NEPAL: NOMINATION FOR IQBQAL MASIH AWARD

UNCLAS KATHMANDU 001223 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ELAB EIND ETRD PHUM SOCI KTIP NP SUBJECT: NEPAL: NOMINATION FOR IQBQAL MASIH AWARD REF: SECSTATE 99123 ¶1. Post is pleased to nominate the organization "CWISH" for the United States Department of Labor's Iqbqal Masih Award for Elimination of Child Labor. Full Name of the organization: CWISH - Children and Women in Social Service and Human Rights Address: P.O. Box 21433, Chabhil, Kathmandu, Nepal E-mail: cwish@wlink.com.np Executive Summary -------------- ¶2. CWISH is a non-government organization in Nepal working to combat child servitude. Over the past fifteen years the organization has been waging an on-going and sometimes unpopular battle to stop the exploitation of children as domestic servants by the urban middle class. The organization works with a large number of mostly migrant children who are brought to Kathmandu to serve as domestic servants. Employers often entice parents in remote and poor communities by promising to educate their children in exchange for work. Too often this promise is never fulfilled. ¶3. By going door to door, building awareness and keeping the pressure on employers through constant visits, CWISH has been able to reach thousands of hidden children. To date the organization has offered protection and the chance for an education to over ten thousand children, and over the last decade their work has resulted in fewer and fewer young children being brought to Kathmandu for domestic work. For the children already in the work force, CWISH has worked diligently to ensure that employers send these children to school or to alternative education programs. Through the organization's scholarships, vocational programs and non-formal education these children are given a chance for a brighter future. Once a working child is placed in a school CWISH ensures that the child's employer takes over the cost of their education. The organization is also working with inner city public schools to improve the quality of education provided, up-grade the physical conditions, support teaching activities and mobilize school management committees and parent teacher associations. ¶4. CWISH staff and volunteers work under difficult conditions often abused by irate employers who resent the interference with their "domestic arrangements." The only thanks or recognition they usually get is from the gratefull children to whom they offer respite and a new chance for a future. The organization has worked tirelessly to get policy makers to take notice of these children and their plight. In April, the organization's chairperson, Shanti Adhikary, was elected to the new Constituent Assembly where she continues to advocate for the rights of these most hidden and exploited child laborers. POWELL