Harry Lime's blog

Nepal's newspapers generally refrain from writing articles critical of NCO/Bal Mandir (an organization with powerful friends).

A recent article in the

is a notable exception -- looking at alleged child trafficking, corruption and sexual abuse at Nepal Children's Organization:

Two men working in an orphanage in Kathmandu have been arrested and are facing trial next week accused of sexually abusing children in their charge.

Rabin Shrestha, former head of the adoptions at Bal Mandir, and Rabin Chalise, an ex-student who ran a Youth Club at the shelter, were arrested by the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) last week after child rights activists presented evidence of repeated rape and abuse of girls and boys at the orphanage.

Shrestha had been arrested before in 2012 after a British woman lodged a complaint against him for allegedly raping a five-year-old blind girl that she was going to adopt.

“I tried to adopt her, but Shrestha told me I couldn’t do that. He wanted me to sponsor her instead and told me I would get a decision after she turned 16,” the mother told Nepali Times this week.

Story

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Rabin Shrestha, the former Head of Adoptions at Nepal’s largest children’s home, “Bal Mandir” (pictured), operated by the Nepal Children’s Organisation (NCO), was arrested this past week by the Nepal police for alleged sexual assault on three minors.

Shrestha first came to my personal attention in early 2012 when I was based in Kathmandu towards the end of my eight years in-country. I provided direct support to a British woman who was going through the process of adopting a blind five year old girl from Bal Mandir and who had discovered that the child had been raped during that time. The girl told her future mother that the culprit was Shrestha who allegedly would go to the home on Saturday mornings (staff day-off in Nepal) to conduct “marriage ceremonies” that culminated in horrific sexual attacks. We tried everything we possibly could at that time to have Shrestha arrested but his colleagues at the politically-powerful NCO successfully protected him (the NCO Chairman is the sister of Nepal’s Deputy Prime Minister). Instead the Nepal authorities allowed NCO to conduct an

By Dean Nelson, New Delhi and Anil Giri in Kathmandu

27 Jun 2014

(reprinted from

)

Dal Bahadur Phadera & the suppressed UNICEF report (PEAR Nepal)

UNICEF Nepal's suppressed Humla report is now available on the web.

The reason UNICEF Nepal suppressed (i.e., never published) their 2005 report is unclear.

Nor is it clear why trafficked Nepali children were left at the Michael Job Centre, Tamil Nadu, for over six years.

UNICEF FWLD Displacement of Children From Humla 2005:

Duelling videos -- Humla trafficker Dal Bahadur Phadera

Reprinted from PEAR Nepal:

http://pearadoptinfo-nepal.blogspot.com/2011/11/duelling-videos-humla-trafficker-dal.html

Duelling videos on Humla trafficker Dal Bahadur Phadera

First, from the Esther Benjamins Trust:

Paper Orphans documentary posted on the web (PEAR Nepal):

Part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B5QiFFxAu4

Part 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0adJdVBPvto

Allegations of corruption at Nepal Children's Organization (NCO/Bal Mandir)

In May, the Mitrataa Foundation took over running Bal Mandir (a five year contract) despite serious reservations over the "severe corruption" at Nepal Children's Organization:

Mitrataa Foundation -- Annual Report 2010

10. Bal Mandir

Many of you will know that Bal Mandir is a children’s home in Kathmandu, currently home to 200 children. It is run by Nepal Children’s Organisation, one of our core partners. We have been running a number of projects at Bal Mandir with NCO and we knew that they had been having financial problems. They are responsible for over 600 children in 11 homes across Nepal. They approached us and asked us to consider taking over the management of Bal Mandir for 5 years to help them set it up as a sustainable, model home that they could then use to help them set  up similar models in their other homes. Although running children’s homes is not core to Mitrataa’s Vision, a train-the-trainer approach to sustainability is at the heart of what we do. So we agreed to explore this project with them. It was a huge project and after many negotiations the agreement was signed by Mitrataa and we were to take over management from 1 September 2010. We were so excited about the possibilities for this project and were so grateful for the support we received from many different people and organisations as we embarked on this very  daunting journey, including Bathurst Breakfast Group, Randwick Rotary, East Canberra Rotary, SHAWS Kindergarten.

was a major reason so many receiving countries suspended adoptions from Nepal.

focuses on three NGOs --