SOS Medical and Social Centres in Nepal

In Nepal there are currently eight Social Centres and one Medical Centre for children and the local community, examples of which are Bharatpur and Gandaki.  Many SOS Social Centres operate via Family Strengthening Programmes, which aim to support the wider community.  Medical Centres provide treatments and services to the wider community. Below is some information about some of Social Centres that SOS Children runs in Nepal:

SOS Medical Centre in Nepal: In-Depth

Bardiya

Description of SOS Medical Centre:

The SOS Medical Centre in Bardiya was established to provide primary healthcare to poor mothers and their children from the peripheral villages in Bardiya. However, other poor adults have been also benefiting from the healthcare services of the centre. The patients get 20% off in medicines. The children supported by the SOS Social Centers under FSP receive free-of-cost treatment from the centre.

Work and Achievements:

During this year, 9,273 different people received healthcare services from the centre. Among them, 44.1% (4,091) were the children, 41.3% (3,831) were women and the rest (14.6%) were other male adults.

Besides the regular curative healthcare services, the Medical Centre organized a number of programs and health education on preventive healthcare for the community people. These activities include the following:

Although there is one government Health Post nearby, people get only very limited number of services from it; and often the Health Post is short of medicines. With the broader range of services, the SOS Medical Centre has been very instrumental in providing basic health care services to the needy people of Bardiya district. People visit the centre from the localities as far off as 30 kilometers away all around. Health education and healthcare are the major component activities of Family Strengthening Program. As such, the Medical Centre has played a very important role in contributing to improve the health conditions of children and caregivers supported by FSP.

SOS Social Centres around Nepal: In-Depth

Bharatpur

Description of SOS Social Centre/FSP:

The SOS Social Centre consists of a day-care centre and a health-counselling centre. The SOS Social Centre also offers community support and family-strengthening programmes. Many children from the local community receive a scholarship from the SOS Social Centre. Without this financial aid, they would hardly ever attend school because their families could not afford it.

Work and Achievements:

Children belonging to disadvantaged families from the local community are getting support at the day care centre. The centre looks after the health and nutrition of the children under our care along with activities for their holistic development. Every year, children get selected for free education up to the secondary school level.

We provide free medical checkups and medicines to poorer people in the community and the FSP beneficiaries. A visiting doctor comes from Bharatpur Hospital every Friday in order to examine the FSP beneficiaries.

Adult Literacy Classes run by our SOS Social Centre Bharatpur have become the effective way of educating those requiring literacy. Presently, a group of 25 people (male-11, female-14) are being educated through the program. There is a growing demand on such class and we need to run more of such adult literacy classes in the future.

Gandaki

Description of SOS Social Centre/FSP:

Since 2003, there has been an SOS Social Centre which offers community support, health counselling and day-care. This centre also offers family-strengthening programmes such as literacy courses for children and professional training in income-generating activities for women from poor families.

Work and achievements:

During 2009, 35 new toddlers from very poor families were admitted to the daycare centre.  The general health and nutritional condition of the facilitated children has improved. Mothers, who have attended our centre, have acquired some knowledge on nutrition, sanitation and holistic development of their children from its services. We have also learnt and shared some ideas from them as well. The knowledge has been exchanged.

During this year, our centre has granted scholarships to 546 needy students from very poor and especially single parent families who are studying in our SOS School Gandaki and other different schools in the community nearby. They are doing well in their respective classes. 27 scholarship students have passed SLC examination with good marks.

The parents of the Day Care children have been receiving various income generating skills through this centre. During the year a Four-Month Free Sewing Training course was offered to parents. Among the 32 who joined initially, 30 of them successfully completed this training and the top three among the trainees were awarded with and Advanced course on Sewing.

Surkhet

Description of SOS Social Centre/FSP:

There is also an SOS Social Centre in Surkhet, which offers family-strengthening programmes, child day care, health counselling, training workshops and community support.  Surkhet supports over 9000 orphaned and vulnerable children and their families, especially children and widows affected by the ongoing Maoist rebellion. The SOS Social Centre gives help with education, adult literacy and HIV/AIDS awareness.

Sanothimi

Description of SOS Social Centre/FSP:

The adjoining SOS Social Centre offers a family-strengthening programme focusing on scholarships for school fees, text books and school uniforms allows children from poor families to attend school as well.  Sanothimi supports 400 orphaned and vulnerable children and their families, especially children and widows affected by the ongoing Maoist rebellion. The SOS Social Centre gives help with education, adult literacy and HIV/AIDS awareness.

Kavre

Description of SOS Social Centre/FSP:

The SOS Social Centre in Kavre organizes different support programs in order to strengthen local families