About us – Little Stars Kinder brauchen Zukunft e.V.
- founded in 1998
- is a registered non-profit association
- donations are tax-deductible
- is politically and religiously independent; an important principle is that our aid must not disrupt the culture of the country and promotes the ability of people to develop independently
- works in Germany exclusively on a voluntary basis; donations benefit the projects almost 100% with a very small deduction for administrative costs
Motivation:
It is the wish of all members, sponsors and friends of Little Stars to improve the living conditions of children and families in Nepal through meaningful, long-term and sustainable work.
This is always done through projects in which local people are involved and contribute their ideas. This is our understanding of help for self-help.
Goals:
- Promotion of education, for example through kindergarten, school attendance and the offer of
- Job training for young people to improve their chances on the labour market
- Improving health and quality of life
- Education and information as a life aid
Aid Projects:
Our work started about 25 years ago with some smaller projects around Nepal’s capital Kathmandu.
The Dhading village development project started with the construction and operation of a small school for children who had never seen a school before. Later, we built a health station on the school grounds and ran it successfully for many years. After more than 10 years, we were able to hand over the project to the village community and we focused on other needier villages.
These are currently:
Okharpauwa (1 hour’s drive north of Kathmandu) near the big rubbish dump,
Amthang (4 hours by car also north towards the Tibetan border),
Balchaur in the Terai region (about 600 km or 18 hours by bus from the capital) and
Kimtang near the Tibetan border (one-way trip is a day’s drive from Kathmandu).
All village communities are extremely poor and lagging far behind in their development. We see our task in an integral approach raising awareness – often in cooperation with the local women’s groups – for the need of growing life chances for the children, youths and families.
This also means that we convince village communities that healthy and educated children are the community’s highest asset. To achieve this goal, we improve the quality of pre-school and school education, offer vocational training, run health stations and provide clean drinking water wherever possible.
Part of the project funding is made possible by the regular support from a steadily growing number of sponsors. More children are waiting for sponsorship support.
Spending Policies:
We handle the donations, sponsorship and membership fees entrusted to us with great care. We realise that our sponsors place a great responsibility in our hands.
We meet these requirements through detailed guidelines from Germany on the purchase of materials, payment of wages and other matters. We have founded NCHP (Nepal Childen Helping Programme), a local association required by Nepalese law to implement our projects on site. This association works exclusively for us and is closely monitored. An annual audit is carried out by local auditors and by submitting the income statement to both the Nepalese tax authorities and the German tax authorities.
Receipts must be prepared for every single expense. This is the only way we can ensure that every cent arrives in the right place. Transparency is extremely important to us.
It is a very time-consuming procedure, but success proves that this is the only right way. This effort can only be made by highly motivated volunteers in Germany in an organisation that is not too big. Several times a year, volunteers, including members of the Little Stars Board, visit the projects to see for themselves the current status on site and to pick up new ideas.
The fact that Little Stars can work so effectively is owed to you, our members, sponsors and supporters. The investments that have been made in recent years thanks to your help are showing a clear impact. You have all contributed to sustainably improving the education of the children and young people as well as the living conditions of the families.
