INTRODUCTION

There are approximately one million orphaned, abandoned and displaced children in Nepal; many of who suffer daily due to armed conflict, displacement, poverty, natural disasters, and illness. Children left without the care and protection of parents, begin a downward spiral of suffering that often ends in addiction, violence, sexual exploitation or death. Global Family Village (GFV) exists to help disenfranchised children reach their full potential through family-centered, community based homes; to thrive and become productive members of their society.

Traditional institutionalized orphan care has long been identified as lacking in essential attributes for normal emotional, intellectual and social development. For healthy normal development children require a family unit of siblings and caregivers. They bond within a  “family” and require the interactions of a community to fully develop their social interaction skills. Global Family Village creates family-centered homes in supportive communities. Disenfranchised children are brought together as siblings in a nurturing family environment with trained caregiver “mothers” and surrogate community based “grandparents”.

Global Family Village homes emphasize family and community to provide a stable and lasting sense of inclusion. Long-term support of family homes is critical for the development of the children. Equally important is the full integration of the homes within the communities in which they are located. GFV provides early childhood education, mother training and dental and medical care within the community. In addition, houses are chosen so that they can accommodate community activities.

Instead of being housed in an institutional environment along with a large number of children and a few overworked, untrained village women, children from GFV-assisted orphanages will experience reliable and loving family relationships. The GFV concept will give orphaned children a happy, healthy childhood, with a family and within a supportive community.

Lasting social change will emerge from GFV’s work in two ways. First, the GFV approach is to create and/or transform several demonstration projects and to use those to spread the family village model broadly throughout the network of orphanages in Nepal. This means the majority of Nepal’s orphans will grow up with a family, a dramatic change from the current situation. Second, unlike orphans who age out in institutional orphanages, who are mistrustful and feel they have no family or community, GFV children grow up well-adjusted, with a sense of love and belonging, and become educated and productive members of society. GFV aims to shift the societal norm in Nepal, where orphans have low education, no inheritance, and very low social status.

Current Situation

• There are over 400 (registered) institutionally run orphanages and group homes in Nepal caring for the majority of the orphaned, abandoned, and displaced children. (There are many more unregistered.) In most homes, the caregivers are not trained to meet the special needs of these children. The children do not have the opportunity to form loving bonds with a parent or surrogate family figures.
• Due to a lack of stimulation and human interaction, many of the youngest children of the group homes suffer from a broad range of failure-to-thrive disorders, have severe attachment deficiencies and are developmentally delayed. They also suffer from a host of health problems and a relatively high mortality rate. Facilities throughout the country are often unsanitary and unsafe.¹
• A recent survey showed that the children living at these institutions weigh less and are shorter than other children their age living in a family-style orphanage.²
• Another study, Orphanages Stunt Mental Growth, proved that children living in, “institutional settings have significantly lower IQ’s”.³ "From infancy onward, these children are lacking the family-oriented care necessary for a healthy childhood and adult life..." says Dr. Pollak, of Wisconsin..." for humans, we need a lot of responsive care giving, an adult who recognizes our distinct cry, knows when we’re hungry or in pain, and gives us the opportunity to crawl around and handle different things, safely, when we’re ready.” ³

¹ New ERA Study Team, Study of Children in Children’s Homes in Nepal, Volume 1: Main Text, July, 2005.
² Independent (informal) study conducted by Anjana Rajbhandari as a thesis project designed to determine whether there was a difference in two groups of orphaned 12-year-old children – one group brought up in family units, the other brought up in institutional care, 2006.
³ Orphanages Stunt Mental Growth, a Study Finds, by Benedict Carey, December 21, 2007.