• School education:
  The school education of our protégés is supported by your sponsorship up to the completion of the 12th grade. Our local team ensures that your sponsored child attends school regularly and maintains close contact with the child’s family. If necessary, we will support the academic performance of your sponsored child through private tutoring. To ensure that teachers are able to support children in their learning journey in the best possible way, we organise regular in-service training. The aim of the direct sponsorship is to accompany the children until the end of their school education. This gives them the best chance of living a self-determined, fulfilled life.
• School clothing:
  The children receive a school uniform once a year. We support this because a school uniform is compulsory in Nepal and has to be financed by the families themselves. To ensure that children from poor families are not different from others or even have to stay at home, Back to Life provides school uniforms every year. Additionally we equip the children with a set of winter clothes.
• Infrastructure:
  Back to Life invests with your help in the construction of safe school buildings with bright, spacious classrooms and adequate equipment with benches, desks and blackboards. At each school we ensure that there is a toilet block and running water for drinking and hand washing. We also plant and design schoolyards so that the children feel comfortable and enjoy learning.
• Teaching materials:
  The following teaching aids are provided: Exercise books, pencils, sharpeners, pens, erasers, compasses, set squares, and a variety of classroom materials. Schools are equipped with libraries so that there is always enough exciting reading material available. At some schools, Back to Life provides a hot, balanced lunch every day.
• Medical care:
  Our local team makes sure that your sponsored child attends regular medical examinations and receives early treatment in case of illness. In the event of a medical emergency, Back to Life will cover the cost of medical care and transportation to an appropriate medical facility. Of course, there is always a parent or guardian present. Through our school health care program, your sponsored child will learn to prevent illness and receive essential hygiene items.
• The whole family:
  Back to Life offers trainings & workshops on important topics such as agriculture, hygiene, health, children’s and women’s rights, earthquake safety and environmental protection. Your sponsored child’s family will also benefit. In our Child Clubs your sponsored child can become active for the protection of the environment or learn to demand his right to education and a life without child marriage. If necessary, the family of your sponsored child will be supported through targeted measures to generate income and secure basic supplies.

A direct sponsorship with Back to Life is possible for 50 EUR or 75 EUR per month.

This is due to the fact that the effort for a sponsorship program in Nepal as well as in Germany is very high and of course we want to guarantee a high quality and consistent support for both the children and the sponsors.

Additional staff and some logistical costs are essential for home visits to families and for reporting and exchanging letters. Thus, in addition to contributing to the well-being of the child and his or her family, the sponsorship program must also cover its own costs.

Since Back to Life does not want to offer the sponsorship program as a mass product, economies of scale of these operational costs are limited. This means that through the monthly amount we ensure that even as a small organisation in development aid we can guarantee high-quality care for sponsored children.

With a school sponsorship, the monthly donations regularly support our school projects. In the process, many students and schools benefit from your support.

In a school sponsorship, there is no direct contact with a specific child. We inform our school sponsors about the progress of our educational projects through our magazine “namaste”, which is published three times a year. The monthly amount can be freely chosen and flexibly adjusted according to their financial situation.

The gifts for your sponsored child and his or her siblings or family can be purchased directly on site by our staff in Nepal according to your budgetary requirements and ideas. This is more cost effective as there are no international transport costs, supports the local economy, is quick and is also environmentally responsible. In addition, there have unfortunately been problems with customs again and again in the past.

Therefore, we hope for your understanding that no gifts will be sent from Germany to Nepal, but will be purchased locally, taking your wishes into account.

We would like to point out that most of the sponsored children have siblings and that the privilege of a gift from Germany for a single child may lead to disappointment or resentment among siblings without their own sponsor. Therefore, we welcome ideas for gifts that can be shared below the siblings.

There are two options for choosing gifts:

• You transfer the desired amount and our staff will select a suitable gift based on their experience and personal contact with the child’s family, without direct consultation with you. In this case, you will also receive photos of the delivery and a letter from the child.
• You tell us the amount you would like to transfer and we ask for the current needs of the child or his family, if you also want to send something to the relatives. We will inform you accordingly and only when you agree to the gift, it will be purchased. After that, you will receive photos of the delivery and a letter from the child.

You are welcome to get in touch with your godchild. The easiest way is to send us an e-mail with your message and if necessary to send a photos to children@back-to-life.org. Alternatively, you can send your message to our office in Bad Homburg by mail. You can write the message for your godchild in German or English. We will then forward your letter to your godchild. In order to make the contact as quick and inexpensive as possible, we transmit your message electronically to our colleagues in Nepal. There, the sponsor mail is printed out and then personally handed over to your sponsored child, if necessary with a translation into Nepalese.

• What should be considered when sending e-mails or letters to the godchild?
  In terms of content, we recommend that you tell your godchild about your family and your life in Germany in an age-appropriate way. Photos often help build a personal connection. Due to the much lower standard of living in Nepal, especially among the families of the sponsored children, there is often little shared experience between sponsors and sponsored children – but this is precisely what can make the exchange all the more valuable if these differences are dealt with sensitively. Material topics should be avoided as far as possible; the focus of the exchange is on getting to know each other personally.
  
  Both she and her parents are not used to writing letters. Especially not with addressees who do not know them personally and come from a foreign country. Our team is therefore available to support the children when they write a message to their sponsors. However, the focus is on the authenticity of the message, not the volume. Younger children often find it easier to draw something for their godparents. In any case, the exchange with the godparents is a unique experience for the children, through which they can learn a lot. Therefore, as a sponsor, do not be disappointed if a response is shorter than you had hoped. Your sponsored child is having a new, exciting experience just like you.

A response can take up to three months. In most cases it is quicker, but as some places are very remote and difficult to reach, especially in winter or the rainy season, it can sometimes take longer. Please feel free to contact us at children@back-to-life.org to inquire about the current status.

We would be happy to enable you to visit your sponsored child in Nepal, should you decide to take this holiday trip. However, we cannot act as a tour operator, the planning and financing of the trip would have to be ensured by yourself.

Of course, we are happy to arrange a meeting with your godchild on site. 

We would be delighted if you would share your sponsorship with family and friends and perhaps even inspire others to do so. However, you should not make any information or pictures of the child publicly available, because apart from general data protection regulations, according to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the child also has the right not to have his or her data published without consent. However, you are welcome to tell us about your sponsored child, e.g. by using the general information about the region or the living conditions that we provide.

Support through a direct sponsorship with Back to Life e.V. can be provided up to the completion of the 12th grade. When your sponsored child successfully graduates from high school, you will have traveled a long, crucial road together. The end of the sponsorship in this case is a real reason for joy. You have played a decisive role in ensuring that your godchild can now venture the start of a self-determined adult life. Wish your godchild all the best for his or her future path and review the development of the last few years. If you wish to enable another child to follow this path, we will be happy to make a proposal for a new direct sponsorship for a child in need.

Please understand that communication can only take place via our office (email) and not directly between you and your godchild (by post or telephone). This is done, among other things, for reasons of duty of care, logistics as well as data protection.

Your sponsorship can be cancelled at any time and ends in the same month of your announcement. Notice should be given in writing, but an email is sufficient.

Please use the e-mail address  children@back-to-life.org.

In our response, we will confirm receipt of your cancellation and termination of your sponsorship. Direct debit mandates will be terminated accordingly by us on the requested date. If you have set up a standing order with Back to Life e.V., please remember to cancel it with your bank.

If the sponsored child moves with his or her parents to another district where Back to Life does not work, if the child finishes school, drops out of school or marries, the direct sponsorship ends.

We would also like to take your personal preferences and ideas into account when arranging sponsor children. Unfortunately, we cannot provide you with a selection of children for data protection reasons.

Primary and secondary education in Nepal is based on a so-called 10+2 system, whereby students (can) attend school for a total of 12 years. The grades are divided into 4 phases:

• Elementary school (grades 1-5)
• Lower secondary school (grades 6-8)
• Middle Secondary School (Grades 9-10) Here students can obtain the so-called School Leaving Certificate (SLC) after successful completion of the final examination.
• Higher Secondary Education (Grades 11-12). This is where another final exam takes place. Upon passing this exam, students earn a university entrance qualification.

In most states of Nepal, English is taught as a school subject from the first grade, and in private schools English is the language of instruction. But even in public schools, the language of instruction is increasingly being switched to English. Basically, this differs from municipality to municipality because the government has given the municipalities the responsibility for education. In our schools in Chitwan and Mugu there is currently only one compulsory English subject from the first grade, all other subjects are taught in Nepali.