How PEP Works
A Comprehensive, High-touch Strategy Built on 8 Interconnected Pillars of Support
PEP focuses on helping those who want to be helped. Children are referred by local community members, schools, and Ward offices. We select children from families who care about their kids and simply want them to develop their potential — not the academically gifted, but the genuinely motivated.
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PEP pays monthly school fees directly to the school — never to the parent. Each family partners financially by contributing a small portion of the cost. This shared commitment builds ownership, dignity, and accountability on both sides.
Our field officer acts as each student's advocate inside the school system, since many parents are unable to navigate it or are illiterate. Every child has someone in their corner. Here is Anup with his Principal during a PEP field officer visit. Anup has since graduated. Any issues are immediately handled as the parents often can't.Â
Our field officer visits each school and family home every single month — monitoring progress, identifying tutoring needs, checking parental engagement, and maintaining trusted relationships. This consistent, high-touch presence is a vital component of removing the paradigms of poverty the child grows up within.
Vital personal development covering life skills, vocational awareness, emotional health, physical hygiene, and spiritual grounding. This is the piece that takes poverty out of the child — teaching what parents cannot teach and what school does not offer. The kids love it - it's a highlight of their learning.Â
PEP hosts regular seminars for parents covering student encouragement, nutrition, hygiene, parenting skills, and lifestyle development. Parents are learners in PEP too — their growth directly shapes their child's future.
PEP tutors provide individual academic support so each student meets grade standards. They also teach study habits and provide hands-on practical help — ensuring no child falls behind for lack of personal attention. We work to keep each student achieving what they are truly capable of, without pushing for academic success as the goal. PEP's goal is to prepare the child for success beyond school in a vocational context that allows them to achieve, enjoy, and grow.Â
PEP+ is an emergency / opportunity fund underneath everything else PEP does, all indirectly relted to the community of PEP beneficiaries.Â
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School fees keep a child enrolled. Enrichment builds their life skills. But a child can't focus on either one when their home is unstable. PEP+ exists for exactly that — stepping in fast when a family hits a crisis, so the child's world stays steady, in school, while the family regroups.
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It also funds professional development for local under-trained teachers. When possible, PEP+ enables cottage industry coaching so parents can become financially stable (and don't need PEP funding).
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PEP+ sits outside the direct cost of schooling and vary — typically 3-4% of PEP's total annual budget.
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The exact amount changes year to year, because real need doesn't arrive on a schedule.
Click each section to learn more. . .Â
The Monthly Cost of PEP per Learner
Schooling Support
$30/month
Life Skills Enrichment Program
$8/month
In-Country PEP Program Management
$7/month
$45/month — $540/year — One child, fully supported.
Built to Waste Less
Most sponsorship programs link one donor to one child — a system that sounds simple but carries real costs: individual tracking, matching, correspondence, administration, repeated for every single child, every single year.
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PEP was designed differently — and designed in Nepal, by Nepali leadership who had already seen those costs firsthand running other sponsorship programs. Instead of importing a model from the outside, they built one from the ground up: a cohort of Helpers funding a cohort of Learners together. Less overhead. Less duplication. More of every dollar reaching an actual classroom.
Our Cohort Model
A Cohort of "Helpers" Supports a Cohort of "Learners"
Helpers
Learners
Lower overhead vs donor-to-student models
Lower expense = More Impact
Every Dollar Helps Every Child
Funding PEP - Here's Where it Goes
