Written by Vanessa Mártinez volunteer at children’s home
April is a month full of birthdays, so we celebrated all of them with a big party!!
We had gymkhana, cake, presents, music and lots of fun!!
We celebrated the birthdays of Samir (9 years old), Bishnu (12 years old), Arjun (18 years old), our didi Beli and Mònica from Awasuka.
And to refresh ourselves in these hot days we went to the river! Kushal that is just 4 years old, walked downhill and uphill without any problems.
Written by Pau R. E.
In Nepal the new school year begins in May. This new year also comes with new additions to the center. We go to the Nepal Children’s Organization coordination center in Kathmandu with a new volunteer that arrived recently. Once in the coordination center, we ask to pick up the children, but they are not ready yet. After almost 4 hours of paperwork, finally 2 boys and 2 girls are assigned to us.
With the letters prepared, we first go to pick up the girls, who are in Naxal children’s home. Just arriving many children recognize Dani and they start shouting that they also want to go to Bhimphedi, all of them very excited.
While they finish preparing the girls, the children of the center are put to play with us making a circle around us. Once the girls are ready, we get so surprised by their age, they are very young (6 and 4 years old)! And they are sisters too! We continue our trip to pick up the 2 boys in the Siphal children’s home. Once there, the boys are already ready; but they are even smaller than the girls (4 and 3 years old)! What a surprise!
So now we have everything ready to continue by taxi to Balco, where we take a Jeep towards Bhimphedi. We are assigned the 4 back seats for the 6 of us (2 volunteers and 4 children). Just before riding the older girl begins to cry. She has recently arrived in Naxal, so we can’t imagine how she felt. After trying to reassure her without any success we decide that she will eventually accept the situation, so we proceed to get on the Jeep where her crying persists and seems to start passing into her younger sister. The rest of the Jeep passengers (6 more people) start to be bothered by the crying. But luckily soon the two sisters fall asleep, leaving only the two boys awake. The older boy gets along very well all the time, and the younger one doesn’t stop eating cookies and playing with curiosity with the window of the Jeep.
The first half of the journey takes place with a lot of traffic, mainly caused by the amount of mud left by the rain of the last days. The Jeeps, despite having four-wheel traction, they slip and have a hard time making some of the hills. All this makes us arrive much later than planned at the break point, in the middle of the journey. In this places they offer food and/or cleaning of the Jeep to the driver, because they all end up full of mud, all in exchange to bring the travelers as customers.
Once at the stop we awaken the smallest girl, the oldest one had been awake for some time now. We try to get everyone out to stretch their legs and go to the bathroom. The major girl does not want to leave the Jeep and we let her rest quietly inside the vehicle; she neither wants to eat or go to the bathroom. Meanwhile the rest of the passagengers of the Jeep ask curious about the gender of the children, since the boys dress more pink and the girls more blue.
After all the others kids have stretched their legs and have gone to the bathroom we continue with the journey, this time much less calm. The older girl starts to vomit as soon as the jeep continues. Despite asking for a plastic bag, it didn’t arrive in time and her vomit stain her side of the Jeep. The young girl takes little time to want to imitate her sister. We try to distract her and with the ventilation of the vehicle, and this helps her to not be the next one. After a while, the older one throws up again, but fortunately we are about to reach Bhimphedi.
Once in Bhimpedi it is night already, and we call other volunteers to help us carry our bags and the children to Balmandir Children’s Home. We walked slowly through the streets of Bhimphedi, now really dark. When we arrived all the children of the center received us with great enthusiasm, since they were waiting with impatience, and the Didis even more. They are very tired and go to bed early.
The next day we discover how the oldest boy is not a calm one at all, he is the most active in the whole children’s home: wanting to discover all the corners and do as many activities as he can. Who would think that seeing him being so calm in the Jeep! The younger boy is the favorite of both girls and Didis. The new girls need one more day, but they end up playing together with other kids and with a very big smile. It is hard to imagine she is the same girl full of tears inside the Jeep.
The next day we go to buy new shoes for the younger girl and they all go together to take pictures wearing the uniform to enroll in school. So everything is set to start the new course.
Written by Joana Alsina, volunteer of Bhimphedi Children’s Home.
Happy 2074!
In Balmandir, we have started the year in a great way in a fun park!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHPVe3Ayqbc&feature=youtu.be
Manoj: “I liked so much jumping in the castle. We can jump as much as you want and you don’t get injured.”
Ramraj: “This is new year and I like so much visit in group and go to the swimming pool.”
Ashish: “The thing that I prefer was jumping to the swimming pool because there aren’t stones and we can go so deep.”
Santa: “I enjoy a lot the swimming pool.”
Bishnu: “I like swimming.“
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ40IP_mcJ8&feature=youtu.be
Ramesh: “In Smarak park there are wild animals. I really liked to see the leopard, walk in the park with many people and beautiful flowers. It was a hot day and we ate an icecream. It was delicious.”
Anoj: “I like so much go on the ship”
Samir “Yesterday I enjoy a lot, but I prefer go with the pirate boat”
Sita: “ When I was in the wheel I was scared but it was funny.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAr-PsOdzWE&feature=youtu.be
Basu: “I liked the wheel and the ship, I was scared but it was funny”
Bishwo: “I love animals and I enjoyed a lot the horse riding.”
Som: “ I liked the horse riding”
Sarita: “ I loved to go to the swimming pool and ride on the horse.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHH1ysZNQzo&feature=youtu.be
Purnima: “The wheel was so funny, I was not scared. I enjoyed a lot.”
Beli didi: “I went to the boat for the first time with Manoj. I was a little bit scared.”
Maya Didi: “Seeing the monkeys, deer and crocodile, it was amazing. When I went to the ship I felt really scared.”
Santa Maya didi: “Seeing animals was the best thing. The ship was so scaring”
The End:
Written by Nicolas Gautier, volunteer at the Children’s Home
In April in Nepal there are some holidays before the new school year begins at the end of month. In the district of Makawanpur it’s very hot these days. So the kids welcome any opportunity to refresh. And nothing is better than a swim in the river of Bhimphedi!
Written by Daniel Roig, coordinator of the Bhimphedi Children’s Home
This blog is a stage where you can see some of the things that Amics del Nepal does in this village in a lost valley of Nepal. But behind the curtains there are many people working to make possible that all these, initially, disadvantaged boys and girls can have a happy childhood and the opportunity to learn a lot in Bhimphedi Children’s Home.
Together with the support of the sponsors of the Bhimphedi project, it is essential the work of many people who in an imaginative, altruistic and supportive way organize activities to raise money for Bhimphedi Children’s Home.
In this post I will explain some of these magnificent initiatives that have been carried out in recent months!
Marina Viñas has been organizing for 4th time a type of Christmas Bingo: the Nepali Quinto with the association el Ciervo de Sabadell.
But in addition, last November el Ciervo de Sabadell went even further, because his theater company, coordinated with Ateneu del Món, organized a play in Sant Quirze in favor of Balmandir: A great evening of theater of the always surprising Agatha Christie.
The students of the sixth grade of the school Joan Blanquer of Castellar organized a solidarity market, among other activities where all students participated to bring the reality of Nepal near to all of them.
Tonyo Fibla is already the third time he has collaborated with us (especially with the group Cetrill of Benicarló). This time he has organized a workshop of Nepalese cuisine.
The most tireless collaborators are Ricardo and Jorge, who have spent years with the “Taper Nepal” project with dozens of events, presentations, sale markets of Nepalese handicrafts and solidarity yoga sessions.
We also have new collaborators, such as Ester and Xipi from the Códi 0 egg farm of Lleida, who have organized a solidarity snack a few days before coming to visit the Children’s Home with their four children (who have been a sensation in the village with their golden hair).
Imagination, altruism and solidarity in power, to put our grain of sand for a better world. Thank you very much! Let’s keep it up!
Written by Nicolas Gautier, volunteer at the Children’s Home.
Sunday 29th January was a public holiday: Shaheed Diwas, in English The Martyrs Day. This day commemorates four young revolutionary pro-democracy protesters against the Rana regime that were executed in 1941 (Shukraraj Shastri, Dharma Bhakta Mathema, Dashrath Chand and Gangalal Shrestha).
We took the opportunity to stretch our legs in the paths around Bhimphedi. Once the picnic and bottles of water were in our bags, 13 of us took the way to the hills.
The round walk through Suping and Jamire has wonderful views, that we try to share with you with some of the photos we took:
Written by Nicolas Gautier, volunteer at the Children’s Home.
For some time strange phenomena have taken place at Balmandir. One might think of a science fiction film, but it is real. Scary and unknown creatures have been appearing in every corner of the Children’s Home. Half socks, half insects, they are now known here as the Sock Monsters!
Ok… it’s a joke… the Sock Monsters are just old socks, a bit of colored fabric, wool, thread, buttons, newspaper and lots of imagination!
Written by Daniel Roig, coordinator of the Children’s Home
Nepal is a country geographically diverse and interesting where we find the highest mountains in the world (the area of the Himalayas), 3000 meters high hills of lush vegetation (the area of the Hills) and plains that remind us of the Indian jungles (Zone of Therai). Nine of the children in the Children’s Home could visit some of these areas with their school friends these past weeks:
5th grade trip to Chitwan – Nature in Therai
Fifth grade is the last year that kids of Bhimphedi can study in the community school. From sixth they have to shift to the public school or go to another village (option chosen by all who can afford it).
This is why every year the community school organizes a day trip to farewell the students who have studied for 7 years at this school property of the community of Bhimphedi. This year the three kids from the Children’s Home studying 5th grade have been especially fortunate because they have gone to visit the natural park of Chitwan. They visited another Nepal they did not know: the jungle plains where you can find elephants, crocodiles, deers, rhinoceros of single horn…
10th grade trip to Pokhara and Gorkha – The Himalayas and history
Students of grade ten currently preparing for their final exams, they organized a trip of just a night out to not to harm their study. But do not think that this prevented them to do an ambitious plan: to catch a bus for eight hours to reach to Pokhara on the Annapurna feet. From the lake at 800 meters high you can see the mountains of 8,000 meters.
But it would be a shame to return direct to Bhimphedi, so the next day they did six hours of bus to reach to Gorkha, a historic town:
Prithivi Narayan Shah (1723-1775), King of the small kingdom of Gorkha, conquered many of the mini-kingdoms around and moved slowly toward the Kathmandu Valley. There he began to conquer kingdoms around to be able to isolate the valley. Impatience led him to attack twice on the city of Kirtipur, situated on a hill from which he was planning to do the final attack on the Kathmandu Valley. But in both cases he lost and paid a high price in his ranks. Finally he got the city of Kirtipur, they had to surrender due to the blockade of food and water supply. But the king was not merciful and cut off the noses of all the men of the city.
From Kirtipur, Prithivi Narayan Shah submitted to the other cities of the valley, establishing a single kingdom powerful enough to remain outside the influence of the British Empire, unlike the kingdoms in present India.
Already satisfied and exhausted the kids of class 10 took the bus again and did more than 10 hours of road to return to Bhimphedi. The next day the class of grade 10 was pretty empty.
The trip of 6th, 7th and 8th grades – The hills and religion
Children of sixth, seventh and eighth grades decided they did not want to be less, so they prepared a picnic. It is very common that families, schools, neighbors or cultural groups organize such a day trips: Take a bus to go to visit a temple. And there, near the temple, to have a good meal prepared over a wood fire. And of course they take a good speaker to play Bolliwood music and start dancing and singing to help to digest the heavy food.
Life and religion, food and celebration, dances and songs. Nepalese are able to mix modernity and tradition like no other can do.
For all other children of the Home do not worry because, although they didn’t go for a trip they had fun and good food in the center! Look at that chicken “croquetas”:
Written by Cristina Morales, member of the Board of Amics del Nepal, with the collaboration of Miquel Comas and Daniel Roig.
Drawings by Ramesh Syantang boy of 14 years of Bhimphedi Childrenps Home, who has lived 10 years with Jay.
Jay has a smile that grabs you and does keeps with you and takes you to the highest cloud sky beyond…
Now is one of the eldest in the house, where he is loved by everyone: he helps in the kitchen and the children, always ready to play football rather than to do homework… with a confused apperance, sometimes it seems that he plays to hide what he understands; he does not speak much, but his look is noble as the water of the rivers of the Himalayas.
Jay does not like the surname “Balak”. It is not his real surname, but the one Nepal Children’s Organization gave to him when they took him, it means “child” and means that the person has no known origin or caste, there is a stigma to it… so he decided to change the name and take Anish Rana as own.
Sometimes Jay/Anish wonders why he has lived for 14 years in Balmandir the Children’s Home of Bhimphedi. Some nights, while listening to the laughter and confidences of the caretakers, carrying utensils in the kitchen when almost everyone sleeps, watches the sky full of nearby stars and dreams awake that somewhere, maybe in the mountains or perhaps in the hot plains of Terai, now there is a woman who looks to the same Nepalese sky, remembering a child that was lost long ago…
Jay has grown up, it’s time to leave the house and start a new life. He carries with him the gift of solidarity: an education, a secure environment for his childhood, proper food, personal care, affection, friends and family of a different kind: Amics del Nepal, working, with the help of so many people of good faith, so that Jay and many like him have more opportunities in the future.
As a condition to integrate into society and find better jobs to be independent, Jay should get the Nepali identity card. Not knowing the exact origins of a person, this process is very complicated. For Jay/Anish it will be very difficult to get his ID…
Searching for distant memories still stored in his memory, suddenly, one day Jay/Anish could say to Krishna, the director of the Bhimphedi Children’s Home, a name that reminded him of his place of origin: “…laghara…”.
And with this name Krishna decided to embark on the adventure of going to all the villages with a similar name to “Laghara” near the police station where Jay was found, to try the foolish and risky task of finding a relative of the boy. Hours in bus, three days of frantic visits to offices of police, meeting with people of different communities, local government officials…
One night, a family from a village from three hours walk reached the police headquarters. They heard the news of this young reunited. Won’t it be the son who they lost 14 years ago while accompanying his mother to cut grass for the buffalo?
The marks behind the ear and hand do not lie. Nor his factions… a miracle! whole family burst into tears of joy. The next day more and more people come from the village to the police station to see with their own eyes the boy who lived!
14 years ago, a mother left with her three years old son to go to cut grass for their cattle. It is a very common job in Nepal, anyone who has seen it has been disconcerted watching Nepali women loading huge piles of grass hanging from their forehead walking up in the steep paths of the Nepali hills as if it was not a superhuman job… The name of this boy who accompanied his mother was Dipendra Malla son of Jay Malla.
But that day something unexpected happened that would change that boy’s childhood. In a moment of distraction, he lost sight of his mother! The boy walked and walked, but he could not find his mother again. Finally he reached to an urban area, where the police picked him, but he was only able to say “Jay”…
His family was looking for him for weeks, but finally they had to accept the tragic “reality”, his son was dead. No sense to keep looking, much less to go to the city, three hours away, to talk to the police at that time of civil war between the Maoists and the rulers, many people died at that time…
Police label Jay as orphan, and gave the surname “Balak”. They put his photo in the newspapers but he was never claimed, so he was transferred to Bhimphedi Children’s Home, where he lived for 14 years under the tutelage of NCO and Amics del Nepal.
But now, on any day of autumn, it seems that life has wanted to reward the determination of those responsible for the Children’s Home to help Jay/Anish/Dipendra to find his origins, and the boy with the captivating smile has gone from being an orphan to have mother, father, two brothers, one sister and uncles, cousins… everyone is very happy and surprised of this event!
Two months later, Anish already has his Nepalese citizenship, there his name is Anish Malla and now he is doing all steps to correct the information in the certificate of secondary education. He has even got time to register for further education in the closest city to his hometown.
This Christmas story is a true story, example of other stories of this 2016 of boys and girls from Bhimphedi Children’s Home, as Susmita Syantang, Bipana Khadka, or the brothers Ramesh and Som Thami, who, thanks to tireless work of those responsible of Balmandir-Bhimphedi-Amics del Nepal, have given the most important gift the them, to rediscover their roots, to reconcile them with their origins and make them unique people, important and loved by their family.
On behalf of the entire team of Amics del Nepal, I wish the best for this 2016 Christmas and that this New Year fills our lives of Happiness and Solidarity.
Written by Daniel Roig, coordinator of the Bhimphedi Children’s Home (Balmandir – the temple of the children)
Post number 100 after 25 months of life of the blog of Amics del Nepal in Bhimphedi
It’s been 25 months since I came to Bhimphedi Children’s Home to coordinate the work of management and support of Amics del Nepal in the Children’s home of Nepal Children’s Organization. Since then there has been continued presence of volunteers supporting the permanent staff of the house. From the first moment I joined here, we decided to start a blog to explain all the work and projects that we are doing to all the people who love this home of kids in this distant place. The project sponsors, the former volunteers and their family and members of Amics del Nepal, I hope you enjoyed the first 100 posts, photos and experiences, that make a beautiful archive of experiences of many people.
Not an easy job, all the volunteers here fear the moment when they are assigned with a post. It’s long process. First we have to think about the shape (should we include video or only photos?), then we have to take photos of the event (often, especially when we do some improvement in the home, we forget to take the picture before, or while working…), then we have to write the post, revise it or ask someone to review it. We have to translate it into the other two languages as well… and review the translations. Put the text on the website, choose photos, reduce the resolution and upload them to the web (when internet connection allows us), write captions (in three languages), choose the different options of the post and finally publish it. Oh! We also have to send the summary to Anna Carreras, so she can publish it on Facebook!
In these 25 months 100 posts, we have experienced all kinds of experiences: staff changes, children who have already left the home and some other small children who have joined, earthquakes, a commercial blockade, 72 volunteers (and some have repeated experience), each and every one of the Nepalese festivals, treasure hunts, my wedding, Nepalese recipes, maintenance works and improvements… Here in Nepal, we can say that “reality surpasses the imagination”. We never run out of topics to make new posts… on the contrary, sometimes we are overwhelmed, and we have to summarize, merge, postpone or forget topics that we wanted to share.
Looking at all the adventures, experiences and new friends in these 25 months 100 posts, I feel gratitude, satisfaction, excitement and curiosity and anticipation for the next 25 months 100 posts. Nepal surely will not disappoint us, there is no better script writer!
Each of the 100 posts we have published has also been announced in Amics del Nepal Facebook, thanks to the perseverance and infallibility of Anna Carreras, responsible for the management of social networks of Amics del Nepal.
But for the next 100 posts have added another option for those who want to follow our blog. In the sidebar of the blog, under the language option, you can sign up for the mailing list and you will receive a monthly email with the news of the Balmandir’s blog. Join now and you will not miss on the following 100 news of the Bhimphedi Children’s Home!
Step 1: Enter your email, select the English option and press the “OK!” Button.
Step 2: In your email you will receive a confirmation email. Click on the link in this email and you will already be registered!
Step 3: Receive a monthly email with the news of the blog!
