Spotlight on CAC:
Parent-Teacher Associations Provide the Key to Success!
Community Action Center-Nepal (CAC) assists child laborers and children at risk of being trafficked for labor and sexual exploitation in the Bhaktapur District. Over 400 children were identified for this project as possible beneficiaries. Selection was carried out on the basis of ethnicity, sex, and socio-economic status. Of the 100 children who were able to benefit from CAC’s work, twenty were enrolled in formal schools under direct scholarship programs. The remaining 80, higher in age and at greater risk of sexual exploitation and trafficking, were selected for non-formal education classes.


September 2005. CAC established four NFE Centers in Kamal Binayak, Surya Binayak, Thimi and Katunje, Nepal. After their launch, CAC held a series of meetings to create a sense of project ownership. CAC trained teachers and conducted facilitator’s reviews to monitor the progress of the children. In addition, CAC formed Parent-Teacher Associations. The members became actively involved in monitoring the centres and motivating the children.

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Parents discuss skill development during a CAC-initiated meeting
Since then, CAC Nepal has realized that functioning PTAs are one of the most important elements for project effectiveness and sustainability. CAC now offers additional capacity-building trainings to PTA members to provide guidance to children and employment counseling to parents. The PTAs act as a pressure group to speak against child labor in the community and advocate for education.

Because PTA members belong to the same society, they feel ownership of the project. Today, the PTAs conduct non-formal education classes at minimal cost and without outside financial support. CAC continues to facilitate and advocated for the PTAs and has successfully carried out advocacy with the local government to include the PTAs in their annual budget.