Maggie Doyne wins $100,000!

Mendham, NJ: Maggie took off after high school to see the world and when she was trekking through the Himalayas, she stumbled upon hundreds of kids living in the streets, orphaned by years of human rights violations and war. Maggie knew she could stay and make a difference in these childrens' lives, granting them the rights that every child around the world should have. She built and now runs Kopila Valley Children's Home in Nepal, housing these innocent victims and saving them from lives of instability and hunger.
Through her work, Maggie has given shelter to 24 kids, sent 60 others to school, and assisted in the placement of over 700 orphans in the region. She has tackled human rights issues in the region, improving the lives of children affected by violence, child labor, sex trafficking, and poverty.

Learn more about Kopila Valley Children's Home

How you can get involved with Kopila Valley Children's Home

• Sponsor a child or project

• Send small gifts to the children (poems, pictures, bracelets)

About the human rights of children

According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all people around the world are entitled to basic human rights; rights like freedom of speech, education, and protection from violence. But millions aren’t guaranteed these rights, and children are usually the most vulnerable victims of human rights abuses. Recognizing this, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, passed the Convention on the Rights of the Child to make sure these rights are protected, but everyday around the world children fall by the wayside of neglect, hunger, and war. Kids make up more than half of the world’s refugees.

Child-laborers, child-soldiers, abused children, orphans living on the street, and children without access to education are commonplace in the developing world. In the developing world, over 143 million children are orphans. In one year alone, around 16 million children are orphaned. Orphans are the kids who are most likely to be kidnapped and used as sex slaves, child soldiers, and laborers.

Genocide and other kinds of ongoing violence leaves millions of children orphaned each year. The 1994 genocide in Rwanda lasted only 100 days, but created 95,000 new orphans. The amount of uncared for kids left in the wake of the ongoing genocides in places like Darfur is unimaginable.

Ways to take action

• Work with your school to work genocide lesson plans into your curriculum to spread awareness.
• Sign Amnesty International’s pledge to become a part of the solution to human rights violations.
• Get in touch with UNICEF to see what you can do for orphans and kids in different parts of the world.