Date: 13/2/13

Hub name: Nepal

Title of Case Study: Parents Presentation At Childrens Paradise

Childrens Paradise is a preschool here Nepal that was founded by local woman Buntty Gurung. What makes
this preschool different to any others is that some of the students have mental and physical disabilities and
teaches up to grade one for these particular kids. The centre has 53 students and 7 of these have children
have disabilities that include Autism, ADHD, and learning difficulties. In Nepal there is such a stigma attached
to children with such disabilities parents blame each other for
their children being born with such ailments and extended families
blame the parents leaving families too ashamed to leave the house
with these children. When families do take their children to the
Doctor, quite often the kids are misdiagnosed or the parents are told
their children will grow out of it in five years. There are no Doctors
here that specialize Paediatrics or Mental Illnesses in Children so
finding help and support can be extremely difficult. Buntty takes in
such children and supports their families. She encourages the
parents to not give up and that their children can be valued
members of society. Buntty and her teachers show that these
children can make huge improvements with patience, consistency, and a stable learning environment.
When starting out his project four weeks ago, Buntty asked that GVIs role be to work one-on-one with the
disabled children to give them more attention and use our
experiences to help these kids progress. Also for GVI to reach out to
the parents and let them know that they arent alone, that children
all over the world have these problems, and how they are treated
elsewhere. The later was to be addressed in a presentation for the
parents of those children with disabilities. Amanda, our first
volunteer on this project, took on this task with gusto. She compiled
information on the different disabilities that affected the kids at
Childrens Paradise, and then discussed with staff members Ruth and
Jo about their experiences with such disorders. Amanda and Ruth
spent time with the students logging and photographing their
progress to show the parents, and researched how children on other countries were supported. All of this
information was put into a power point presentation and on Saturday the 26 th of January Buntty had
assembled as many parents as possible to listen to and discuss this information.
A two hour presentation turned into a four hour open forum. The parents listened intently to our
experiences, definitions, and ideas on different disorders and could see how much we wanted to help. Our

long term goal for their children is to help them transition into mainstream schools as they advance and to
help the families with support and ideas for their kids at home. Those parents whose children have been at
the school for longer discussed with the new parents how their perseverance with such ideas had led to their
children doing much better in class.
After the open discussions we stuck around to talk one-on-one with some of the parents. Two fathers
approached Ruth and Jo and told them how grateful they were to have a chance to discuss their children with
people going through similar circumstances, and that they would fully support us holding a presentation and
discussion once a month. With this monthly meeting parents could come to us with topics theyd like to hear
more about and could help them and their kids.
In all the day was a great success we were able to
convey the information compiled, show the parents
that theyre not alone, and let them know that we are
in it for the long haul right alongside of them! Buntty is
grateful for the assistance, as for so long she has had to
support these families on her own, and she continues
to be excited about working alongside our volunteers
to reach a common goal for each of these children.

Figure I Buntty with Volunteer and presentation author Amanda

Chee