Future Citizen is helping people gain independence

Future Citizen was established in 2010 by Birbahadur (Bibi) Funyal. In the Year of 2013 the Children’s help organization was approved by the Nepalese authorities. Bibi Funyal was born in the mountain village Jiri and is very aware of the challenging living conditions in his home. Even with the lack of opportunities, he has graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Political Sciences and Journalism. In 2015 he graduated with a Master’s Degree in English Literature.

Bibi Funyal, Founder and Director of Future Citizen Nepal

Bibi Funyal is currently working as a mountain guide, journalist and photographer. His main goal in life is to create the Children’s help organization Future Citizen, which he is voluntarily leading. He financed the majority of the build-up process of the organization. His goal is to improve lifes and educate the children in Jiri so that they will be able to support themselves in the long run and hopefully help and affect the lifes of children to come after them. In this way a cycle of “helping to become independent” will arise.

To learn more about Bibi Funyal, discover his interview as video.

Financial help, especially after the 2015 Earthquake

Dr. Reiner Meierbeck, initiator of the German help cycle for Future Citizen, met Bibi Funyal in 2007 as he was on a trip in Nepal. Since then, he has been supporting Funyal’s aid organization financially. The big earthquake in 2015 inspired him to start a call for donations. He was able to collect 14,500€ by the end of 2015. To see the location of the organisation with his own eyes and to drop off 100 kg of donated relief supplies, he visited Nepal in Autumn of 2015 with Andreas Wolter. The relief supplies included childrens clothes, toys, school supplies and even laptops and learning programs.

Travel to Nepal – with 100 kg relief supplies as luggage.

Meierbecks urge to help the organization long term was sparked after having conversations with Bibi Funyal. This was the start of the founding team that has been distributing multiple tasks and responsibilities to other people in Nepal and Germany and hiring expert goal oriented team-members of the Children’s Help Program since 2015.

Because of the combination of local expertise, engagement, idealism and know-how in business administration with 40 years of experience in international management jobs in the automobile industry, are we confident that we will ensure success. Yet, we are aware of the problems of great distance between Germany and Nepal and cultural/ language blocks

Distribution of tasks at Future Citizens

The tasks of Future Citizen are distributed between Nepal and Germany by the following:

Team Nepal

Children’s house: Care and support of the children and all their activities, to keep the home running smoothly
Building project surveillance (new children's house)
Sending regularly status updates to Germany
Generation of local donations.

Team Germany

Sales and marketing (especially generating donations)
Building project management (new children house)
Finance Management , Controlling
IT (ex.: Creating and running the website)
Supervising the donations,
Foster families and partners
Public relations, event management
Membership with Freunde Nepals e.V.

German Team, from left to right: Andreas Wolter, Cédric de Graverol, Reiner Meierbeck,
Elisa Frey, Stephan Hehne, Patrick Strunkmann-Meister, Wiebke Brömme

Strategic Decisions of the Organization

There are many important and strategic decisions made by Future Citizen in the structure of international collaboration between Nepal and Germany:

building of an own kids house within the Kathmandu metropolitan area,
participating to the supervisory board of Bholika Nagarik *
taking in new kids,
larger investments and expenditure: buying and Installation of Solar panels, furniture and equipment, (school uniforms etc.)

The activities are coordinated via Skype over a 3-week period, as well as on-site visits. Calls are logged. The status of planned activities is regularly updated. * Bholika Nagarik is the nepalese counterpart of Future Citizen e.V.