New Project – NHB funds a small orphanage
The NHB has started to financially support a small orphanage in Sunakothi, a village 10 km south of Kathmandu. A former volunteer initiated this bond in January 2015. Supporting other people’s project isn’t something new for NHB, in the contrary, it all started like this more than twenty years ago with the Mary Ward charity school or the charity pharmacy of the Bir Hospital run by the German-Nepali Aid Organization Stuttgart (DNH). Many things have changed as is known, especially concerning the NHB’s own projects.
No matter how big NHB’s own projects have become, the named projects of other organizations have always received the same – party significantly high – financial support. Even more projects, like the Siddhi Memorial Hospital in Bhaktapur or the Midpoint Hospital in Nawalparasi, have been added to the list during the last couple of years. This is only made possible by the generous donations and the responsible dealing with the trusted money.
From a student and travel guide to an „orphanage mother“
Back to the small orphanage, the Child Help Education Fund (CHEF):
Seven boys and girls aged between five and sixteen are living at the orphanage which Lila Devi and her brother Oman founded in 2011 as a non-governmental organization (NGO), so the government doesn’t support this project financially. Lila Devi, 27 years then, used to work at a trekking tourist office in Kathmandu and her wage together with some donations from tourists formed the basis of her project. She finished her studies with a master in sociology at the Tribhuvan University of Kathmandu and married last year. Her husband, who studies medicine, also cares for the children of the orphanage. Lila’s brother Oman has left the country to gain his family’s means of subsistence abroad.
The CHEF lies on the ground floor of a three-story residential building. The children come from the district of Myagdi, which is well-known to tourists who trek through the Kali Gankaki valley between Dhaulagiri and Annapurna. All the children share the same social background like illiteracy of their parents, many siblings, no income, diseases or death of the bread-earner.
Postponed is not abandoned
The request of the volunteer was pushed into the background by the earth quake last April, but has never been forgotten. Some local coordinators visited CHEF again and again and in the end Ralf Petschl, the chairman of the NHB together with his wife Ingrid in February 2016. It has been decided that the orphanage will receive 8,000 Euro annually for the next five years, which will be sufficient for its running costs. Moreover, the children have already been provided with clothes, shoes, sanitary articles and school material taken from the fund of the Shaligram children’s home. This provision will be kept in regular intervals.
Living in a constricted room
The children sleep in two small rooms, one for the boys and one for the girls. Lila Devi sleeps in the dorm with the girls and her husband Raj Sunar in the other one with the boys. The married couple doesn’t own any separate rooms. For the chores, Lila gets help from Sabin, a sixteen-year-old who lived with his grandmother until she died. In addition, there is Emse, a 13-year-old girl, who is a very good chef and who wants to become a nurse one day.
Looking for a volunteer
Lila Devi keeps looking for volunteers who want to live and work at her small orphanage for at least two months. The volunteers will have the privilege of having their own room.
Anybody interested can contact us via info@nepalhilfe-beilngries.de.