DANG, June 3 -- Sixteen-year-old Kalpana Adhikari, a tenth grader, came from Kalikot to Tulsipur. She was a little girl when she lost her father in the armed conflict. Soon after, her mother married another man, leaving Kalpana to chart out her own path.

Six years ago, Kalpana joined the Shahid Smriti Residential Secondary School at Bankatti in Tulsipur sub-metropolis. The boarding school is home to 189 girls like Kalpana; most having lost their parents or guardians at an early age.

The child victims of the armed conflict that lasted from 1996 to 2006 have now grown into young adults but the protected life they live inside the four walls of boarding school haven't prepared them for the world outside. To rectify this, the sub-metropolis ...