Joining Hands Nepal
A Family Orphan HomeArchive for March, 2011
Room For One More
This weekend we had the pleasure of meeting the energetic and adorable Karsang from Mustang. She had been living in the streets of a remote village of Lower Mustang until a concerned villager transported her to a Buddhist monastery near Swayambhu with two other street children for temporary residence and care. This responsible person also happened to be acquaintances with one of our staff, and informed us of the children’s situation. One of the older children was taken in by a family with means to provide for them, while the other older child took the opposite path, continually running away to be on the streets of Kathmandu and get into trouble. That left little Karsang, all of 7 years old, the last one remaining in need of a loving home. Luckily for her and us both, we still have an opening and cannot wait to take her into our permanent care. Only the matter of sorting out the official government certification documents remains, which can be a challenge from such a remote village, but we have faith things will work out and the loveable Karsang of Mustang will be joining our family for good any day now.
Big Sister
What the children really need now, more than anything else, is love and family. Their birth families have been taken from them, abandoned them, or proven incapable of caring for them properly. It is here, in their new home, with their new family, that they must learn anew what love is, what family is. Placed in the role of teacher, our director Himal’s niece, Chhiring, has proved exceptional. She has been active in every aspect of the children’s daily lives, from helping them to bathe and brush, to joining them in writing and coloring, to playing and teaching games, and everything in between. But most important of all, she has served each day more and more as a model of how to behave, how to treat other members of family respectfully, and how to love and care for one another as if we were not all strangers from different parts of the country a week ago, but a close-knit family at long last reunited by providence. The children could not ask for a better big sister to teach them the meaning of love and family. That is why we prefer to think of this place we are building as a Family Home more than an Orphan Home or Orphanage.
Easy as ABC
We had some lovely foreign guests not too long ago from Germany visit our home and practice yoga with us. The children had not yet arrived, but our new friends were kind enough to donate story books and writing practice books for children they would not meet. Among those generously provided materials were small books for practicing writing the English alphabet. Each page has a letter and a word the letter stands for, along with a picture, such as A for Apple or U for Umbrella. There are a few example letters made of dotted lines to trace, and then plenty of space to practice writing the letter on your own. Each of our youngest children got one of these practice books, and with so much enthusiasm were the books received that they spent all of their free time last night and this morning writing their ABCs, and by afternoon the books will be completely filled out. These children who have so often been afforded little to nothing in the way of books and toys also received activity books with games and puzzles, story books, and small stuffed animals, but they chose to spend nearly all their time practicing the alphabet and trying to complete the whole book. As we are learning now, when children have nothing, they are eager for any opportunity to learn, and we are eager to teach them and show them we care.
Joining Hands Nepal 