Help for the Children from the Roof of the World
Nepal is one of the ten poorest countries in the world and suffers from an unemployment rate of more than 40%. Given these facts, the future of its young people appears bleak. About 90% of the available labour force are engaged in agricultural production and in the rural areas the illiteracy rate can reach 70%. These difficult circumstances drives many people to seek a better life in the cities, where they are faced with another kind of desperate poverty. With an average monthly salary of some 20 Euros half of the population live below the recognized poverty line. Many parents therefore are unable to care for and provide a future for their children. With cost of schooling relatively high (school uniforms and materials), many parents cannot send their children to be educated. As the average life expectancy is 47 and given the socio-economic instability of the country, many children grow up as orphans or half orphans. Many of these children end up on the street.