04 May News from the CIAO KIDS Foundation

Posted at 14:27h in news by

Dear friends, Namaste!

Here I am, back from India and Nepal where I spent ten days with my project manager, Alexandra Mauris, and our program manager, Dresse Charulatha Banerjee. The main objectives of this stay were to monitor projects, set up new programs and meet our beneficiaries.

As with every visit, we were warmly welcomed with dances, songs, flower crowns and we were even invited to the Sarhul festival, a very important time for tribal communities to celebrate the arrival of spring. It is true that over time, we have forged links with the teams but also with the women and children, some of whom we have been following for 11 years now. It’s always very moving to see the evolution of these women’s journeys, the successes of those who manage to become self-employed and the children who grow up.

In Jharkhand (northern India), this year we can expand our programs for visually impaired children. Given the importance of IT and the job opportunities it offers, a computer laboratory run by a specialist professor is being created. The objective is to provide training adapted to all students in our center according to their age.
We attended several performances by our actors as part of the awareness programs. These training courses are set up to increase women’s awareness of social problems exacerbated by extreme poverty, such as alcoholism, school failure and human trafficking in particular. It’s always impressive to see the enthusiasm of the entire village and how certain messages that seem difficult to access manage to be transmitted through street theater, dances and songs.

After a year of existence, we can say that our partner Heart of Nepal has been able to build excellent relationships with political and educational authorities and gain the trust of local communities. The Midday Meal project, which received a very warm welcome from you in terms of financial support, is a success. This hot protein meal improves children’s attention span allowing them to follow lessons. Teachers and school principals confirm that the attendance rate has increased significantly since its implementation.

To date, over 800 primary school children eat a daily hot meal and we hope that we can continue to increase this number. At the same time, our programs of support courses, distribution of school materials to the poorest families and teacher training make our presence legitimate and enable targeted work.

We participated in an agricultural training program. Highly appreciated by tribal women, these courses combine theory and practice with the aim of improving their skills and increasing their harvests available for sale. These rural populations are extremely poor, they have very little cash; They therefore have great difficulty saving.

Thanks to technology, we are in regular contact by videoconference and email with the teams, but nothing replaces the meetings and personalized exchanges that we have on site. Follow us on social networks and discover the stages of this journey in images and videos. If you would like to know more about our different projects, go to Our projects.

If you want to know the Foundation better and support Nepalese children while having a good time, come and celebrate the Foundation’s 15th anniversary with us during our support evening which will take place on September 28, 2023 at the Morges Casino. We are preparing a festive program for you!

We remind you that all donations received are entirely used for our projects in the field (the costs in Switzerland being covered by patrons) and that donations are tax deductible.

I thank you and send you my best messages.

Philippe de Preux

Founder and president of the CIAO KIDS Foundation