First, congratulations are in order for a few young adults on the move.

Rupa received a work visa to the Maldives in mid December, a very merry early Christmas gift for her.

Also, in December Rajan was accepted to attend college in Toronto for a two-year course in Computer Programing. He will arrive there in April.

Ashok, who graduated with a bachelor’s in computer science, from Thames College and has been teaching the computer science courses at the Chelsea Center for the past few years, was selected to teach at Swotishree Gurukul College, a new and very modern school that has earned its International Baccalaureate Certification.  He is teaching computer design and technology there and will continue to run our after-school computer program at the Chelsea Center.

If ever the children and staff of Nepal Orphans Home had voted for the nicest boy and girl among us, I am pretty sure that Ram and Sushma would be named. This brother and sister, along with an older sister Karmu, came to us through our Lawajuni Home in the Dang region, around 2007. Karmu stayed with us in Dhapasi off and on and at Lawajuni the rest of the time. In 2009 she was with us while receiving extensive reconstruction surgery on her hand. Ram and Sushma remained with us constantly.

Soft spoken and intentional, Ram and Sushma were as constant as the northern star in their behavior. And they remain so to this day.

Ram, Karmu, and Sushma in 2009

Ram and Sushma again in 2015

 
Ram as a student apprentice in China February 2020 and Sushma teaching at the Chelsea Adult education program in 2022

Ram is in a managerial position at the four-star Lumbini Palace Resort in the birthplace of the Buddha. He has worked hard and used his money to build a small house of his own. Sushma has consistently been a favorite teacher among our adult women students for the last four years at our Chelsea Center.

In the past two years each of them met the people they wish to spend their lives with, and on February 8th in a double ceremony in Dang, with many of their older NOH brothers and sisters traveling to Dang to be in attendance, they both married.

*****

A Tribute to a Wonderful Institution

Many pre-med students asked to get operating room exposure to help them decide if they were on the right path. Some found indeed they were, went on to medical school, and became doctors. One young female volunteer was invited into the OR at Martyrs Hospital to observe an operation which turned out to be a leg being amputated. She quickly saw that a career in accounting might be preferable. We arranged medical clinics in remote areas for teams of doctors and nurses, as well as individual doctors, from the US and Australia. At Khopa-chagu in particular, we arranged two multi-day clinics over the years in which thousands of dollars were provided to purchase medical supplies through our Dhapasi pharmacist. One young man, a senior at Vanderbilt University who had applied to medical school, arranged $10,000 worth of medicines to be brought over with him which were used at his placement in Bastipur-Lahan in the Terai region, a very rural and medically underserved area. The doctor at the clinic told a little lie to the villagers that an American doctor was coming and word spread. Before sunrise on the first day of the clinic a long line had formed outside. In Chaturali, we arranged for a young midwife volunteer to experience how rural Nepalese babies were born. Like many of our volunteers, she expressed feeling that her life had profoundly changed because of her time there. We arranged for third year medical students from Australia’s Monash Medical College to provide weeklong clinics in some of the mountainous regions of Nepal, and the list goes on.

We found a village where lived a practicing Shaman Priest, after one volunteer mentioned he would love to travel in Nepal and find a priest to further his own Shamanists studies. He lived with this man and his family in Tutung for several weeks. “The most amazing experience of my life,” he kept repeating when we brought him back to the volunteer house afterwards.

The Shaman priest and his family remained close to us for many years after that and they hosted other volunteers who taught in the small village. During the earthquake of 2015 the village was pretty much destroyed, but Volunteer Nepal staff managed to get there and provide support and money for the priest and his family. Amazingly, within five days of the earthquake our incredible staff accessed each of our placements and provided much needed money and supplies. They somehow traveled where roads had been blocked by landslides, fallen bridges and other obstacles, never giving up until they reached our placements and provided financial aid to host families, schools, orphanages, and clinics.

We arranged for two American journalists, partners in life, to go to Bigu, a Buddhist Monastery high up in the mountains near the Tibet border. Getting there involved a six-hour bus ride followed by two days of vertical hiking on a practically deserted mountain. They were the first volunteers to go and that opened the door to a relationship with the Rinpoche and nuns that lasted as long as our volunteer program. The Monastery was destroyed in the earthquake, but once again we were there with financial aid, and we supported the transfer of over a hundred Buddhist nuns to Kathmandu for over a year while the Monastery was rebuilt. Over the years, scores of  our volunteers taught there; some went to do maintenance, some to help in the kitchen, and one couple went there to be married by the Rinpoche in a full blown traditional Tibetan ceremony replete with provided, appropriate wedding garments.

Near  Bigu we found a small Tibetan School, started by a villager who wanted the Tibetan children in the area to receive a culturally appropriate education. Our volunteers taught there and enjoyed living in the humble homes of parents and other villagers.

When a volunteer went to an area, we would furnish them with money or supplies that had been coordinated with locals. So, in the case of this little Tibetan school, money and educational supplies were donated by Volunteer Nepal. Host families were always paid for their hospitality.

We developed a concept for “Recording Oral Histories” where a volunteer, usually an anthropology major, would stay in the village of one or more of the very diverse cultures in Nepal, with a member of our staff serving as interpreter.

Some of our volunteers wished to apply their building skills to worthwhile projects which we found mostly in the Terai region bordering India. There, a school in Bastipur that consisted of clay and thatch walls and roof was torn down and replaced with a new brick and plaster structure with a tin roof, with the assistance of the volunteers.

Another favorite volunteer placement was a school at the top of a mountain in Ramechhap. The village caste was Dalit, also known as untouchables. Through a connection made with our Volunteer Nepal staff, NOH began supporting the school by providing teacher salaries and a daily hot lunch program that attracted the village children to come to school. A young couple who had just finished grad school in the study of environmental science and sustainability were some of the first volunteers there. We purchased the necessary equipment for them to teach the local women how to make cooking briquettes out of leaves and other debris. The volunteers helped form a cooperative of twelve village women who made the briquettes for each village house for free, and then they sold the surplus to other villages for revenue generation. While there, our volunteers retrofitted  many of the houses’ open-burning clay fireplaces with outside exhaust to further reduce the indoor pollution, adding value to the quality of life of the people living there. In Ramechhap, NOH paid to have built a beautiful new school to replace the old school which collapsed during the earthquake, and we continued to pay the teachers’ salaries and provide the hot lunch for a total of ten years.

Volunteers were constantly changing lives for the better. In late 2005 NOH collaborated with SWAN, a Tharu NGO in the Dang district, to provide financial support to rescue girls who had been sold as indentured servants. We refurbished two buildings on the sprawling jungle-cleared area where the elementary school was located and turned them into homes for recently rescued girls. We named the home “Lawajuni” which means New Beginnings. Prior to this, no sustainable solution to stop this exploitation of female children existed. The homes were initially outfitted for 25 girls in each, but within months of opening we were pleased that around 100 girls had been rescued and were living there. In response, NOH began shifting as many of these girls to our Dhapasi homes as we could afford. This was an exciting time for NOH and we began sending volunteers to Lawajuni and neighboring villages in the Dang district as well for teaching and medical assignments.

Another collaboration we formed was with a trekking outfit in Kathmandu. Many of our volunteers asked for us to arrange a trek for after their volunteering. We became close friends with the two men who owned the business, and they treated the volunteers with discounts and excellent care.

In 2009 we had an idea: what if we organized for a large group of people to come to Nepal for a trek and each member would contribute an additional $800 for us to bring another child to live at Papa’s House in Dhapasi, where we were able to provide better education and childcare. We came up with a “Yoga for Freedom” idea, which we shared with filmmaker and social activist Toni Thomson who helped advertise it for us. This caught the attention of the Cleveland Yoga Studio.  We designed a three-week trek that had its own incredibly gifted Nepalese yogi who would travel with the group and lead twice-daily yoga sessions. In late summer, 2010, Yoga for Freedom began from Dhapasi with its first stop at Lawajuni where the 18 yogis met all the girls and got to know and understand the culture for a few days before traveling to breathtakingly beautiful locations throughout Nepal. Yoga for Freedom was a great success and from it a fascinating book was written, Yoga for Freedom, by John Vourlis.

A few of the yogis who came for this event have remained regular donors to NOH to this day, 14 years later. This was one of the unanticipated results of having Volunteer Nepal. It became the go-to volunteering experience in Nepal and over the years covered some of the annual budget of operating NOH. In addition, the volunteers themselves were so moved by their individual experiences that they became donors and friends thereafter.

Volunteer Nepal has hosted many diverse groups over the years.  A large group of students from New York’s inner city school system came by way of an NGO headed by a previous VN volunteer. Earlier, the same volunteer, but with a different NGO, returned with a program to teach cooking using locally wild grown food products for our NOH children. We also hosted a high school class from Australia, and their chaperones for two years running. This same group, in return, invited the entire Volunteer Nepal staff to visit them in Australia, and even more, have helped a few of our children to attend college in their hometown.

Our volunteers have shown themselves to be real life heroes. We arranged a trek to the Everest Base Camp for a Wall Street investment banker and her best friend, a schoolteacher, in return they raised over $35,000 to fund the continued medical costs for our little Hope Angel.

Another volunteer, also a yoga practitioner, inspired her yoga studio to raise over $10,000 to help us cover the cost of a kidney transplant for a 16-year-old boy in our neighborhood. His mother was the donor. We also supported their family with all their expenses for a full year after the operation. That boy stayed in Dhapasi where he grew older and married years later. He and his wife presently send their little boy to the same school where our kids attend.

One of our volunteers taught mountain survival techniques in Australia. She wrote and asked if she could simply have a guide to trek across Nepal, to experience the mountains and the desert. We said yes and added a caveat. If along her trek she found a child that she felt needed to be rescued and placed in Papa’s House to be raised and educated, then her guide and our staff would investigate making it happen. They found a little girl who fit the description; her father had died, and her mother was unable to afford to care for her, much less ever send her to school. They returned to Dhapasi with the girl at the end of their journey. Today that little girl has a college degree and has been teaching at our Chelsea Center for three years.

Another volunteer from Australia, a very gifted educator and thinker, worked with a small group in Kathmandu that had started a school program for children of poor street vendors. She advocated for them in Australia, taught educational methodology to the teaching staff when she was with us, and over the years raised enough money to build a permanent school for them.

Our volunteers were each and every one remarkable individuals. They ranged in age from a very bright young teen to folks in their seventies. They covered a range of education and professions. Some were already teachers and professors; others became teachers or professors. We were able to embed several young journalists with two newspapers in Kathmandu, one a Maoist paper and one a mainstream Hindu paper. Three of our volunteers are now working for the US State Department. One young woman became a photographer and tour guide for National Geographic after her time with us. One young man came for a few months each year for five years after we introduced him to an important member of the Maoist party; he eventually finished his PhD in political science. Some became doctors, some psychologists. Over a thousand volunteers served from 2005 (when our website first appeared) through 2022. Many of them became close friends during their time together and remain so to this day.

Our volunteers made a huge difference in the lives of many. One volunteer, teaching in a remote village, would open a world of ideas to the lives of the students. One doctor seeing hundreds of remote villagers over several days would ease the suffering and give hope to many. One volunteer working at SERC, the center for disabled children, bringing a new awareness of physical therapy to the staff and whose methods were learned and adapted thereafter, allowing patients new flexibility, mobility, and pride. Volunteers would leave their placements forever changed after sharing ideas about the world, new ways to see life, and new methods for learning, with the Nepali people served. The volunteers were moved by their exposure to very poor children and adults who despite poverty had rich inner lives.   

But, when Covid came and travel was essentially stopped for Nepal for close to two years, NOH gave up the Volunteer House, and our staff all found other opportunities for themselves. Without the infrastructure or trained personnel, and a limited interest in international volunteering, we decided it was best for us to retire the program rather than ever take a chance of providing an inferior product if we tried to start again.

Volunteer Nepal volunteers have many thousands of stories to tell, each a poignant encounter with life at its most meaningful moments. The program lives on in the awakened hearts and minds of the volunteers and Nepali people they served.

Read a short history of Volunteer Nepal derived from Nepal Orphans Home annual reports.

Just some of the memories of Volunteer Nepal over the years…

​  ​

Sandip during 2010 Bhai Tika celebration and earlier that same year

Sandip and his flatmates and Sandip mentoring three of his little sisters at the Chelsea Center

This morning I received a letter from one of our young boys, 14 years old now, with eloquent thoughts if not perfect grammar, reflecting his feelings of our time together.

sandip magar
6:40 AM (6 hours ago)
to me

Dear papa

thank you for lifting me in your strong arms and enveloping me in the tightest hug possible. It gave that 1 year old me the confidence that there will always be one man. like i don't know what to say you have inspired me so much with your love and care.

your photography skills you captured beautiful childhood memories of mine in those cameras of yours. i want you to know how I feel so blessed to have you as my father.

I have no words to describe the warmth and affection I get from you.

It lifted me high and wrapped me in a tight hug

what i am today is all because of your motivation all through my school.

I am glad I walked on the path you have shown me.

from dropping me off to school. your smiles and cheerful taught a 5-year-old teary eyed me to walk ahead towards new beginnings without wavering

love you and i give you lots of hugs 

sandip

This young man has had a pretty good life. I know that all of us at Papa’s House have had better lives because of him. Sandip has lived with us since he was a baby. He was incredibly cute, and always has been. Sandip as a baby lived in one of the girl’s homes where he received the best care, he was most comfortable there and so we had him live there for his first six or seven years. The girls loved him and provided him with a wonderful education in being sensitive to his surroundings and with an eye, and ear, for beautiful things. I used to go to all the houses and braid the girls’ hair for school each morning. When I arrived at Sandip’s house he would always come out with the girls and intently watch the braiding. Some of the girls would let him learn on them before their turn with me. He always brought added pleasure to these mornings.

Once a year we used to hold a fashion contest, a highly anticipated event for many of our 120+ children of all ages. The kids would spend a few weeks preparing their cobbled together wardrobes and practicing their models’ walks. I will never forget the year that Sandip pranced out on stage in girl’s clothes, a wig, and wonderful make-up. Typical of our children, the applause was sincere and very rewarding. He won in his age group. At fourteen everyone is his friend, as it has always been. He understands the feelings of young people, and I credit that to the care and grooming particularly during his first 8 years and to the maturity and empathy of our boys from then on. If happiness and care for others are the currency of the day, then Sandip, like all our children is a wealthy young man. 

I am personally going to try to be financially responsible for a couple of our older children to come to America for college this year. I look forward to the year when Sandip is ready to apply, for I would love to bring him here as well. 

******

From the Archived Updates: 2007

To begin with the blessings, the latest is the arrival of Sita on this past Wednesday August 8th, 2007

Sita
 

She and all her paperwork were dropped off at our school early in the morning, culminating a week's worth of legal necessities. Her head shaven by a lazy person’s affordable method of lice control, she sat small and quiet in the jovial racket of bustling students entering our school. She joined our single-file procession home after school, taking in the sites and capturing snippets of talk in the line from her new sisters and brothers. Her life has started again at 9, completely in the company of strangers. This could be a traumatic time for most, but our calm, humorous, and compassionate children ward that off. After bathing and slipping into nice new clothes, she returned to the room she will share with Kabita and Apsara, both staying close to her. With each passing hour she gently opens as a tightly closed flower does with the morning sun, displaying her beautiful smile, drawn out by the warmth of her new family.

Sita T. has just been accepted into the Srijana School of Fine Arts, something that brought happy tears to the eyes of many in the NOH family. It has been a dream of hers. Sita has always loved art, but thanks to her diligence and Indra Khatri, our incredible art teacher, her ability has evolved into a serious talent. Nepal is a land of many gifted artists, so the competition is great, and recognition isn’t easy to come by.

Apsara and Sita when they were young	Sita’s artistic eye was curious to explore photography
Sita by an in-house display by the art students	Sharing some of her Plein Air paintings

After completing her Skylark education Sita, now 24, joined Herald College and completed a two-year course in Business Management. During this time, she received teacher training at our Chelsea Education and Community Center and worked as a teacher in the adult education department. But art has always been her true passion. Sita has never had an abundance of confidence in her talent, however with the urging of Indra and her brothers and sisters of Papa’s House, she applied to art school, and now she begins her validated journey as an artist.

And honors also go to one of our other gifted college children, Meena has been accepted into a coveted position at Saint Xavier’s College to do her bachelor’s in social work. She joins Sumitra who began there last year. Three other children are applying to university in Australia, and two to American colleges.

Meena

Sumitra

******

June 11th, 2006

On Wednesday an 80-year-old man came to see me with two young girls whom he referred to as daughters. I was not here at the time, and he explained his story to our school principal, Milan, and Binod, the young man who has become my right arm in managing everything. The Maoist burned down his house and all their possessions; they then kidnapped his wife, who he fears is dead by now. He hasn’t any money or means of support for himself or his daughters.

He insisted that he talk with me and scheduled to come back in a day. I was very moved by this man's story the next day when he came alone to see me. They presently are sleeping outside in Pashumpatinath, a Hindu holy site, and begging for food. With all that he has been through he still carried himself proudly and with a look of determination in his twinkling eyes. Though I had promised our staff before that we would have a moratorium on more children, and we have been finding alternatives to the others who have come, this man could not be denied, and his daughters now stay with us. They are a wonderful addition to our family.

After meeting them and learning of their story I wrote the following in a 2006 update on our NOH website.

“Kul Bahadur, worn thin, tired, and hobbled by malnutrition and worry that has removed muscle from his frame, heard them come again. The Maoists have come so many times in the past years he knows some of their names. The young, strong men of the village have all fled or been conscripted by the rebels over the years.

Two young girls in neatly worn jungle fatigues enter the house, while the other soldiers wait outside. The girls, with their long black hair tied back, bodies quick and strong, eyes fierce with determination, grab the rice sack and demand any money be handed over. Kul’s wife stands shielding her daughters, 9 and 11 years old, Kul can only watch helpless, his soft gentle voice simply says “please”. The room is small, and the search is quickly over. They grab Kul’s wife and lead her to the door, her daughters scream clutching their mother, the soldiers scream louder at them, and they let go.

Outside the mother is forced into the back of a truck, Kul and his daughters are pushed away from the house as a rebel douses it in gasoline. Kul’s watery eyes reflect the orange flames of his home as they watch the truck taking his wife, drive away.”

And months later I wrote:

Deepa is the fastest runner in our home. Each morning we run. I see in her effortless stride the speed, power, and grace of an elite runner, though she is only 12. She is a quiet girl with a soft smile, and the protective big sister to Cila, two years younger. Their father’s name is Kul, their mother is missing. I used to always lead the run, Deepa now charges past me, silent and focused. I know for her that this is not mere running, it is a daily catharsis. There is a truck, invisible to the rest of us, that she is chasing. Both girls have small scars here and there that are “nothing” when I inquire. In the months since their arrival, they have blended well with all our children, laughing, working hard in their studies, and slowly allowing childhood to return. They ask for nothing and like all our children they are full of compassion and comfort to those around them.

Deepa today is studying for her master’s degree in Social Work in the UK. Cila lives in Australia after a distinguished high school/college career playing basketball in Kathmandu.

Papa and Deepa, Nepal 2020

******

One of a million memories, this one written in 2006...

Our days are routinely busy managing our homes and the lives of our children. It is a joyful life, and the constant interaction with the kids is the best of times. They grow a little bit each day, finding new strengths and improving weaknesses. Mary and Rasmita, sisters, see each other develop as they deal with their own separate thoughts. I will remember one night watching a little of that, as I wrote,

“On Friday night Mary asked me if she could sleep in a different room. Rasmita, her bed companion, looked at me with bug eyes, waiting to hear my answer. I said yes. Later after making my rounds, I went back to Rasmita's bed, where I found her quietly crying. She said she was a little afraid to sleep alone. I surrounded her with all her dolls and reminded her that she was not alone, that four other girls were in their beds in the same room, but she was only slightly consoled. I turned out the light and after twenty minutes returned to check on her. She was fast asleep tightly hugging her large soft doll. The next night as they were getting ready for bed, she told Mary that she could go sleep in the other room again. I asked Rasmita why she felt that way and she said, “Last night I have learned to sleep alone.” Mary smiled up at me, and Rasmita didn’t protest when she slipped into bed next to her.”

Sisters Mary and Rasmita

******

NOH has taken in many sisters over the years, usually two, but sometimes three and four sisters together. We opened two homes in the Dang district, about 12 hours by bus from Dhapasi, in 2006. Dang was the epicenter of the Kamalari practice; this is where daughters are sold as indentured servants at the age of 7 during the January festival called Maghi.

In speaking with other INGOs and NGOs working to eradicate the Kamalari and other slavery and trafficking practices in Nepal, we found that none of them offered to provide a home, care, and education to the girls they were helping. Thus, with Kamalari, the recidivism rate was high; the methods used, by anecdotal evidence, seemed to perpetuate the practice.

So, NOH partnered with a local Nepalese NGO (Society Welfare Action Nepal) that tracked the girls sold, and we leased and renovated two buildings to become group residences on the expansive grounds of a public school in Narti. Our homes there filled quickly with young and older girls freed from bondage. We named our homes Lawajuni, which means New Beginnings.

In the photos below, taken at Lawajuni, Kamana is carrying her little sister, Juna, on the left, and they are posing with Gita, another member of a set of three sisters we took in. The bonds of sisters facing parental abandonment, poverty, hunger, war, at such a young age weld them together for life. I was always struck by how an eight-year-old girl had the capacity to know how to protect and care for, advise, nurture, and comfort a little brother or sister, but I saw this was the way of life for the hundred plus girls who came to Lawajuni. Lawajuni served to allow us to remove some of the younger sisters of girls who were rescued, before they too became Kamalari, such as Juna and Gita.

Kamana carrying Juna

Gita, Juna, and Kamana

Kamala photographed for our records

Juna on left, Kamana on the right at the only Mexican restaurant in Kathmandu, maybe in Nepal. The Mexican family that opened the establishment visited Papa’s House and gave a wonderful cultural program.

One day, before Covid changed our lives, I took Juna to lunch where her sister Kamana worked as a waitress. Both of these girls are excellent students and very hard working. Today Kamana has completed an undergraduate degree in Business Administration and is enrolled in the German program and hopes to leave soon for Germany as an au pair for a year, and then to enter college there. Meanwhile Juna is working on her undergrad degree in Computer Science.

******

Over the years NOH, better known in Nepal as Papa’s House, has attracted interesting attention. In the earliest years when the Maoist insurgency was a real concern, we became a refuge for a few families who smuggled their children to us for safe keeping. At the time in the western reaches of Nepal, the Maoists were conscripting children to be fighters. One family had heard about us and under cover of darkness over a couple of nights travel, brought three boys and two girls, offspring of two brothers, both teachers, to us. These kids grew up and attended college in Papa’s House before returning to their villages as young adults. One single mother sent her four daughters to us, they lived in a remote jungle area where many Maoists insisted on staying in the homes of people, unwelcomed. They caused food and safety insecurities upon people by demanding this support. These four girls also grew up with us, and eventually completed college. Three are now married.

The four sisters on the day of their arrival

A year or so after their arrival I took them back to their mountain home to see their mother. It was a quick overnight visit.

And curiously, a Maoist general heard about us through Dhapasi Maoist, and brought his very young daughter, who had cerebral palsy, to live with us. He was a widowed father who loved his daughter and trusted no one else to care for her while he was fighting in the jungle. Though I did not agree with his politics, I admired his commitment to his daughter. Bumikha stayed with us for around seven years and when the Maoists had become part of mainstream politics, her father came one day to collect his daughter and return to his village life.

And Bhumika who led our procession to school each day for many years.

******

Sisters Seema and Anisha, joined the family in 2007

As we enter 2022, NOH has a staff of 15 for operating Papa’s House and another 15 working in the Chelsea Education and Community Center. Of these 30 staff members, a total of 8 who work for Papa’s House and 8 work for the CECC are our older children who have, through training and education, earned these positions which include our outreach programs, accounting, childcare, and teaching.

As 2022 begins our official 18th year as a 501(c)3, (we actually started in 2004 but without yet being a 501(c)3), I would like to share the following bullet points.

• We have 32 of our young adults now living independently across four continents. The pandemic has kept eight more from joining work/study programs in Germany and Japan, they have learned the language, and most are awaiting visas whose issuance keeps getting delayed because of Covid.
• Of the32 children, some are working post college while others combine college and work.
• We have 10 children in Kathmandu completing their bachelors’ programs, their pace also affected (slowed) by the pandemic.
• In April we will have a total of 39 children in college, pre-bachelors’ level, and living under our support.
• In April we will have 25 children at the Skylark English school in class one through class ten.
• At this time, we additionally have 23 of our daughters, and 2 sons that have married and started their own families.

Many other children are scattered across the hinterlands of Nepal and stay in touch with their NOH family by phone or the use of social networks. One thing remains: we are a family, and each child feels the love and support of this family for life.

******

NOH had its first two volunteers in the winter of 2004. After that time, we established Volunteer Nepal as an organization to match compassionate volunteers with skill and heart with villages across Nepal who would benefit from these services. We averaged over 100 volunteers a year mostly for teaching at remote schools, helping villages with engineering, health and environmental issues that better their lifestyle and longevity. We also brought doctors and nurses and established medical camps in areas where properly trained doctors or nurses were not to be found. In all aspects of village life, we connected interested volunteers, and we also specialized in designing specific interests of the volunteer, be it working as a journalist embedded with local journalists, teaching in a Buddhist Monastery, staying in a remote village to study under the Shaman and learn medicine and healing, to name a few.

Over the years through our volunteer program, NOH began to offer village support for education, food, housing, and health. Our NOH Outreach program was born through this. Our outreach program has remodeled and built new schools, provided educational costs for operating schools, free lunch programs, and uniforms, books, and teachers’ salaries to a number of villages. We have supported other orphanages, and we have provided medicines, birthday parties, and last wishes to children with cancer and helped support the on-ground housing and food for their parents. For the past eight years we have supported the children and educational costs of a home for the blind. The children and staff there have flourished, and many are approaching the ability to work and live independently after their college is complete.

After the earthquake in 2015, the staff of Volunteer Nepal reached all our placements with money, blankets, and tents. We paid for the transport and housing for over a hundred child nuns from their monastery back to Kathmandu where they stayed over the following year while the rebuilding of their Bigu Monastery was undertaken. For the next few years NOH’s outreach program was a source of financial support for the rebuilding of many small communities.

Then Covid came and our volunteer program had to cease. This year we are hoping to be able to rebuild it. We recognize this is an optimistic punt into the still active covid situation, but we are ready to bring this incredible program back into action. Please go to our website www.volunteernepal.com to learn more about the programs and to sign up for more information. Skills are great, but often the best gift is simply the connections made with people who have never ventured beyond their often-isolated villages. The best attribute among volunteers, young and old, is simply love and compassion for those less fortunate and a desire to help change lives, theirs and your own.

Transportation to and from some villages	Teaching in the Tarai
An advertisement to inform villagers of an upcoming health camp	Teaching at Bigu Monastery
Hosting a weeklong environmental workshop	Journalist teaching, living with and writing about Bigu
Cultural exchange in Ramechhap	Teaching in Dolpa
Med student from Vanderbilt helping a village doctor with his practice	​One of many retired volunteers

There are a thousand stories that were born from our volunteers' service that live on in the hearts and minds of all involved, and through our volunteers, relationships were developed that continue to be vital to this day.

This concludes the NOH update for February 2022. Thank you to all our donors and to our compassionate and hard-working members of the NOH Board and our Papa’s House staff.

Love,
Papa

CARING BEGINS EARLY AT NEPAL ORPHANS HOME

SUNDAY APRIL 26th 2015. HOURS AFTER THE DEVASTATING EARTHQUAKE.

OUR DAUGHTER HOPE COMFORTS OUR SON SUJAN.

THIS IS WHAT WE ARE ALL ABOUT.

Six years ago, on Saturday, April 25th, just before noon, a catastrophic earthquake struck Nepal. It brought out the absolute best of our children. These extraordinary times confirmed our family’s closeness. Before the sun set that evening, and while aftershocks repeatedly rumbled, we were already in action helping our local community and organizing missions to send food, cash, blankets, and tents to the communities we supported in various remote areas of Nepal through our Outreach Department. While fear and despair brought inertia to the community, our children began the clean-up process, preparing the way for rebuilding the collapsed perimeter walls and the interior damage done to some of our homes. They worked hard and cheerfully while neighbors sat watching, full of fear with the aftershocks, and puzzled by our children’s attitude and abilities. This was one of the many NOH Hallmark moments that we have experienced in our 16 years.

Assembled in the yard outside Papa’s Samanjasya House immediately after the first earthquake

Two days later, the clean-up begins

From the time that a child comes into our home they realize that they have become part of a large family where everyone truly wishes to help each other to have a better life. From the oldest children to the youngest, all are recognized and listened to, respected, and cherished. The foundation principles of health, education, experience, and happiness, attained in a holistic manner permeate our environment. Dreams are encouraged and supported by all for one, and one for all.

In this update I would like to share the interesting lives and achievements of some of our older children. Those chosen have not done “better” than any of our other children; this is just to show how the lives of a few of the children are faring in the world outside our walls.

Himal:

I have been in Australia now for just over a year. Between work and school, it has been a busy one. I leave home at six in the morning and return around midnight. I am taking my driver’s exam next week. Being able to drive will free some of my time.

I am studying in a Culinary Institute in the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. I came to Australia to study IT, but there were many roadblocks for that, and many people advised me to try for acceptance at this college, as it was the best option for me to remain in Australia. I have enjoyed it; this is a profession in high demand. I am in my third semester and will graduate in December. I have a good job at a restaurant called “The Green Zebra” I had never considered this line of work; I have always been dedicated to IT. I have considered applying again in IT once I have paid off my school loans and saved some money. We will see. I have been learning a lot from school as well as from work. I have made many friends. I am pretty tired, but also very happy to be living in Australia.

Sumitra:

This month I will test for my black belt in Taekwondo. I have to break a brick as part of the test. Yesterday Papa was telling me, “Your body can handle this; it has the strength to do it without any problem, but it is in your mind that you will succeed. If you imagine yourself smashing through the brick it will be done; if you have any doubt in you, if you hesitate, you will only hurt your hand. Believe in yourself Sumi, I believe in you, I know you will do this.” I know that I will do it; I believe in me, but more, I believe in Papa.

The above quote was lifted from a story that Sumitra wrote and is published on our website from July 2017, titled “A Day in The Life of Sumi.” I highly recommend reading it. Sumitra is still breaking bricks, at least figuratively. Sumi recently applied to St. Xavier’s College in Kathmandu. It is the most prestigious and one of the oldest colleges there. Its halls are truly hallowed from the passage of those who have shaped Nepal over the years in a variety of fields. St. Xavier’s has a 3% acceptance rate. She was accepted into a four-year bachelor’s program and had her orientation on March 10th.

AnuMaya and Puja:

 
AnuMaya on the left, and Puja on the right

AnuMaya left for Portugal in late 2019 to train at the Casa dos Varais-The Varais Palace. This esteemed estate has been in the same family for hundreds of years. The positions are few, typically inherited through the retirement of lifelong staff. A wonderful friend of Nepal Orphans Home, world renowned photographer Rui Peres, whose friendship with the Casa dos Varais encouraged the family to hire AnuMaya.

Learning Portuguese, learning proper European manners straight from “The Remains of the Day,” and learning to conduct tours of the winery are just a few of AnuMaya’s accomplishments.

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AnuMaya has won the hearts of some of the oldest families in Portugal. So much so that one frequent guest of Casa dos Varais, the Portuguese Minister of Labor, has asked if NOH might recommend one of our girls to her, and another highly regarded old family who own three palaces, have interviewed and signed contracts with two of our college graduates who are awaiting the end of a lockdown in Portugal to begin their new positions.

Puja:

Puja studied Humanities in college in Kathmandu, while also employed by our Chelsea Education and Community Center as a teacher for the community women, who adored her. She applied to college in Sydney to get a bachelor’s degree in social work. Her boyfriend had left a year earlier to also study in Sydney. Puja was naturally accepted and arrived in Australia in November of 2019. She quickly found work in a family-owned restaurant chain, and soon became the one employee they kept when Covid struck and in-person dining was prohibited. She has done very well in school, and she and her boyfriend decided to marry. They both have exhausting work/study schedules,but are able to pay their university fees and live a happy life together saving for the future and making wonderful memories.

Puja and Papa’s House Mother, Dawn Kumari, at Puja’s going away celebration

Sabina:

Sabina has several interviews coming up, the first on April 27th at Nordwest Hospital in Frankfort Germany, to enter the School of Nursing. She has always been a trailblazer. A quiet girl, she has had, from a young child, her future plans in laser focus.

I am currently living in Eltville, Germany and hoping to build my career here. I am doing my voluntary years duty at Organization Bethanien Kinderdorf. It is one of the largest Children’s Homes in Germany. It is really fun to work here with the children. Sometimes observing their behavior, I miss my wonderful childhood at Papa’s House. I will be working here for six more months and then I begin my apprenticeship in a three-year nursing program.

Sabina learned German in 2019, and then passed her two exams and her interview with the German Embassy. In October of the same year, she signed a contract as an au pair and left for Germany. She completed her one-year contract and then went to work for a state-run orphanage, a position she interviewed for and won a couple of months shy of her contract’s expiration. This is a required one-year employment to qualify for college in Germany.

Sabina was our first to go to Germany; two more now have gone, one of whom is featured below. Sabina and many others of the older children of NOH maintain a Saturday night Messenger Forum and discuss their present lives and share their many memories growing up in Papa’s House.

Kaushila:

One of Sabina’s closest friends growing up, Kaushila also wants to be a nurse and found Sabina’s path one that seemed to offer her the best opportunities. So, on January 1st of 2021, she found herself meeting Sabina upon arrival in Frankfort, along with her very loving new Host Family.

It’s been three and a half months since I came to Germany. Currently I am living in Steinen. It is on the border between Germany and Switzerland. I am living with a family of four. My primary responsibility is the care of Marie, who is eight. She loves Nepali music and learning Nepali dance. She has already learned ten Nepali songs. She also loves going to the playground. The family is so friendly, soft-hearted, and understanding. I am lucky to have found them. Lockdown is again starting here. I will be with the family only a year and then, like Sabina, I will enter the FSJ, the volunteer commitment, and that will lead me to my Nursing three-year apprenticeship. I am so happy with my life.

 
Kaushila at Papa’s House at the same age as her charge Marie is now

Bimal:

Bimal is an amazing young man. He understands the nature of the mind and has put into practice the ability to imagine what he wishes in his life and to visualize and manifest it. He works extremely hard towards his goals.

He spoke very good English when he came to us from a remote mountain-protected village at the age of 10. He could dance, act, and paint. He was always smiling and full of energy. He sold his first oil painting to a museum curator from Ohio in 2015 for $500. He was happy but took it all in stride. Despite many accolades he has remained a humble young man fascinated with life.

In Nepal, “high school” is finished after class ten. College is next for class 11 and 12. After class 10, he quietly applied to the only college in Kathmandu that had an IB program. He surprised us one day with a letter of acceptance and a full scholarship, and a stipend to help pay his cost of living in a room near the campus.

He excelled at school in academics, theater, and art. He had always set his sights on college in America, and with the help of Tanya Nair, the former NOH Director of Transition, herself a graduate of prestigious Davidson College, he applied to the North Carolina school and won a 100% scholarship. He will be arriving on the Davidson campus in August. Bimal is a gifted young man, who will make a big difference in the world one day.

One of Bimal’s paintings

Bimal painted this in 2020 and gave it to me as a gift. In turn, I had it framed and hung it in our Chelsea Education and Community Center, where it is daily appreciated by all.

Gita:

I am Gita Bista.  I am completing my plus 2 major in Humanities at Herald College. At the same time, I am a part time photographer for Possible Worlds Foundation and Nepal Orphans Home. Photography was always an interest of mine going back to my introduction by the NGO “Searching for Neverland,” which ran a three-week workshop for NOH in 2013. It became my passion in March of 2020 when the lockdown began. I split my time between photography and oil painting, which I found one served the other. I have been taking photography courses, meeting other photographers, and I began my own photography page on social media (Cherish Every Moment).

 
Gita in 2008 when first coming to Papa’s House and today as the NOH staff photographer

Gita, along with her three sisters have been with us in Kathmandu since 2008. Prior to that they lived at our Lawajuni home in Dang. These are four, very special girls. In 2019, Gita met our Director of the Chelsea Center, Prashanna Bista, and as the name implies, in early 2020 Gita asked me to give her away in a beautiful wedding ceremony. She and Prashanna are the embodiment of soulmates and held by all the children with the greatest of respect and admiration for their teaching, profoundly deep love, and the manner in which they live.

Dhiraj:

 
Hari, on left, with his best big buddy Dhriaj in 2007,
and Dhiraj with his deeply pensive stare a few months later

I am Dhiraj Yadav, living here in Sydney-Australia for over 2 years and 8 months. I am studying for a Bachelor’s in information technology, currently in my last semester to be conferred soon a bachelor’s degree. I work for Systemnet, an IT company here in Sydney as a “System Engineer.”

I plan to stay here and get my Australian citizenship and continue working for the company and maybe one day to become one of the partners.

I have an amazing family here in Sydney with Stan as my dad, Laurie as my mummy, who I first met at NOH when I was very young, I am literally one of the most blessed and luckiest men alive.

I have learnt to appreciate everything in my life when I was growing up at Papa’s House and I have learnt to love and respect everyone around me from Laurie and Stan and what it means to be human from Papa.

I hope one day I can make you all very proud.

Dhiraj is another of our children who is exceptional in every world they inhabit except the world of children of Nepal Orphans Home. He began his early school years with a fascination in science and dreams of becoming an astronaut. Along the way he became interested in computers, and while very young he excelled at it under the guidance of Ted Seymour, one of the Board Members of NOH. Soon he was instructing his brothers and sisters in programming basics and on his own and with continued guidance under Ted, continued to acquire a great understanding of how to program.

Always happy and easy going, he continued to work hard towards getting accepted at a good IT university in Australia. Very grateful for the support he received there from our board member, Laurie Levine, and her husband Stan, he made them proud by excelling in his work and being continuously recognized for his kindness, mentorship, and excellence by his employer and the community in which he lived. When Puja arrived in Sydney, he was the best of brothers to her, always finding time to help her find her way around that new life, to find work, and to make sense of the dizzying life she found herself steeped in. Dhiraj has asked if I might be able to attend his graduation, and I have assured him that it will be one of my happiest days of the last 16 years.

Friends, supporters, staff, and our wonderful Board members have every reason to be very proud of who our children have become. They have taught all of us lessons about life that we would not have learned without them; lessons that are of the highest value, for they are about character and what should be the ultimate aim of every human being in their lifetime:  to be kind, compassionate, honest, helpful, and to live with purpose. NOH is truly a beautiful example of how a small group of people can make a huge difference in the many lives that become a part of its orbit.

Mrs. Sunita Pandey is doing a great job as Director of Operations of Papa’s House NGO. She has a lot of support from our staff and the NOH board. While another lockdown has just begun due to the spiraling India infection rate, those of us who are unable to be present now have faith that this too will be weathered in fine form.

Our newest children are well on their way in following the footsteps of some of the young adults mentioned in this update who were also once five or six years old at Papa’s House, just as they themselves are now.

The newest girls at Papa’s House: Zoya, Saya, Shristi, Sarita, and Angel