After the initial construction of a home for Tibetan refugee children in 1975, an SOS Children's Village was built in the village of Chhorepatan near Pokhara in 1978. Pokhara is a small town in the highlands about 6 hours by car from the capital of Kathmandu. The aim of SOS Children's Village Pokhara has always been to provide family-based care for Tibetan children and to help the Tibetan refugees who live in a refugee camp nearby.
SOS Children's Village Pokhara consists of twelve family houses, the village director's house, other staff accommodation and an administrative building.
The SOS Children's Village also runs an SOS Hermann Gmeiner School including an SOS Kindergarten, a primary school and a secondary school. All these institutions are open for children of Tibetan refugees and the other children from the neighbourhood as well. There are also different SOS Youth Facilities and youth communities where young people live together under the care of a youth supervisor. They continue their education and training in order to prepare for future independence. Close to the SOS Children's Village, there is an SOS Vocational Training Centre with various workshops. At this centre, young Tibetans from all over Nepal and also from the Tibetan SOS Children's Villages in India can acquire various technical and office skills. They can become carpenters, turners, metal workers, electrical and electronic engineers, secretaries or information technicians. The SOS Vocational Training Centre also includes a canteen and dormitories for boarding students.