Child Sponsorship Background from Gandaki, Nepal

SOS Children's Village Gandaki

SOS Children's Village Gandaki is situated near the town of Pokhara in central Nepal, about 6 hours by car from the capital of Kathmandu. It was set up after a devastating landslide had hit the region in 1978 and opened its gates in 1979.

In Pokhara, there are two SOS Children's Villages: SOS Children's Village Gandaki, which is for Nepali children and SOS Children's Village Pokhara, which is for Tibetan refugee children.

SOS Children's Village Gandaki consists of family houses, the village director's house, a community centre, coworkers' residences and some administrative buildings. Well over 100 orphaned or abandoned children have found a new home there. On the site of the SOS Children's Village, there is also a temple.

Other SOS Projects in Gandaki

An SOS Youth Home, where teenagers are given the opportunity to prepare for independence while they are still at school, college or university, or doing vocational training, was opened in 1989.

SOS School Gandaki consists of a nursery school, a primary and a secondary school for up to 800 pupils in total.

Since 2003, there has been an SOS Social Centre which offers community support, health counselling and day-care. This centre also organizes literacy courses for children and professional training in income-generating activities for women from poor families. Both the SOS School and the SOS Social Centre are open to the people from the local community.

Background to Gandaki

Pokhara Sub-Metropolitan City is a city of close to 200,000 inhabitants in central Nepal, 198 km west of Kathmandu. It is the third largest city of Nepal after Kathmandu and Biratnagar. It is the Headquarters of Kaski District, Gandaki Zone and the Western Development Region. It is also one of the most popular tourist destinations of the country.