In Nepalese SathSath means ‘together’. The organisation has been working with children and youth living and working on the street in Nepal since 1998, and SathSath was formed around street educators who had spent many years of their life on the streets. That’s why the organisation focusses a lot on outreach work, and a reason why they already have an existing mobile school program in place which aims to bring non-formal education to the streets.
Estimations show there are over 5000 children living and working on the streets of Nepal. Due to the devastating consequences of the 2015 earthquake and the COVID-19 pandemic on the Nepalese economy, there is a high chance the number of children on the streets is even higher, although it’s hard to have a reliable estimate at this moment. Since Nepal is also a popular tourist destination, many street-connected children try to earn some money by selling small items near the major tourist attractions in the big cities, such as the world-famous Durbar Square in Kathmandu.
During the prospective visit, our trainers Sander Degeling and Anupriya Moitra conducted four basic workshops to learn more about the local context and to see if the StreetSmart tools could add value to the programs of the organisation. Our co-facilitator Anupriya joined us for the first time, as she currently is the Associate Director of our partner EkTara in Kolkata in India. This resulted in an inspiring exchange between our existing Indian partner, and our new potential Nepalese partner.
Besides conducting the workshops, the team also visited five potential target areas where the mobile school could be used in the future. The team of SathSath conducts outreach interventions in many places in the Nepalese capital, and some of them would be very suitable for outreach work with the mobile school. On the picture, a child is making a drawing in the sand on the banks of the Bagmati river near the Bansi Ghat squatter settlement. If a mobile school could be deployed here, the team of SathSath would have more resources to boost the self-esteem and develop the talents of the children in the area.
In total, a team of 9 street educators went through the workshops of the partnership prospection. In the coming weeks and months, both parties will continue the discussion to see if all the logistical needs can be met to start up the very first StreetSmart Wheels partnership in Nepal. If so, all arrangements will be made to implement the mobile school there in the first trimester of next year. Stay tuned for more updates on our potential project in Nepal through our website or our social media pages.
