Parenting training in Nepal

The success of the ICS parenting training has not passed unnoticed by other development organisations. The training, developed by ICS, is scientifically proven and can be adapted relatively simply to implement in other areas and countries. Karuna Foundation, an ngo that supports disabled children in Nepal, is the first ngo besides ICS that has started to implement the method. In the past year 332 parents have been trained in 15 different villages.

Prevent violence against children
The main goal of the training in Nepal is to prevent violence against children. Research has proven that disabled children are even more likely to become victims of physical and/or emotional violence. By introducing parents to positive parenting techniques Karuna Foundation hopes to prevent this in the future.

Prior to the training, parents were being questionned on their vision on parenting. 68% of the participants had a positive attitude towards physical punishments to discipline children. With these outcomes as a starting point the parents went through the 12 week training together and treated several subjects: communication within families, the developmental stages of children, positive forms of discipline and so on. After the training parents will be questionned again to be able to make a proper comparison.

In 2016 ICS and Karuna Foundation signed a partnership agreement after which an employee of ICS travelled to Nepal to train a group of future mastertrainers and field trainers. In 2017 Karuna Foundation started the training themselves in the district of Ilam: in 15 villages a total number of 332 parents were trained.