Terre des hommes in Nepal  – A brief historical overview 
 
Programme Foundations: 1982 – 1985.

The first interim Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed with the Social Services National Coordinating Committee (SSNCC), under the Panchayat regime in late 1983 and was valid for three years. The goal of Tdh’s MOU was to research needs and set up projects for street children in Kathmandu and for physically disabled children.
 
The original groundwork had been carried out by a Tdh itinerant delegate during 1982/83, with the aim of starting projects for street children. During the research phase, the delegate came across Dr. Ashok Banskota, when seeking to arrange an operation for a disabled street child, and from that encounter, the early concept of a post-operative rehabilitation facility grew.

Dr. Banskota, having returned from the USA after completing post-graduate qualification as an orthopaedic surgeon (Fellow of the American College of Surgeons), was working voluntarily for Patan Hospital, the Adventist Hospital at Banepa, and trying to develop his own practice as a surgeon at Kathmandu Nursing Home (many years later, the B & B Hospital). The idea of a post-op rehab concept was developed and Dr. Banskota agreed to work on a part-time basis for Tdh, as the Medical Director.

The SSNCC proposed a local NGO partner on the rehabilitation concept, the Nepal Disabled Association (NDA), which had a campus situated at Jorpati to the east of Bouddhanath in Kathmandu.  The term ‘Nursing Home’ was approved and the signing of the interim MOU went ahead in late 1983.

In 1984, Tdh went ahead with planning and design of the Nursing Home for Disabled Children (NDC), with the aim of offering surgery, post-operative care and rehabilitation to children with musculo-skeletal disabilities. Tdh employed its first interim delegate on a part-time basis, John Sanday, an English restoration architect, to design the NDC and follow through on the MOU approval process. He was assisted by the first Tdh employee, administrative assistant, Sushil Thapa.

Tdh found funding for construction of the NDC from Misereor in Germany, and work on foundations at the NDA’s Jorpati campus commenced in late 1984. On the same campus, the Ryder Cheshire Foundation (British) was funding an adult rehab hostel for the disabled, dispensing funds via the British Ambassador, and SCF-UK supported an orphanage for disabled children via individual child sponsorship, both under NDA management.

This was to become the management model also for Tdh’s project, with the NDC management committee comprising three Tdh members (delegate, medical director, head of physiotherapy), two NDA members and one from the SSNCC Child Welfare Coordinating Committee. Financing of the project was 100% Tdh, which would appoint a ‘Project-in-Charge’, the delegate, responsible for day-to-day management and administration, but who would report to the NDA and the SSNCC via the NDC Committee.

Planning on the second project for street children in Kathmanmdu went ahead, and a new 5-year MOU was drafted and began the approval process in 1985.  Three weeks before the planned signing date of the formal 5-year MOU in early 1986, the street children project was rejected when presented to the Queen for approval since “there were no street children in Kathmandu".
 
The Nursing Home for Disabled Children: (1985 – June 1990)
The Hospital for Disabled Children: (June 1990 – December 1992)
 H.M. the Queen officially opened the NDC in late 1985, with King Birendra in attendance.
 
Tdh Country Representatives

1984: John Sanday, part-time acting delegate for Tdh, UK national

1985-1986: Alain Zumbrunnen, Swiss national (social worker)

1987: Walther Ebnother, Swiss national.

1988-1990: Frank Terwindt, Dutch national (physiotherapist)

1990-1999: Rob Millman (UK national)

2001-2004: Barbara Weyermann (Swiss national)

2004-2006: Reinhard Fichtl (German national)

2007-2011: Joseph Aguettant (French national)

2011 to till date: Jason Squire (Australian national)