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 There
are five thousand street children in Nepal. In Kathmandu,
these children are hopelessly addicted to the streets. They
are addicted to the freedom that it offers, and the companionship
of their friends. They quickly start sniffing glue to stave
of cold, hunger, and loneliness, but soon get into other drugs
like Heroin. They are addicted to the chance for big money
from tourists. Every week, or every month, they or one of
their friends hits it big when a kind tourist gives them brand
new clothes, or big money, which triggers a chemical reaction
in their brain that is akin the physiological addiction of
gambling. They start out manipulating tourists for a living,
but quickly get sucked into selling drugs. They are tightly
controlled by bosses, who beat them up, steal from them, and
manipulate them, and police who throw them into jail and beat
them. They are the scorn of society, and are looked down on
from all sides. They have no future. Many are sexually abused
by tourists, and nearly all end up with HIV. They die young,
alone in madness, sickness, and despair on the streets. This
is not an exaggerated picture. It is the norm.
Because of all this, there are many organizations that work
with street kids. They are very visible on the streets, and
certainly make themselves known to foreigners. Compassionate
groups from all over the world pour resources into street
children. It is very important work, but it is very difficult,
and the rate of success is very low. Many times, these organizations
end up simply providing all the physical needs of the street
children (food, clothes, sometime companionship, and shelter
when it is needed), and protecting them from realizing the
fact that they need to leave the streets.
The problem is that they won’t leave the streets. If
you put a street kid into a home, he will run away. If you
put a street kid into school, he will run away. The life on
the streets combines many of the most serious, impossible
addictions of mankind and bestows them on children who completely
lack any discipline or motivation for self-betterment. This
is a very serious, very difficult problem, and much prayer
and guidance is needed for all the organizations that are
working hard to fix it.
Tiny Hands Nepal is committed to fighting this problem in
the most efficient and effective manner possible. It takes
years and years of consistent effort to help a street kid
change; it takes a miracle. But it takes almost nothing to
change a kid on the street before he becomes a street kid.
It just takes love, which they are desperately waiting for
already. When a child is first on the streets, he is scared,
alone, and looking for somebody to help them. That somebody
will either be the numbing drugs of the streets, or someone
who intervenes and provides for him.
Our goal is to find every street kid that arrives on the
streets of Kathmandu within two weeks. The first thing that
we do to accomplish this is to simply walk the streets. We
send someone every day to all the areas that where there are
street kids, looking for new faces, talking to the existing
children, and doing what we can to spot new street kids. We
also distribute pamphlets to street salesmen, bus drivers,
and even street children, telling them to keep an eye out
for new street kids, and to call our child helpline if they
find one. We will immediately send someone over to pick them
up, and bring them to our office, where we will provide an
evaluation to learn about and understand their situation.
If at all possible, we will send them home, either to parents,
or even an aunt, uncle, sister, brother, or friend that they
can stay with. If none of these options is available, Tiny
Hands Nepal will help find a children’s home where they
can stay.
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