Photo from NGN

The April 2007 Next Generation Nepal (NGN) newsletter is out and world-traveler-turned-volunteer-turned-kids’-charity-founder Conor has a lot to report:

This month’s newsletter features two happy stories of kids - Bishal and Prabin to be precise - being reunited with their families. If you’ve been keeping up with NGN news, you’re probably aware that many of the kids at Dhaulagiri, the NGN group home, ended up there essentially because their families were facing extreme poverty; in many cases the parent or parents paid what little they had to individuals who led them to believe their children would be enrolled in good boarding schools and then proceeded to abandon the children in Kathmandu. As Conor put it, NGN believes “it is enough to live in poverty without also having to give up your own child.”

And as such, NGN is pioneering a reunification program: after locating the children’s parent (or being located by them), NGN conducts in-depth interviews and as soon as they establish that it is feasible for the children to return to their families, they do so. NGN’s partner organization, the Umbrella Foundation, provides financial support for the children’s school fees as well as a monthly food budget, in order to allow the family to save some money and get back on its feet financially within two years.

And there’s more: on June 21, there will be an NGN fundraising party in New York, for which Conor will be traveling from Nepal to New York to organize and attend. If you live in the NYC area (and don’t hate orphans) they would love to hear from you – whether to help organize or just attend, have fun, and raise money for the kids.

For more NGN news, or information on how to donate, check out the new NGN site – where you can now find all the newsletters - or Conor’s new “Mildly Thrilling Tales” blog.