Tessa Boudrie, our Regional Director in Asia, leads our work collaborating with partners to get children Back to Family across Asia.
She was in Nepal with our partner, The Himalayan Innovative Society, when catastrophic floods struck along the Nepal–Tibet border. We asked her to reflect on her journey, and on why it’s so important that as the world’s attention moves on, we redouble our efforts to get children back to family in Nepal.
“I flew to Nepal three weeks ago to work with our partner, The Himalayan Innovative Society, on the programmes we run together. Instead, catastrophic flash flooding struck along the Nepal–Tibet border while I was there, and by the end of the trip I was a self-confessed reluctant reporter describing what was happening to families and children on the ground on Sky News, Channel 5 and Times Radio.
The floods that came through along the Nepal–Tibet border swept away whole villages and claimed so many lives. It is still not clear how many children have been separated from their families – whether by the water itself, by the chaos of evacuation, or simply because a parent didn’t make it. Those families are going to be searching long after the emergency phase is declared over.
Changing the rules after crisis to keep children in families
There is a huge relief operation under way in Nepal right now, but the consequences of a disaster like this will be felt for a generation, long after the emergency teams have gone home.
What we do in the months that follow the headlines is equally as important than what we do in the days during them.
The hard truth about disasters is that children become more vulnerable to trafficking and unsafe placement exactly when everyone’s attention is on getting them somewhere safe quickly.
Nepal’s National Child Rights Council issued a directive to close that gap: no child can now be placed into an institutional child home or temporary protection centre, or moved anywhere, without the decision of the local Child Rights Committee, the recommendation of the Child Welfare Officer, and the consent of the National Child Rights Council.
Your support makes it possible
Since 2022, with support from the Martin James Foundation and delivered together with local government and The Himalayan Innovative Society, we’ve been building a community-based foster care programme in Nepal. We’ve recruited families willing to open their homes to a child who needs one, whether for an emergency or the unforeseeable future. So when children lose their parents, or are separated and have no extended family able to step in, there are already foster families ready. No child should end up confined to an institution simply because nothing else was in place.
A lot of people have asked me how they can help. The emergency response will get the attention, as it should.
But your support funds the part that doesn’t make the news; The years of reintegration work still to come, the tracing, the foster placements. That’s the work our appeal will fund – so I hope you’ll give what you can.
