About Us

ChildVision

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Brigitte SÖLLINGER and her husband Heinz from Upper Austria founded the project after their first trip to Nepal. They were shocked by the terrifying condition, under which the children had to live. This induced them to establish the association “ChildVision Nepal”.
Our goal is to prevent girls from abduction to Indian brothels. Since the foundation in 2015, the association has helped 200 children and families.
Brigitte Söllinger is a very competent teacher and she has always been passionate about enabling free access to education, especially in countries where child labor is still taken for granted.

Since January 2019, the association has increased by further members. Claudia LAUSEGGER, Valentina KAISER and Kristina BEGUSCH, all three from Austria, were the first volunteers in Nepal and helped in Birgunj with building up the slum school. Since then, they have been supporting “ChildVision Nepal”.

…and the most important person is Anamika. Without her ChildVision Nepal would not exist.

Anamika is 29 years old and principal of the prison- and slumschool, teacher, housewife, wife and mother of two juvenile children. Short: A nepalese power woman!

At the age of thirteen Anamika was married from India to Nepal. There she gave birth to her first child when she was only fourteen years old. Her second child followed only two years later. There she was, herself still a child, mother of two children, living in a foreign culture. However, as a strong woman it was not enough for her to be a houswife and a mother. And that’s why she became teacher at the Samata Prisonschool, where she met Brigitte in 2015. An accidental meeting that turned into a deep friendship, from which a common project was developed: to protect girls and women from trafficking and rape and to ensure them a worthy furture through education. This is the central idea that made us build the slumschool in Birgunj.

 

Our projects and visions

Prison School

A school, amid Birgunj, in a prison building. Here, children whose parents are imprisoned can go to school. Besides primary education, the children are provided with safety and a daily warm meal.

The school comprises three classes and one preschool group. In total, there are 150 children, who attend school every day. Every day starts with a communal prayer and some gymnastic exercises. At the end of the school day, a communal prayer of thanks will be recited. Afterwards, most of the children go home, to their parent, aunt or uncle.

For some children, their way home leads them to jail. If both mother and father are imprisoned and the child is still young enough, he or she will live with the parents in jail. There, they must experience the horrific everyday life in prison. Our school enables them to escape from it at least for a couple of hours a day and allows them to be a child.

Slum School

…or how we love to call it: “Anamika’s ChildVision School”. A school amid the slum of Birgunj. There, where children of the “Untouchables”, meaning the people of the lowest caste (Dalits), get access to education. More than 80 percent of children who attend this school are girls. Besides Nepali, English, Math, and other primary education, there is a big focus on education of women about biology and their body. Furthermore, it’s really important to us to give mothers the chance to gain knowledge about their own body. Therefore, regular meetings for women take place.

Recently, about 70 children who live in that slum area attend this school. The aim is to provide education to children from six to 16 years and to protect them from early arranged marriage. As a precondition to school attendance, parents have to agree on not to induce marriage of their daughter (or son) before the age of 20.