The experience of a volunteer at the Aishworya Children’s Home in Kathmandu

 

My experience in Nepal lasted one month.

I arrived at the Aishworya Children´s Home on 24th September 2016, after a troubled journey by cab.

I was excited and I couldn´t wait to see the children. They welcomed me with open arms and introduced themselves even shaking my hand. The were very curious and wanted to play with me. They were singing, dancing and playing without any toys or stuff; they didn´t need anything but themselves: I was really impressed.

Besides, they were interested in my fair skin and used to style my light and blond hair.

A family, who manage the Insitute Aishworya Children´s Home with other volunteers, hosted me in its flat.  I had breakfast every morning; I used to eat biscuits and drink a cup of tea which was tasty. At a later time, I started to walk almost 25 minutes towards the Institute.

Orphans and children who left their poor families are very young (between 3 and 15 years) and live in this structure where they are helping each other, joined up into a “kin group”.

They can attend classes, receive a good and basic education and learn English very well which helped me to interact with them: I was really impressed.

It´s useful for little kids to improve their language skills, therefore the English language is being taught in the kindergarten too.

I´ve never had the chance of meeting so many autonomous boys and girls before.

Especially the little girls who can cook, clean up and look after the kids in a quite spontaneous way.  I had the pleasure to help them doing their homework, playing, cuddling the babies, whereas the grown-up taught me something about the local cuisine.

Despite the big cultural differences, I got used to eat rice and other dishes, such as Dal (lentils) and Bhat (rice) with potatoes or other vegetables, which is the most important and loved meal in Nepal.

Later they used to spend one hour in their rooms just praying.

By day just the little kids, the teenagers and those who´re sick used to stay in the Institute. The others came back from school at 4 pm and could snack on something which looks like our traditional crisps. We cooked them in boiling water and ate them afterwards: it was such as a spicy noodle soup!!!!

On 1st October, the “Dashain” (the most important Party in Nepal) and the “Institute´s birthday” took place within the Institute itself: it was a great Party. The ladies dressed up put on makeup, and we all got a  benediction on the forehead: the “tikka”. On this special day, lots of guests gathered together for this event and brought different kinds of dishes and meals, such as meat and cakes. Gifts were given out to the children who sang and danced: it was an enjoyable and unique day.

We shared my last week with Julia, a friend of mine who came from Italy to stay with us. Unfortunately, time flies… It was hard to say goodbye ….the last day. We really got along well and have grown quite fond of each other.

How time flies!

Nepal, the Institute Aishworya Children´s Home, the children and the Nepali gave me a great opportunity to share these amazing moments I shall never forget.

Lena Dibiasi

The school of Tipchok

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The President of the Province of Bolzano takes part in the inauguration of 3 classrooms – The beginning of the construction of Tipchok’s new water main will be soon.

After the earthquake, in the late autumn 2015, three new classrooms in the School “Shree Bhuminata” of Tipchok were about to be built. Works lasted until the end of 2016.

Because there was no space, it was built a provisional flat surface for the children’s play time during the break. The final cost of the labour was 19.255 euro for the three classrooms and 4.700 euro for the flat surface.

The inauguration took place on 5th March 2017 and the scholastic centre and local people took part in this event which was organised by a member of Pro Nepal and our local partner, the Society for each other SEO. It has been highly considered by Dr Arno Kompatscher, who was visiting Nepal and the projects co-financed by his Government. Besides other projects, he inaugurated the School of Tipchock,  which has been appreciated by many people.

A wall sign with engraved financier´s and proposer’s names has been uncovered too.

At the end of the Party, a local engineer showed the President and his delegation the project of Tipchock´s new water main, which was proposed and planned by the SEO and Pro Nepal.

The Autonomous Province of Bolzano partially financed this project in 2016. Works will begin soon.

Wall sign

Visiting the supported children

At the beginning of March 2017, a member of Pro Nepal spent some time in Kathmandu where he visited the Institute Aishworya, the Institute Sahayogi Samai and the Society for each other (SEO). He also met the children supported by some members of Pro Nepal. Before he left Italy, they gave him some gifts and letters for them. The Institute Helping Hands for the deaf has been visited by our contact person of SEO, who has given out letters and gifts to the deaf children who live there.

Pro Nepal is supporting 60 children through these Associations.

Meeting the children was touching; thanks to our support, they can attend classes, a lot of them can live in the institutes where nurses can take care of them. We have been supporting lots of these children for many years, therefore sometimes after finishing school, they´re going back home. Attending classes will be helpful in order to keep on living.