About NOH, Inc.

NEPAL ORPHANS HOME
Nepal Orphans Home, a 501(c)3 public charity incorporated in Davidson, North Carolina, was founded in 2005 by Michael Hess. As a volunteer in Nepal, Michael was moved by the plight of the children he witnessed living in poverty, often exploited, and vulnerable to the political turmoil and social upheaval in contemporary Nepal.

Mission Statement:
Nepal Orphans Home attends to the total welfare of children in Nepal who are orphaned, abandoned, or not supported by their parents. Papa’s House provides for the children’s basic needs of food, shelter, and clothing, as well as schooling and health care, and administers to their emotional needs with love and compassion. Papa’s House allows children to grow up in a nurturing environment. The mission of Nepal Orphans Home is not just to rescue children from abject poverty, but to enable the children to develop and realize their potentials.

Brief History:
Nepal Orphans Home (NOH) began in 2005 with a dozen children in a two-story building in Dhapasi, Nepal. In addition, rooms in the home were used for a primary school during the day. In 2008 Papa’s House had 51 children living in two four-story buildings in Dhapasi in the Kathmandu valley. Working with a local charity, SWAN (Society Welfare Action Nepal), Nepal Orphans Home opened a third home in Lamahi in western Nepal for 26 Kamlari girls rescued from sale into domestic servitude, factory work, or the sex trade.

From the beginning, all of the children at Papa’s House have attended school. Papa’s Trinity Academy began in 2005 as a school for children of Papa’s House. Other children from the local village were also invited to attend this school. In 2007 over 340 children attended Papa’s Trinity Academy, located in a five-story building in nearby Basundhara. NOH paid the majority of the children’s fees to attend this school. In 2008, with the turmoil in Nepal, Papa’s Trinity Academy changed hands and is no longer supported by Nepal Orphans Home. The children of Papa’s House I and II in Dhapasi presently attend the Skylark school, an English-only speaking school nearby. The Kamlari girls of Papa’s House III in Lamahi attend the local public school.

Nepal Orphans Home supports two remote primary schools in the hilly region of the Ramechhap district, where we fund the educational needs and teachers, as well as provide a daily hot lunch program. The Shree Sham School in Dumrikharka and the Mudkeswori School in Votetar have 104 and 38 students, respectively.  Many of the children attending the former school are Dalits, or ‘untouchables’ in the caste system. In Votetar, a support system for the school has been created that is co-dependent upon each parent contributing, which has raised the morale of the village.

Nepal Orphans Home also has an active volunteer program, Volunteer Nepal, which strives to serve and enhance the relationship between the Nepalese people and committed, compassionate volunteers. In 2007 nearly two dozen volunteers from all over the world, including the United States, Australia, Canada, England, South Africa, and New Zealand, came to Nepal to work with NOH. Not only enhancing the mission of NOH, many of these volunteers had life-changing experiences. Already in 2008 over two dozen volunteers have served or are scheduled to serve with Nepal Orphans Home.

Affiliations:
Nepal Orphans Home is listed with GoodSearch (www.goodsearch.com), an international search engine that donates one cent for every internet search when Papas House is designated, and UniversalGiving (www.universalgiving.org), an international non-profit social entrepreneurship that brings together donors and worthy nongovernmental organizations.

In 2008 Nepal Orphans Home was awarded an Emily Sandall Memorial Grant to enable the children of Papa’s House to create posters depicting how they would view a world without exploitive child labor.

NOH Board of Directors:
Brenda Barger, News Reporter, Davidson, North Carolina
Carola Drosdeck, Elementary Teacher, Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Chauncey K. Gregory, South Carolina Senator, Company President, Lancaster, South Carolina
Barbara Hess, Secretary-Treasurer of NOH, Davidson, North Carolina
Michael Hess, Founder of NOH, Director of Operations, Dhapasi, Nepal
Peter Hess, President of NOH, Professor of Economics, Davidson, North Carolina
George N. McNeil, Physician, Steep Falls, Maine
Antonia (Toni) Thomson, Senior Video Editor/Documentary Filmmaker, Toronto, Ontario
Marcie Westphalen, Preschool Teacher, Raleigh, North Carolina

NOH Board of Advisers:
Fiona S. Gilbert, Migration Agent, Mountain View, California
Thomas D. Gilbert, Business Manager, Mountain View, California
Aaron Hess, Mainframe Operator, South Daytona, Florida
Benjamin Hess, Director of Communications, Rockville, Maryland
Jerry Hess, Attorney, Brooklyn, New York
Anna K. Merrill, Researcher/Doctoral Student, New York City, New York
Mamta Singh, Medical Doctor, Kathmandu, Nepal

back to top