Who Is Helping
Many of the changes in education in Nepal have come from international organizations like UNESCO and Save the Children Norway in Nepal because the war caused educational development in Nepal to be stagnant. Organizations like these two have worked with communities to create sustainable change and repair the damage that the war did to the education system. With a population that is almost completely literate, the United States can help by advocating or donating to organizations such as UNESCO and SCNN that will help change the lives of those who were born into different circumstances.
United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) is working to better the education system in Nepal, especially with regard to the gender gap that exists there. In 2001, UNESCO reported that for the age group of eight to fourteen year olds, females made up approximately sixty-one percent of Nepal’s illiterate population [2]. UNESCO is trying to reduce this gender gap and increasing the enrollment of girls in primary school by providing more girls with scholarships, training more females to serve as teachers and leaders in their community, and to remove elements from the curriculum that reinforce gender inequalities [7].
Save the Children Norway in Nepal (SCNN), a global charitable organization, is working with the District Education Offices as well as Maoist forces in order to improve the educational status of marginalized children in the Kathmandu region. This proves to be a difficult task as the Maoists are skeptical of anyone working with the government, and on the other hand, there is little contact between the District Education Office and the people. However, through their community- based model, SCNN has created a system that involves community members in all activities pertaining to education [3].