Scholarships
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FNC’s largest project is our scholarship program, focusing on giving education to children who might not be able to get the chance to learn without our help. We especially look to give opportunities to girls, orphans, abandoned and disabled children, and children from low castes in Nepal. Educating girls not only postpones the age of marriage and child-bearing, but an educated girl is more likely to use family planning, take better care of her children, and educate her own daughters. We are committed to support impoverished children until they are able to stand on their own feet. At present, the number of students in our scholarship programs has grown to more than 3,000. We currently give scholarships to children from kindergarten through medical school. Our students attend day schools in Kathmandu, rural village schools, boarding schools and colleges. FNC scholarships provide more than money. Most scholarship recipients also benefit from FNC’s team of social workers, who visit each student regularly, consult with the teachers and with their families to provide counseling, physical assistance, referrals to medical care and other services. This means that FNC is now one of the biggest non-profit providers of scholarships in Nepal.
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Boarding School Scholarships: FNC helps children in dire need by placing them in good boarding schools, usually in Kathmandu. We currently support 82 boarding school students, paying all their living costs, medical expenses and tuition fees. Often, they also participate in the community life at J & K Houses. Our social workers check each child’s academic progress and performance before awarding the next year’s scholarship.
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Kinship Care Program: In addition to our J & K Houses, FNC has also introduced the concept of Kinship Care for those children who may not have parents, but who do have some other relatives willing and able to look after them. In such cases, FNC assists the child’s relatives by paying for the cost of their education and other necessary essentials. The whole strategy of Kinship Care is to provide protective, home-like care to these children, ultimately ensuring security and loving care for them. The custodians of these children who receive support from FNC remain accountable for their actions and behaviors to both the child and the FNC. There are altogether 50 such children who are presently supported under this program.
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College Scholarships: Our college scholarships give our FNC-supported students the chance to continue their education to the Bachelor’s degree level. We give priority to women, the disabled, and lower-caste applicants and most of our students study at Nepal’s national Tribhuvan University in a variety of fields, including forestry, humanities, and computer science. Many of our students go into social services and we also have several medical students. In 2008, in collaboration with NYOF, we supported 174 college students, ranging from ‘untouchable’ engineers to doctors helping in remote areas of Nepal.
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Girls Scholarships: We provide scholarships to 300-400 underpriviledged girls who we see as potential drop-outs from school owing to the poor economic status as well as the low priority for girls’ education in Nepal. Many of these girls are from the Dalit, or ‘untouchable’ caste, traditionally holding “unclean” jobs, such as blacksmiths, leather workers, and entertainers. Discrimination against Dalits is illegal under Nepali law, but the stigma remains pervasive and Dalits are still economically, politically, and educationally underpriviledged, underrepresented and oppressed. Dalits account for less than 1% of those enrolled in higher education, and for Dalit girls, the situation is grim, with only 3.2% of Dalit females being literate. FNC currently runs the Girls Education Program in four districts of Nepal, providing girls scholarships to complete their secondary education.
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Disabled Children’s Scholarships: In Nepal, the prejudice against the disabled often condemns them to a life of begging. FNC currently supports more than 92 children who are blind, deaf or have physical handicaps. The disabled children are in all stages of their education, ranging from primary school to college. Our graduates include a blind lawyer, a deaf computer programmer, a blind NGO receptionist, and a visually impaired Fulbright scholar.
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Day School Scholarships: Although about 70% of all school age children in Nepal begin their primary schooling, most of them drop out by the time they reach grade five. Often, this is because a poor family cannot afford even the small costs involved in keeping them in school (school uniform, supplies, etc.) nor the loss of the child’s labor at home or on the fields. FNC offers scholarships to these children, provided their home conditions are satisfactory. We ask that parents who able to help pay for the schooling, no matter how small the amount, so they have a greater stake in the child’s education. The largest numbers of these scholarships go out to the girls we have freed from indentured servitude.
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Danuwar Rai Girls Scholarships: Our most recent program, the Danuwar Rai Girls Educational Support, is a 5 year program to improve the social and economic status of 150 girls from an impoverished ethnic minority. North of Kathmandu Valley, in the Nuwakot district, girls were rarely sent to school and were often married before they were 15 years old. With our support, 13 girls have graduated high school, passing their SLC leaving exam. The girls have become empowered and independent, able to decide their education without their parents’ influence. The early marriages and drop-out rates have decreased, and the health and hygiene of the girls has improved. One of our graduates completed her nursing training and is working at a local health post.
