Gandaki

Country information

In 1978, construction of the SOS Children's Village Gandaki started at the small town of Pokhara. This SOS Children's Village was inaugurated in 1981. Pokhara is about 6 hours by car from the capital, Kathmandu. The SOS Children's Village Gandaki is for Nepali children, while the town's second SOS Children's Village at Pokhara-Chhorepatan is for Tibetan refugee children. The SOS Children's Village Gandaki consists of 15 family houses, a community centre, a house for aunts and the Village Director's house as well as some administrative buildings. On the site of the SOS Children's Village, there is also a temple. An SOS Youth House, where teenagers are given the opportunity to prepare for their independent lives while they are still at school, college or university, or doing vocational training, was inaugurated in 1994. At first, the SOS School Gandaki consisted of two school buildings at different sites, a primary and a secondary school. In 2001, it was decided to construct a new building for the primary school at the site of the secondary school and to turn the old building of the primary school into an SOS Social Centre for Mother and Child with an SOS Kindergarten, a day-care centre and a health centre. The people from the neighbourhood can send their children to the SOS Kindergarten, the day-care centre and the SOS School. They can seek medical attention at the health centre.