Why help Nepal’s Children?

There are many of them: 39% of the population is under 15 and the population of Nepal has grown from 13.5 million to 27.1 million in the last thirty years.

They do not get enough to eat: 48% of children under 5 in Nepal are underweight for their age and 1 in 4 live on less than $1 per day.

They rarely or never see a doctor: there are 5,000 people per doctor in Nepal (compared to 588 people per doctor in HK) and 84% of children live in rural areas, including many remote mountainous regions, with no nearby medical help.

Most will receive little or no education: 49% will never learn to read and write.

Many infants die before they reach one month: That is 30,000 children dying each year during their first month of life.

Many infants grow up without their mother: Despite recent improvements, the maternal mortality rate remains unacceptably high in Nepal. 1 in 31 women will die from problems associated with pregnancy and childbirth complications as compared to 1 in 8,200 for women in the UK or even the average for other developing countries which is 1 in 75 women.

Many children die before they reach their fifth birthday: although Nepal is making great progress in reducing child mortality, almost 1 in 15 children die before they reach five.

Many will experience abusive child labour: an estimated 15,000 girls are trafficked into the sex trade each year.

Those that survive often face other dangers as they grow up: life on the streets in the fast growing cities, an ignorance of the dangers of HIV/AIDs and smoking (49% of Nepalese men are smokers).

CWS is empowering the Nepalese people to change the lives of their most deprived children.