Writen by Daniel Roig, coordinator of the Children’s Home

Dashain and Tihar festivals are over. Everyone returns to normality, but here this does not mean routine.

Last month, the children who have some known family members have been with them, 9 of the 26 boys and girls. But now they have all returned to the Children’s Home ready to resume their studies.

I also return to the Children’s Home with Manisha, after almost a month away, something I had not done for the last two years. But we do not return alone, we arrive with two new volunteers, actually returned volunteers: Tonyo and Xavi, one year after their first visit, come back to the Children’s Home.

The children who have stayed for the festivals in the Children’s Home are very happy that all the people come back and welcome us with shouts, and a bit of expectation for seeing what we bring for them as a gift from our hometowns: Homemade sweets (sun-dried Jumla apple slices, or different types of cookies, popcorn…), Kush and Love come with a couple of ducks of the best breed from their village.

Tonyo, Xavi and I also brought some surprises! We arrived at the Children’s Home with 4 computers donated by the Taulí hospital of Sabadell (thank you Xavier Calvet!). And we also brought two high quality seats to finish the reparation of the swing thanks to the material donated by HPC Ibérica (thanks Ramón Coderch and Mònica for the coordination!).

Tonyo, Xavi and I, with the help of the children and Papu, after few days of intense work, we set the new computer room with Ubuntu well installed, the swings in full functionally and on top of that we also have the front area of the sinks improved and the water and electric facilities improved.

1. Fixing the swings:

2. Improvement of the water conduction:

3. Improvement of the water channel:

4. Extension of the computer room:

Also the kids, who have left the Children’s Home this past year are still trying to find their place in the world. Sanu has finally obtained the Nepalese identity card (not easy to obtain for children with irregular family situations) and has already returned to Bhimphedi to rejoin the AWASUKA project to complete the three anti-seismic prototypes (the wooden for Maya didi, the concrete block for Santamaya didi and the stone and mud for the community). Papu, who has spent the festivals in the Children’s Home, and has used this time to work also for AWASUKA and help in the Children’s Home, has decided to stay in the village with Sanu and also join the AWASUKA project to finish the prototypes. Jay who has spent the festivals with his family reunited 14 years later (we will explain his incredible story another day), he has also obtained the identity card, and has come to Bhimphedi a few days to get a letter of recommendation from the public school where he studied high school to be able to put the correct information, now that he knows it: new name (Anish Malla), new date of birth and the names of his parents. Ashok Praja has already resumed the Veterinary studies. Ashok will now work and live closer to his school, and we hope he will do very well (thank you very much to Prakriti, who now lives in Patan Children’s Home, for helping Ashok to find a job her aunt village, near the veterinarian school).

Another big change is that the public school changes location. The historic building that was affected by the earthquake will be demolished, so the children are already beginning to study in the temporary barracks located on the village football field. (You can read the post written by Monica about this topic).

There have also been two very important changes in the center. Two very special people no longer live with us in the Children’s Home. Although we will miss them very much, we will stay in touch and we are very happy for them for the changes and achievements in their lives. The first is Krishna Pudasaini, director of the Children’s Home for the last 15 months, and who has done a very good job during this time, having great successes like finding families of some children. Krishna has won a government job in the Nepal Electricity Department (where they have a lot of work if they want to reduce the electricity cuts). The second is Susmita, a 9-year-old girl who has gone now to live with her mother and younger brother (we will explain her story in the next post!).

And life goes on in the Bhimphedi Children’s Home, with joy.

The kids go to school to finish the second term. Tonyo and Xavi now work as masons and carpenters. Marina and Joana, returned from a week of well-deserved rest, have resumed the computer, English and Spanish classes. Prabhat and Manisha help the little ones with the studies. And I, up and down, watching everything go more or less well: supervising the center, the young kids and the children that we have scattered throughout the country, looking for a new director for the center, helping bigger kids of the Children’s Home with the maths exercises…

Life goes on, with joy.