Maggie Doyne, winner of the CNN Hero of the Year 2015

Her intentions may have been noble and she may have received the US $110,000 CNN Hero of the Year 2015 Award for her service to Nepalese orphans but the very institution she became internationally renown for, ironically, turned out to be legally lacking.

An investigation by the Department of Women and Children has apparently found out that the Kopila Valley Children’s Home run by the award-winning New Jersey woman Maggie Doyne is ‘illegal’, a Kathmandu-based broadsheet claimed today.

The CNN Hero’s institution, which she started a decade ago with the US$ 5000 she had saved up from her babysitting job back at home, does not have permission from the related government bodies, the report said.

The newspaper, Rajdhani Dainik, further claimed that majority of the inmates at the now famous orphanage are not actually orphans but the children of well to do families that are related to the president of Kopila Valley Sewa Samaj, Top Bahadur Malla. According to the report, 31 of the total 49 children at the ‘orphanage’ are actually relatives of Mr Malla, local ‘leaders’ and ‘well to do’ families, not exactly destitute children as the world may understand.

“The investigation has revealed that the orphanage has no registration. Serious inquiries are also being made in relation to the orphans,” the report quoted Jamuna Poudel, the Surkhet district head of the Women Development Section of the Department of Women and Children.

Brother of the president of the Sewa Samaj himself apparently has five children at the Kopila Valley Children’s Home. Free of cost. Rest of the inmates belong to local rich and established families such as former Maoist guerilla leader and relations of the Mallas, the report said. The Maoist leader, Ramesh Malla, is not a typical communist as the report reveals. He is accused of swindling tens of millions of rupees when he was in charge of the 6th division of the former Maoist outfit. Interestingly, he also happens to be one of the members of the management committee of the Kopila Valley Children’s Home.

The Kopila Valley Sewa Samaj itlself is a registered entity but as a non-government organisation. It is registered with the objectives of working for street children, orphans and other helpless children such as the children of low-wage labourers. However, the organisation has major transparency issues that highlight the typical corruption culture the South Asian nation is known for. In mockery of the legal provisions of the Government of Nepal, the organisation is run by seven members of the Malla family and their close relatives, the report pointed out.