Nepal – Don Bosco School students visit a Rohingya settlement in Kathmandu and distribute gifts and clothes

05 February 2024

(ANS – Kathmandu) – On January 2024, a group of children from the 5th grade at Nepal Don Bosco School, Sidhipur-Lubhu accompanied by their class teacher and the Principal Fr. Binu Jacob visited the settlement of the Rohingya refugees in the District of Lalitpur, a neighbouring district of Kathmandu. These refugees to Nepal were driven out of their homeland Myanmar 12 years ago.

Presently, the settlement has 88 Muslim families huddled together in temporary houses made out of bamboo and tin sheets. Since, the stoppage of the monthly support of UNHCR to these refugees, they are under great stress to look for shelter and work to feed their families. The only government facility they are provided with is a refugee status card that the UNHCR has issued to them because of which the Nepal government cannot chase them away.

The students observed the condition of the settlement, met some of the people of the settlement and listened to their story of moving from place to place after their taking refuge in Nepal about 12 years ago. The main purpose of the visit of the Don Bosco students was to distribute food packets, warm clothes and scores of bundles of clothes for women, children, and men that the students had gathered during this Christmas season.

The Rohingya group had been helped by Nepal Don Bosco Society several times with food provisions, clothes, shelter materials, sanitation materials etc. A few months back, the society facilitated getting help from a German individual too for their upkeep.

About 35 children from this settlement are going to nearby schools although, at times, unable to pay the school fees. Several private institutions, NGOs and Christian denominations have rendered timely support to them with material things.

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