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© 2021 Omar Havana
KATHMANDU, NEPAL - FEBRUARY 12: A young girl passes by a sign pointing to the importance of education outside of a school in Chandol on February 12, 2015 in Kathmandu, Nepal. Schools in Nepal often display signs about the importance of education as a part of raising awareness amongst the population of the need to send children to schools. Globally, 58 million children of primary school age are out of school, in addition to 63 million adolescents between the ages of 12 and 15, due to a range of factors, from gender discrimination to disability, to ethnicity-based discrimination, to child marriage, to poverty, amongst other issues. In Nepal, where approximately 40% of the population lives in poverty, many families cannot afford to send their children to school, as they cannot pay for uniforms, textbooks, and transportation to schools that are often far away from their homes. Families also often need their children to work in order to supplement the family’s income. As a result, approximately 1.2 million children between the ages of 5 and 16 are currently out of school. While the problem is exacerbated in rural areas, families living in slums and other poor communities in or near large urban areas, including Kathmandu, are also affected. Photo: © Omar Havana for UNICEF ROSA
