Forget Me Not Australia Limited
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Mission Statement
With respect, courage and commitment Forget Me Not honours every child's rights: collaboratively raising children to be thriving, vibrant and connected to family, community and opportunity.
About This Cause
Forget Me Not Australia works with partner organisations in Nepal, India and Uganda, on the ground with local knowledge and expertise to protect and provide for children, keep families together and bring children home. Our current initiatives focus on 5 key areas: prevention, rescue, reunification, advocacy and research. There are over 11,000 children living in ‘orphanages’ in Nepal, yet an estimated two-thirds of these children are not orphans. Despite international and Nepali laws and policies against the use of children’s homes, except as a last resort, thousands of children continue to be displaced from their families into children’s homes. Due to a number of complex factors, including access to education, many are being kept in inhumane conditions. Our work in Nepal must focus on the deinstitutionalisation of children and address the consequences of voluntourism and child trafficking. In Uganda especially, nearly an entire generation has been lost to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, where only the young and the elderly remain. Statistics reveal that 49% of the Ugandan population is aged 0-15 years (child population) and 20% of the child population are orphans. The aging carer population forces us to think of sustainable strategies for the care and wellbeing of children in our programs in Uganda. Children and their families, spanning three generations, are living in appalling conditions in Kalyanpuri Slum, New Delhi. The children have no access to medical care and little protection from the burning sun, cold winter nights and torrential monsoon rain. They are severely malnourished and have never attended school. Extreme poverty and ongoing health risks bring survival to the forefront of our work in India. We rescue children and reunite them with their families as soon as possible. Forget Me Not has an excellent track record and exceptional team of social and youth workers, and counsellors, in place to fulfil the challenges of rescue, family tracing, reunification and well-being monitoring. The children we work with have been, or are at risk of being, trafficked or displaced for any number of reasons through no fault of their own. We believe strongly that children do not belong in orphanages and our family tracing and reintegration programs are incredibly successful. Sponsored children receive secure housing, medical care, education and caregivers and counselling (if required). We also participate in building projects with an education focus. In 2014 we established the Brighter Futures Study Centre in New Delhi, India. The Centre provides a safe, clean environment for the development of infants and toddlers, and informal education of children in preparation for enrolment into the formal school system. Vocational training for young people and parents in the community is also held at the Centre after hours. Our programs in all three countries are holistic and include opportunities for children to participate in sports and creative arts. Creative arts scholarship boosts creativity, increases concentration, improves coordination, builds self-esteem and confidence, and particularly important for children in our programs, can be used to express feelings. 2020: Our current focus is on Nepal's 2nd largest orphanage of 310 children. We are working with the Nepal Government to formally identify the children and reunite them with their families. To date (Feb 2020) 190 of the children have been reconnected to their family and we are working to complete family tracing for the remainder. You can help us unlock brighter futures for children! Thanks for your generosity, love and interest in this vital, life-changing work.