2020 ANNUAL REPORT – Sunrise Children’s Assoc. Inc.

A message from the CEO

Like many of you, 2019-20 has been a challenging year for us with the outbreak of Covid-19 impacting the daily lives of our donors, our teams in Australia and Nepal, and the hundreds of children and families we support. Despite the challenges, we are very happy to share that with the ongoing generosity of our donors, we have been able to maintain our support of those we are committed to in Nepal. For that we are deeply grateful.

In line with our 5-year plan, we continued to focus on Prevention, Rescue and Reintegration. Through our education scholarship and livelihood development programs, we helped prevent hundreds of children potentially being trafficked, enticed, or willingly sent from their homes in the hope of a better life and education elsewhere, into early marriage or child labour. We continued to provide nurturing, family-based care for children who had been rescued from orphanages or children’s home or other situations of abuse or neglect at Sunrise Home. We traced, reconnected, and reintegrated many of the children from Sunrise Home back into their biological families and continued supporting them there.

Whilst none of the children or families we support have been directly impacted by Covid-19 from a health perspective, they have been heavily impacted by schools being closed since late March when the academic year ended, and lengthy periods of lockdown and restricted movement. Most of the children we support live in rural areas with limited access to internet and telecommunications, so have been unable to undertake online learning. Most children received their new textbooks however, and with the support of siblings and our dedicated team, have been studying to the best of their ability at home. Directly prior to the initial lockdown, most children were able to sit their end of year exams, with 95% passing! We also saw positive progress made by their families through new or expanded income generation activities.

Over the next 12 months, we will continue to focus on protecting, educating, and empowering children and their families, so they can improve their lives in ways that are meaningful and economically sustainable. We will continue to help strengthen family unity and the capacity to provide the children with safe, nurturing homes. We will continue to put in place safety measures and adapt the way we work, to help ensure that the children and families that rely on our support stay positive, active and on their paths to much brighter futures.

I continue to be amazed at how resilient our team and the people of Nepal are, and how much we and they have achieved through the ups and downs. We remain inspired and committed to our vision, and we hope you will continue on this journey with us. Heartfelt thanks again to every one that has supported us in some way over this past 12 months and to those that continue to do so. Without your generous support, none of this would be possible.

 Sincerely,