"Education is the most powerful-Nelson Mandela
weapon which you can use to change the world."
Objective of the Campaign
The objective of this campaign is to raise awareness for the education of unprivileged orphans in Nepal, and also to share with you our Nepal experience. Also, the important message is to create an awareness to help those who are less privileged in life.
Nonetheless, if there is anyway you would like to help these orphans, please drop me an email.
Currently, the orphanage pays SGD4,800 annually (minimum) in ensuring that the orphans at the home gets basic education:
School Fee per month per student = 1000 Nepalese Rupees (NPR)
No. of Orphans = 20
Total amount needed = 20 x 1000 x 12months = 240,000 NPR**
**240,000 NPR is equivalent to about SGD4,800. You can use a currency converter like CoinMill if you wish to calculate using the latest exchange rate.
According to the chairperson of the orphanage, they are currently 5 months overdue on their school fees.
Timeline:
In this blog, we hope to share with you our volunteering experience in Nepal, the lifestyle of kids at the orphanage home and also a little profile of each kid at the home.
In early October, I will be making another follow-up trip to Nepal where I will bring along some old clothes, books (that I personally want to give to the kids) and a small token of donation from me personally that will go to the children's education/school fees. Hence, if there is anything you would like to "giveaway", please let me know as I will be your best DHL deliveryman.
You make a difference:
- There are too many ways that you can do something small, and bring big changes to the lives of these wonderful kids.
- The kids have a passion for education and cherish what people give them. Be it teaching them Mathematics, or buying them school sportswear, they treasure every bit of effort in knowing that someone cares for and are willing to help them.
- If you think whether your help (in anyway) is insignificant and doesn't really make a difference. Think again.
If you have any questions or ways that you want to help, or is interested about volunteering in Nepal, please approach me anytime. Alternatively, you can email me.
A Brief Background of the Kids and their Home:
Hattigaunda Home is an orphanage situated around the north-western part of Kathmandu (the Capital of Nepal), in a district known as Hattigaunda.
The original name of the orphanage is "Orphan and Street Children Rehabiliation Center". However, I personally do not like this name, because there is absolutely nothing that the kids at the home need to rehab over. For the purpose of this blog, I am calling this home "Hattigaunda Home" instead.
We did not ask each of the kids how they ended up at the home, but we believed some of the kids might actually have parent (s). Below are some of the reasons why some of the kids ended up at the home:
- their parents died or escaped without them during the Nepalist Civil War
- their parents remarried at some point, leaving them behind
- they have parents incapable of taking care of them as a result of certain physical or mental conditions
Hattigaunda Home
The orphanage is headed by its chairman, Makhan, who stays at the home with his wife and son.
In addition, they employ a man to cook for everyone at the home. He (aka "Cooking man") resides at the home with his wife and daugther as well.
Here's a photo of the double-storeyed, grey-coloured house they call home, which they rent for about SGD300 a month.
Some pictures of the well-maintained toilet on the second floor of the house, reserved only for the use of volunteers and staff. The children use their own "toilet-hole" outside the house within the compound.
The children occupy three rooms respectively:
- Seven of the older boys occupy the "Senior Room" on the first floor. (From the first picture below: There are two such double-deck beds in the Senior Room in which two bigger boys share each bed. There is no table in the room and they do everything on the bed- they sleep, read and do their homework on the thin mattress. )
- Six of the younger boys sleep in another room - the "Junior Room" - across the corridor.
- Seven girls sleep in the "Girls room" on the 2nd floor.
Space is not a luxury the kids enjoy. They wash their own dishes, do their own laundry, and clean up in the narrow compound for common use.
Remember the rent-a-box concept shops that rent out tiny cubicles of retail space for sometimes hundreds of dollars per month? Well, each child at the home is allocated a cubicle to keep his/her meagre possessions.
A Normal Day at the Home
The kids rise between 5.30-6.00am to wash up, make their beds, do laundry and also revise their schoolwork. Often, they would already have finished most of their homework in school the previous day.
At approximately 8.30am, they will queue up for their Dal Phat, finish eating and promptly do their dishes afterwards. Curious as to what the Dal Phat is?
Dal Phat, which is their daily breakfast and dinner, is a meal of cooked plain rice sprinkled with a little vegetables and draped with diluted gravy. There is no meat or vegetables.
In between the day, the kids generally do not eat anything else. Though their school has recess breaks, the orphanage kids usually go hungry as the home cannot afford to buy snacks for them. On some days, the orphanage staff distribute handfuls of “snacks” (what looked like uncooked rice grains to me), an exception rather than the norm as often the kids have to contend with watching their classmates eat.
At approximately 9am, the kids will have dressed and gotten ready for school, which ends at 4pm. After the kids return home from school in the afternoon, they have their school books whipped out for revision in less than fifteen minutes. They do not go anywhere else after school. A frugal and disciplined lifestyle, no doubt.
Owing to a shortage of electricity in the country, there is also power loading every night. Thus the whole house will be in pitch black after 730pm.
For the children, a dinner of Dal Phat is served at around 7pm. A typical day ends at about 8.30pm for them, at which they head directly to bed.
Giving is a Blessing
This punctured sole belonged to Kiran, one of the boys at the home. Kiran had worn this punctured shoe to school for a very long time, but no matter how he pleaded with staff at the home for a new pair of shoes, his request was always flatly rejected. They simply couldn't afford it.
Jurdica, one of our volunteers, bought Kiran a pair of new shoes much to his delight. The price tag of SGD10 - what would have been a very affordable purchase to most of us fortunate enough to be living in Singapore - paled in comparison to the look of happiness and gratitude on Kiran's face when he received his gift.
In addition, the Home could not afford to buy their kids the Sports Trekking Suits required for participation in sports/physical exercise lessons in school. Hence, on every Tuesday and Friday when such lessons are conducted, the kids will have no appropriate attire to wear. They will instead be forced to stand in front of the school body during assembly and receive a beating as punishment.
Hence, three of us volunteering at the home decided to sponsor the kids their first Trek Suits. That they were delighted and thrilled is an understatement. They repeatedly tried on their sportswear, unable to hide their happiness, excitement and gratitude.
It was in moments like these that we truly understood how "Giving is a Blessing" even though the amount spent might have been insignificant to us.
Should you be interested in volunteering in Nepal, I've found a document which lists various organizations in Nepal that could really use your help. If you're up for it, of course.
