The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) yesterday urged the religious communities of South Asia to tackle key challenges related to children.

“With religious communities in South Asia having extensive networks and moral influence throughout the region, their potential to tackle some of these challenges and achieve real results for children is highly advantageous,” said UNICEF in its press release.

This statement by UNICEF came on the last day (yesterday) of the two-day South Asia regional conference, held in Kathmandu from September 5-7, 2017.

UNICEF launched the first South Asia Religious Leaders’ Platform for Children, in Kathmandu on September 5, 2017 amid the participation of almost 30 influential personalities and key representatives from various religious communities across South Asia.

In his inaugural address, Regional Director of UNICEF South Asia Jean Gough called on the religious communities to collaborate with UNICEF in its efforts towards child welfare.

“Religious communities continue to be our indispensable partner, especially in our focus on reaching the poorest, most vulnerable and hardest to reach children and families. If we can fully tap the enormous potential of our partnerships by building on each other’s strengths, we can achieve tremendous results for children,” said Jean Gough.

Knowledge-sharing among Religious Communities

In his conference-concluding remarks yesterday, Deputy Regional Director of UNICEF South Asia Philippe Cori said, “We, at UNICEF, will now proactively nurture and expand this network of religious communities. We will also ensure that the discussion carries beyond the meeting room and find ways to translate our commitment to child rights into results, for every child in South Asia.”

This regional meeting is being seen as a major milestone in bringing various issues related to children, belonging to South Asia, to an open discussion.

Through this launch, UN aims at creating a platform for knowledge-sharing among religious communities and further plan concrete actions for children in the region, the statement informed.

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Students from the United States of America extended their service to a rehabilitation center in Kathmandu, as part of the USD 10,000 project for peace grant.

Himanshu Thapa and Nano Liklikadze of St John’s College in Annapolis, MD, USA helped build and equip the facility at Special Education and Rehabilitation Centre (SERC) for Disabled Children in Kathmandu. This facility will be used by 120 students at SERC.

The fund was used to purchase physiotherapy, and electronic equipment, including elliptical machine, laptops, projector and projector screen, among others, says Himanshu.

The US students also asked Kathmandu local donors to extend their support to SERC, by providing 1,800 books & book shelves, printer, scanner, safety swing seats, among other items.

Now, SERC has a room, to be used for physiotherapy and multimedia purposes, along with the building of Independent and Decent Life for the Disabled in Nepal.

SERC has 120 students enrolled in its school with 65 of them being orphans from 13 orphanages around Kathmandu, and 30 children are the victims of 2015 earthquake.

SERC was established in 2009 to serve physically & mentally challenged and make them skilled to lead an independent life.

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