Nepal -- Rabin Shrestha (alleged child rapist) & Action for Child Rights International

Story

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

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

inquiry which seemed to reduce Shrestha’s public profile within the organisation but still left him with access to children.

Following Shrestha's arrest NCO is now doing its best to cover up what has happened. The Central Investigation Bureau and NGO, Action for Child Rights International (ACR-Int), which instigated the arrest have come under huge political pressure to drop charges. Both are resolute in refusing to do this but ACR-Int have asked us to provide funds urgently to allow them to protect the girls and prosecute this vitally important case. Please help us now.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity. And you can donate in any major currency.

Many thanks - let's fight (alleged) paedophiles

Philip Holmes

CEO Freedom Matters

From:

https://www.justgiving.com/acr-int/

Posted by Philip Holmes on Wed 25 Jun 2014

Nepal's edgy broadsheet "Republica" has deleted an article from last week about alleged serious sexual offences at a Nepal children's home.

Last week two Nepalese men were arrested for alleged serious sexual assaults on three girls at the NCO/Bal Mandir children's home in Kathmandu. This was at the instigation of ACR-Int who rescued the girls. The men are a former Head of Adoptions at Bal Mandir, Rabin Shrestha, and his accomplice, dental hygienist and former resident at the home, Rabin Chalise. The story was reported in Republica and in the article a spokesman for Bal Mandir, its General Secretary Subash Pokharel, stated that he didn't know of what past association Shrestha might have had with NCO/Bal Mandir. At the time I submitted an online comment that I found it inconceivable that Pokharel wouldn't have known Rabin Shrestha since he was a central staff member.

To my surprise the comment wasn't published. Even more surprising is that Republica - whose strapline is "in pursuit of truth" - has now taken down the report altogether. You can still read the article here!

http://web.archive.org/web/20140622115201/http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/printable_news.php?news_id=77477

Allegations were made against Rabin Shrestha in 2012/2013 including through a hard-hitting report on national TV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tdb_KX0KvKA

The inquiry into those allegations was an internal one and Bal Mandir/NCO closed ranks. The upshot was that, whatever is alleged to have happened, Shrestha continued to have access to children.

Now it would appear that defensive measures are being put in place once again.

From:

http://www.freedommatters.org.uk/news/78/66/In-pursuit-of-truth/d,blogs.html

The Old House,

Dartmouth Road,

Stoke Fleming,

Dartmouth,

Devon TQ6 0NX

http://www.freedommatters.org.uk/contact.html

Office 1

Oudekerkstraat 28

2018 Antwerp

http://www.acr-int.org/index.php/en/contact

Action for Child Rights International (ACR-Int) and Freedom Matters are the only serious anti-trafficking organizations in Nepal. Both operate on a shoestring. Both deserve support.

See

http://pearadoptinfo-nepal.blogspot.com/2014/06/nepal-childrens-organization-former.html

(Also covers NCO's long history of alleged child trafficking.)

and

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/nepal/10931141/Nepal-adoptions-chief-raped-and-groomed-orphans-for-prostitution-claims-British-teacher.html

and

http://www.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2014/06/28/child-predators-detained/

and

http://nepalitimes.com/article/nation/bal-mandir-rape-allegations,1495

and

http://poundpuplegacy.org/node/73445

(On July 16th, the two alleged child rapists were denied bail.)