Dream Nepal is a non-governmental development organisation (NGDO) that was founded at the end of 2015 with the aim of creating and maintaining several residential homes in Kathmandu, Nepal. These homes provide shelter, food, medical care, schooling and psychosocial support to children who are imprisoned in Nepal with their mothers because there is no one else to care for them while their mothers serve their sentences. This initiative is known as the MalaHome Project. At the request of the mothers, Dream Nepal removes the children from the hostile environment and precarious conditions of prison life in order to offer them a development on equal terms with children living in freedom, thereby giving them the opportunity to build a better future.
From 2016 until December 2024, Dream Nepal opened three residential care homes, which are currently home to fifty-two children aged between five and seventeen. Since 2019, the organisation has also run a flat for young women who, having reached the age of eighteen and therefore having to leave the MalaHome Project, move on to the Young Women’s Project. This is a flat supervised by Dream Nepal but managed independently by the young women themselves, where, through education and small complementary jobs, they are able to enter the labour market and ultimately achieve social and economic independence. In 2024, the young women living in this flat completed their studies and left the Project, fully prepared to begin their independent lives socially, economically and professionally, and were replaced by three other young women who had reached adulthood.
Dream Nepal directly employs twenty local staff members who are responsible for managing the homes and implementing the health, nutrition, education and psychosocial support programmes. In addition, Dream Nepal’s projects have a very positive impact on the local socio-economic fabric, as all food supplies, schooling and resources are sourced from local businesses and professionals.
The donation made by Invest for Children in 2025 was used to cover the food costs of 18 of the children in care (one residential home), and in 2026 collaboration with this same project continues, with support being allocated to school-related expenses. As a significant new development during the past year, and also thanks to the collaboration of Invest for Children, Emiliano Matesanz from Lila Juegos Reciclados returned to the project, having previously collaborated in 2022. On this occasion, he repaired the games made from recycled materials, ran a workshop on building metal toy cars, and created a new play structure consisting of a large balance on which the children can climb and play, further strengthening the educational, recreational and sustainable value of the project.
You can find more information at:
www.dreamnepal.org
https://www.facebook.com/ongdreamnepal
https://www.instagram.com/ongdreamnepal
https://www.youtube.com/@ongdreamnepal
