NEPAL - ASHA KENDRA - CENTRE OF HOPE
EMPOWER NEPAL has four homes all of which are located in Kathmandu city. Two homes are for Nepali boys and girls who come from throughout the nation. This work we call Asha Kendra - The Hope Centre. Sandeep talks about his experience living at our boys’ home. We care for a total of about 50 young people, of whom a little more than half are studying at university.
Our other two homes are for Sherpa boys and girls from various Tibetan tribes spread throughout Nepal. You can view the work of these two homes here.
Our boys’ and girls’ work have a particular emphasis;. That is for the development of impoverished young people who already show strong academic ability back in their villages prior to coming to live with us. At our houses, we provide good quality private education so that they then can move on into university education and eventually become career professionals who will contribute towards the good of the nation. Why do we have this aim? Because back in 2000 when we were considering commencing this work, we were told independently by very senior national leaders that the national church required educated professionals. And so we have sought to produce this accordingly. To this end, we have seen many become professional engineers, accountants, working in businesses, I.T. entrepreneurs, and lawyers.
We have one girl currently studying at a medical college and one of our graduates, Joseph, who has now completed his MBBS and is now training to become a general surgeon. You can read Joseph’s story of how he rose from a particular backward, poor, marginalised, and stigmatised community known as Dalit (Untouchable) to now training to become a general surgeon here.
Our young people work very hard on their studies. And they have the results to prove it. The three guys above have just received scholarships from their universities because their grades in their most recent academic year were outstanding. Sandesh (standing far right) is in the top 10% of his chemical engineering year at Nepal’s top engineering university.
Our expectation is that all of our boys and girls will graduate from university
Our indigenous board is both active and excellent. They have a wide range of age, academic abilities, and experience. Three of our graduates are now board members. The board is hands-on and can capably steer the work there. They also operate career path courses for our young people so that they choose the right degrees to study at university, which will lead to a job.
It has been amazing to meet up with our older graduates and to track their development over a 20-year period. Some of our graduates are pictured below.
These men - nearly all aged in their 30’s now, were some of our very first boys that we took in some 20 years ago. Pleasingly, a number of them are involved in various Christian charitable works for the poor. along with working in their various professions, including chemistry teaching, one is a high-school principal, another is an internal auditor, and a number of them are software developers.
Our boys and girls study unbelievably hard by Western standards. For example, for a month prior to exams, all the children will daily start their study from about 5 am and finish at 10 am, at which time they go to school. On returning home, they commence study again, finally going to bed about 11 pm. Apart from a regular evening meeting and meals, there are few breaks in the day for them. Our house parents love the boys and girls. Apart from emphasising the children’s education, they also endeavour to develop their characters too.
Our Nepali boys (pictured above) must sit an entrance examination to gain entry into our home. Though they are poor, most of these boys are very smart. We have genuine expectations that they will become positive Christian agents within their society. Nepal is experiencing a spiritual revival and so accordingly we are confident that these young men will in time step up and play their part in helping to lead this movement. This photo was taken in August 2025 and also shows our board chair and house father (standing right). All but four of these boys are studying at university.
Nepal Girls’ Home
2nd Left: Pratibha Buddha Chetri, age 20, studying B. Business Admin. at Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu.
Similar to our Nepali boys’ work, our girls’ home is for girls from throughout the nation. Our heart to work with girls was originally motivated by the number of Nepali girls, who, through no fault of their own, ended up being cross-border trafficked into India's sex industry. See Maya’s story.
Our Nepali girls’ home has been operating since 2001. The local leaders have sought to equip them to reach university so that in time they may become self-supporting professionals. As an example of this, the 10 girls below have either just gained entry into university or are already studying there. Go girls!
a case study
At the age of 11 years one of our girls left Nepal to live in the hills of nearby Darjeeling, India to live in a Buddhist girls’ monastery. She lived there for 4 years and then returned to Nepal for just a month before she came to live with us. She has been with us for more than 3 years now. She said that life at the monastery was quite good. They would chant and study Buddhist scripture each morning for about one and a half hours and then study “normal school subjects” all day long. Bedtime was 10pm and everybody was up by 5am the next day. When she was 15 years old they wanted her to become a dedicated Buddhist nun for life. This would mean, no marriage, no kids, no going home, only occasional family visits and no money because any money that she might have made would go to the monastery. This is when she opted out and returned to her village in Nepal.
Neither she nor we spend any time criticising other religions or religious teaching. But rather, we simply enjoy living under God’s grace.
two videos:
This is a brief video of two of our new 16-year-old girls sharing their future aspirations
Pabitra Tamang, one of our graduate girls, has completed her degree in business studies. She is now our voluntary board Treasurer. You can see a short video of her thanking you for your support on behalf of all the girls.
some facts on nepal:
Nepal is a landlocked nation that acts as a buffer between the northern and southern giants of China and India, respectively. Following years of a bloody Maoist insurgency, there is now relative peace. However, while the politicians continue to argue and fight, through their disunity, they squander the economic hopes of Nepal's 30 million citizens.
Nepal is ranked second to Afghanistan as Asia's most impoverished nation, with more than 40% of the population living off less than $2 a day. Nearly one-third of homes do not have toilets.
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