By Shraddha Shrestha

KATHMANDU, Jan 6 – Pramila Chaudhary, who has just crossed her teenage has been living alone for the past two years, confident that she can adjust well in society even though she never got the privilege to have a family of her own.

Pramila works as a librarian at Bal Mandir, Naxal and is at present taking painting classes for the children in the winter camp at the Bal Mandir.

“I am happy to earn on my own and live alone,” says Pramila, who spent 16 years of her life at the Orphanages in Bal Mandir and Nepal Girl Care Centre (NGCC).

There are many like Pramila, who have spent many years of their lives in the orphanages and yet face the society with certain boldness.

A huge part of the credit goes to Devi Lama, 43, who is a mother figure of 26 teenaged girls like Pramila after they come out of Bal Mandir. She operates the NGCC, the home for teenaged girls which teaches them to be independent and help them to adjust in the society.

“It was in NGCC I learnt a lot about the society, about which I was completly unaware before,” says Pramila. “Now that I am on my own, I sometimes fear how people and the society takes me as I am living alone, otherwise I am totally confident to face all challenges.”

Every year five girls are taken into NGCC from Bal Mandir, says Lama. “We try to choose girls who are sisters so as not to break their relations,” says Lama, where the girls stay for three years.

It is during this period of three years that the girls get engaged in full-time academics or vocational trainings like computer and gardening. “This gives the girls a chance to find respectful employment once they leave the center,” says Lama, who has two children of her own.

Being orphans, they have their own share of fears and complexes. “They have a problem when it comes to decision making, opinion formation and socialization,” says Ganga Pathak. “And are highly vulnerable about emotions, insecurity.”

Pathak says that repeated counsellings help the girls cast off their fears and build a positive attitude. “The girls are regularly monitored and psychologically assessed and receive counselling accordingly,” she says.

Lama says she gets mixed feelings – of anxiety and exhilaration when these girls leave their home of three years and step out.

“Personally there is lot of pain when the girls are leaving but official release of these girls is a must. Otherwise their track will be disturbed and they will not be able to build their own careers and life ahead,” says Lama, whose NGCC is supported by a Swedish agency Kd-k.