We have five new Orphan Children at our Happy Home in
Chitwan and we are waiting for five more with in this month.
So we will have in total twenty five children at our Happy Home in Chitwan. All
of our Children are now starting their new class. We would like to give thanks
to Basanti who became a very good Mum looking after our Children and Sanjita who
helped our Children to learn extra hours.
We would like to Congratulate Sarita, Tenging and Mingma to
be on the top position in the class.
The new children Dipa and Dipika are sister and their father has got 2nd
marriged four years ago and disappeared from the village. Since then both Dipa
and Dipika were staying with their Mum but now their Mum has also left them and
we took them in our Happy home. We are very happy to announce that our past
Volunteers Jacquie Crowther and her friend confirmed to sponsor Dipa and Dipika.
Birendra Peace Home Children
The Birendra Peace welfare Hope Children have been admitted
in the School and their last year result is very good however some of the
children are still very weak in English and Math. We would like to place
volunteers in this home who are interested to teach Math and English. The home
is just half an hour walk able distance from the Center of Kathmandu.
Our Sponsored Girl – Anju Pathak
We are very happy to see our Organization’s efforts among
the Village Children. We sponsored Ranju Pathak who was in class five and now
Anju has finished her School. We are very sure that she will score a good mark
at the SLC. Now Anju has been invited to visit Holland from our past volunteer
Henk. We wish her visit will be very worthwhile and she will have some
understanding of western culture and develop.
Street Children's Home - Pokhara
Anil Bishwakarma, an 8 year old boy wants to have INFO Nepal Volunteers at his
Center because he can learn a lot of games from them and have fun. “I like to
practice my English and Volunteers love us” said Anil.
“I like to live in this place as I can go to School and
learn so many new things from INFO Nepal Volunteers” said Sunila 7 years old and
who came in to this center 6 months ago from Lake Side Street.
The Street Children’s Rehabitation Center in Lake Side
Pokhara has been looking after 29 Street Children since 2007. INFO Nepal is
helping this center supplying educational materials, beds, house rent and
sending Volunteers to teach Children. We would like to give a lot of Thanks to
the Organizer who is doing an example work in Nepal. There are so many
Organizations working for Street Children and this Organization is one of the
good examples in Nepal.
One of the members of the Center Mr. Ramesh Shrestha said
“If INFO Nepal and its volunteers haven’t been here from the beginning this
center wouldn’t be progressing this much now. INFO Nepal has showed the way to
improve the center and cared more for Children that is why children like to stay
in the center.” INFO Nepal should continue sending Volunteers for this center”
said Mr Ramesh Shrestha.
Two Day Care Centers in Chitwan
Our two daycare centers are going to complete in mid of May 2008 and
we are going to start the evening and morning class for those children who are
aged 7 to 12 years old and haven't attend school before. In the day time small
children from the village will be joining at the center. The main purpose of the
center is to create an educational environment around the areas and aware local
people about important of the education. We are hoping 29 adult children to join
in the morning and evening class and 36 children for the day class.
Manabia Orphanage Home
After our management in this home, we can see some
improvement, however there still needs to be a lot of change to the system. Now
the children are fully confident that they can live there and study with out any
tension. Now the children are sure that there is INFO Nepal who will pay the
School fees regularly and the house rent. Since last month, the children’s
health has been improved and they are very happy to have different vegetables
every day. “It was too much frustration for us to keep moving house every six
months and in the school not paying the school fees on time , our friends and
the teacher used to insult / laugh at us “said Alina Shahi 11 years old.
We have set up an account in the shop near by the home so
that the Children can eat any things they want for their dinner, Lunch and take
any food items at the school for their Tiffin.
“We never had Tiffin at School before and used to watch
others eating but now we can have different Tiffin at the school” said Chadhani
Gurung. Since we supplied enough Shop, Shampoo, Tooth Brushes, and Pest and
bought a lot of clothes for Children, they seem very clean and hygienic.
Our Volunteer’s Experience:
Since I have been out here with Info Nepal I have seen a
great deal. I spent the first two and a half of my five weeks in the Langtang
Region, in a small village called Guljung.
I hugely enjoyed teaching the children and felt a great sense of achievement
when I began to see real progress. When I was not teaching I had the opportunity
to explore the area, go trekking around the valley among the incredible
snow-capped mountains or enjoy the serenity of the river bank. It was simply a
joy to teach the children of the village, help my host-Father graze his
livestock (a small jumble of ox and cows) and to share a laugh over a cup of tea
with the family. It appears to be important for them to get volunteers, in a
world where communication is becoming more and more important, so is the ability
to speak a common language.
After spending my time in the Langtang Region I headed on to the
Happy Home in Chitwan. This is a children's home where these little ones stay in
order to get a far better standard of living and education. Of course it is
tough for the volunteers here, especially as it seems all the volunteers,
including me, fall into the trap of becoming too attached to the children and
never wanting to leave them. There is so much to do here and the kids always
seem to find a way to make every job fun. It is important that volunteers come
here as, although there is a wonderful woman who is here all the time to take
care of the children, there are a lot of children for one person and it is
important to have help.
My experience of volunteering has been a good one. I would suggest this to
anyone wondering how to start off their gap year, hoping to take a slightly
different holiday or simply looking for ideas in order to do something totally
new.
Mariel Reyes - Singapore -
Jan 2008
Volunteering with INFO Nepal at
Orphanage home -
I arrived in Kathmandu and stayed two nights at the Happy
Home. I was glad to have a few days to adjust to the Nepali culture and
lifestyle. I had the choice of staying in Katmandu for my placement or heading
to Chitwan. Since I was only in Nepal for a total of 2 weeks, I decided to head
to Chitwan so that I would be able to see more of Nepal.
I was only able to have one language lesson and one day of
sightseeing but I was told that I would be able to return to Kathmandu earlier
to see more of the sights. I traveled to Chitwan with Asim and arrived at the
Happy Home for my placement. 
I was instantly impressed with the facilities the children
had. Compared with the other children in the town, they were very lucky as they
had very good environment to grow up in. While I was there, a few renovations
and additions were being made to the Happy Home. We got a hot water heater, the
children got new clothes, mattresses and toys and a new library was just being
built. Hopefully the library can be shared with the rest of the community as it
would be very beneficial to the other children of the town.
My duties in the Happy Home included helping Basanti
prepare the meals, cleaning the house and doing laundry; as well as looking
after the children. Because the kids were in school for most of the day, I had a
lot of free time and spent that biking around the countryside.
Because my placement was so short I wanted to fit as much
in as possible. So during my week in Chitwan, I went to Sauraha with another
volunteer to see the Chitwan National Park. I also had the privilege of staying
with another volunteer's host family for 2 nights which I was probably the best
part of my stay in Chitwan. I got to experience true Nepali life with the
family. They were so kind and welcoming and kept asking me to come back to Nepal
and stay with them! Plus my host mother's cooking was the best I had tasted in
Nepal! I only stayed with them for 2 nights, but I had such a great time with
them and they were so hospitable.
Overall, the experience was challenging but amazing. There
were times that I got really homesick but I just stuck through it and the next
day was always better than the previous one. It was nice to see the children of
Happy Home doing well in their studies and just generally growing up in such a
caring environment. I loved staying with my host family in Narayangad and seeing
Sauraha. I was able to do things that I never thought I would be able to do.
Growing up in a city, it was a culture shock being in such a rural town. And my
parents would never believe that I cooked, cleaned, swept, laundered and went
without showering for days! But the experience was definitely memorable and I
learned so much and will take many memories home with me!
Thanks for your time
reading this.
