United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative showcase Street Child COVID-19 response in Nepal — Street Child

MNM is 75% funded by the UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) who in 2018 selected it as one of 17 grantees, from over 1,000 applications, for the ‘Leave No Girl Behind’ funding window of its wider ‘Girls’ Education Challenge’ initiative. FCDO awarded the project an exceptional A+ grading in its most recent annual review. 

Street Child is also running a parallel programme, ‘Breaking the Bonds’ (BTB), focussed on Musahar girls, with a more overt emphasis on breaking cycles of debt-bondage amongst Musahars through a similar combination of inter-locking education, social and livelihood initiatives. BTB is also 75% funded by FCDO, who in mid-2020 made an additional £200,000 grant specifically to scale and deepen the team’s COVID-19 response in Province 2 of Nepal.

Both MNM and BTB are delivered by a consortium of outstanding national partners, under Street Child’s programmatic leadership and overall design. The education components are led by Aasaman Nepal, a leading national NGO. Livelihood components are led by The Group of Helping Hands (SAHAS) whose unbroken partnership with Street Child dates back to the 2015 post-earthquake recovery programmes, Street Child’s first work in Nepal. Thirdly, the social components of the programmes are led by Janaki Women Awareness Society (JWAS), who have long-standing connections to the Musahar communities and first advocated to Street Child that we should consider the situation of the Musahars, introducing us to the community back in 2016.

Click here to read UNGEI’s report.

*** Street Child is urgently seeking continued donor support for our work with Musahar girls to continue, deepen and scale this essential and incredibly powerful work. ***