food is fairly predictable. Spicy seasoned chicken, lentils, rice, salty chips, and various vegetable curries – these are the staples, and we make big portions so every child always gets plenty.
- Filtered Water – Water in Nepal is generally not safe. The safe home has a filtration system that ensures our kids drink only clean and healthy water.
- Daily Needs Met – The house parents oversee the food, laundry, and cleanliness of the safe home. They make it a home, rather than a facility. This is not a sterile place run by box-checking bureaucrats and detached social workers. It’s a home run by loving parents.
- 3 Kids per Bedroom – We opened our brand new 5-story safe home – fully funded – in February of 2018. It has 18 bedrooms, and three girls sleep comfortably in each room. Since we have just a few boys, they sleep at a different location. There are no bedrooms on the first floor, and there’s a warden who makes sure the girls are safe and secure at all times.
- Education at Local School – All our kids attend a local private school, paid for by your support. No schools in Nepal are free, and none of our kids could afford to go to school on their own. They also receive additional tutoring from a private tutor who works at the safe home both morning and afternoon, 6 days a week. We offer this because excelling in education is the key to their success after they complete school and leave the home as adults.
- Special Counseling – Kids who’ve suffered trauma in Nepal will need help processing it eventually. But healing takes time, and we don’t push them before they’re ready with scary one-on-one sessions. That’s not how things are done in Nepal. When appropriate though, we do group therapy sessions, which can take on a variety of forms, including dance therapy.
Get a peek inside the safe home and hear from the girls.