Who is behind this shop
Everything you find here is woven by hand in Nepal. What is earned from it goes back to Nepal. This page explains exactly where — and why this shop is needed at all.
Over 500 children, over years
Namaste Kids e. V. in Germany and Namaste Kids in Nepal support over 500 children from very socially disadvantaged circumstances, mostly in remote mountain regions of the Himalaya. The support lasts for years — until the end of their schooling. It covers health, physical and mental, and education. The organisation was founded and is led by a paediatrician.
Around forty of these children live in our children's home. The others grow up in their families, and that is where our work begins: with a home visit, not with an application.
A sponsorship is for one child. Not for a village, not for a school, not for a well.
What a single child needs each month — school, the doctor, the essentials — is borne by its sponsors. That is covered, and this shop does not advertise for it.
For everything beyond that, there is no fixed funder. It is not provided for in any sponsorship, because it cannot be attributed to one child, but to several, to a family, to a village. That is exactly what the Help Shop pays for.
The weaving is not done by us. The weaving is done in Nepal, by hand.
Our scarves, wraps and blankets are made in a small weaving workshop in Nepal, on looms that look hardly any different from a hundred years ago. What is earned from them supports the work this page is about.
What we protect against
Two things end a childhood faster than anything else: a marriage and a job. We work against both — in the families, at the schools, with the responsible authorities locally. It is laborious, it takes years, and it is the part of our work that is least visible.
What a child needs to grow up
A child is not protected if the drinking water comes from the stream in which everyone washes. Not if the roof leaks in the rainy season. Not if the house wall no longer stands after the next earthquake. Clean water, an electricity connection, a toilet, a watertight roof — these are not comforts, but the precondition for a child to be able to grow up healthy at all.
Prevent
The most common illnesses of the children we support are preventable. Diarrhoeal diseases from contaminated drinking water. Respiratory illnesses from the open fire in the living space. Mosquito-borne diseases. Each of these causes can be tackled — and that is better than treating the consequences.
Treat
The children we support usually have health insurance with our help. However, insurance in Nepal has numerous restrictions — it only applies in state hospitals and only within one's own province. Especially in difficult and acute cases, in which the local hospital has to refer onwards, the costs are therefore no longer covered.
In addition, there are children with serious illnesses who need long-term therapy, and children with intellectual and physical disabilities who likewise need permanent treatment. A separate health fund exists for this.
After year ten
After year 10 comes the SEE, the central final examination. Those who continue at school afterwards go into years 11 and 12 — in Nepal already college — and there the costs rise considerably. The sponsorship no longer covers this. The education fund exists for this.
About a quarter of the children we support are at this point or close to it.
Where this leads
A part of our work that is also very important to us does not appear under any of the three headings: supporting families in building their own income. This has a relatively quick effect — a family that supports itself manages without us sooner.
In the long term, something else has an effect, and no single measure leads there: that a child grows up healthy, receives the education it needs, and thereby stands as an independent and self-sustaining member of its society. That is what the support in all areas achieves together, over years.
Some help has an end that it works towards. Other help remains and has to be funded anew every year. Both are necessary, and one is not the lesser way of helping.
Ask us
This page explains the principle, not every single booking. If you would like to know more, write to us — with one of these questions or one of your own.
01How do you ensure that the money actually arrives?
By keeping it in our own hands. The Help Shop is part of Namaste Kids, not a partner of it; the proceeds go into the same account as everything else the organisation funds. Nothing is passed on to third parties. And because the need is greater than the means, the money does not sit for long: what is available is used — for the purposes described on this page.
02Who decides which project is funded?
We do, together, according to urgency. There is no ranking by visibility or by what makes a good story. What is most urgent comes first.
03Can I support a specific project?
Yes — write to us. Earmarking individual purchases is not currently possible, and there is a reason for this: the need is greater than the means. If we distributed money according to buyers' wishes, the urgent would be left undone while the popular was funded. Anyone who would like to support a specific undertaking should talk to us; then we will find the right way.
04How does a sponsorship work?
A sponsorship with Namaste Kids is a direct sponsorship: the sponsors pay the monthly contribution for a specific child — or for siblings, or for several children. Mostly they are individuals, sometimes a school class, a company, a neighbourhood or a circle of friends.
The contribution covers what a child needs to grow up: school, clothing, food, basic care in case of illness — and support. This is not an extra. Money and materials alone do not change a child's situation permanently; support over years does.
Sponsors have their own password-protected area in which they can follow the development of their sponsored child in photos and videos, see month by month what the contribution was used for, get in touch with the child and, if needed, help separately. There is also a small wish list — for birthdays or for Christmas. Anyone who wishes can visit their sponsored child.
A sponsorship does not end on a date, but when the child no longer needs the support. That contact continues beyond that is not an exception, but welcome.
05I have a different question.
Then write it to us using the form below. We reply personally.
