Party on, Nepal

Viva Christmas Parties are gearing up around the world. Actually, quite a few have already happened! If you’re getting involved in ‘Your Party, Their Christmas’ or ‘Your Gift, Their Christmas’ you already know that Viva Christmas Parties are not only a blast for kids, but they link vulnerable children up with projects that can provide them with help and support for the rest of their lives. What a reason to celebrate!

In Nepal, though, Viva Christmas Parties haven’t just helped get children connected with projects – they’ve helped make it possible for projects to connect with one another. As in many other places around the world, Nepalese organisations that help children at risk have traditionally tended to keep to themselves. Opening up your management, fundraising and resources to other projects can be a terrifying task. Our partner network CarNet Nepal discovered that Viva Christmas Parties are a great way to develop the trust and rapport between projects that are necessary to form a network.

How does a Christmas party do all that? Projects and churches that want to form networks find it hard to start by tackling huge issues like child homelessness or trafficking, although these are issues that affect Nepalese children.  So they start by working together on something small that builds the confidence and competence to take on the big things later! Viva Christmas Parties have helped Nepalese projects focus on a goal – a party – that is easily achieved and makes big issues seem smaller. Have you ever watched a baby learn to walk? He probably didn’t try to take on a flight of stairs first, did he?

Viva Christmas Parties can also help Viva get a feel for what internal and external issues face a group of projects, so that we can provide the best support and advice for them as they grow into a network.

Although Viva Christmas Parties weren’t the only thing that brought the members of CarNet Nepal together, they were a big help (and of course a giant joy to all the children who attended!). In the end it’s the determination of individual people and projects that really makes a network pull together and survive through the many difficulties related to caring for children at risk. Christmas Parties are a fantastic way to show these projects what acting as a network feels like, and to help them reach out to local children at an early stage to see what needs exist in their neighbourhoods.

Now Christmas Parties are a yearly event in the CarNet Nepal projects! Do you remember what you were doing on December 5th? Well in the south eastern region of Nepal, 500 children were attending parties in Biratnagar and Jhapa. On December 10th, 300 children partied in Birgunj, in the central border district from where many children are trafficked to India, and 750 others celebrated in Nuwakot, Kanchhanpur and Butwal. On December 12, 1,200 children attended a giant Christmas Party in the capital, Kathmandu!

Across Nepal this month, that’s 2,750 vulnerable children – some who live on the streets, others who have been rescued from abuse or trafficking, and others who just come from poor families – having a great time while being introduced to projects and networks that can help them grow into healthy adults by working together to provide for their needs. Party on, Nepal!


Want to help by throwing a party of your own or by giving an alternative gift? Go to www.viva.org/christmasParties/.