One step closer...

It has been a momentous week at Nepal House! 

A generous dental team from the Canada donated their time and resources to provide dental care to the staff, students, and family members of the Nepal House Girls School. Dr. Paul Comparelli, Diane Horita and volunteers staged Dental Camps that touched the lives of a large number of people - if you have a Facebook account and have "NepalHouseKaski" as a connection, you can view the latest photos.

This is an opportunity that many of the girls attending Nepal House Girls School would have never gotten without the support of Nepal House and I am extremely grateful that the support was present to provide this incredible experience to the students. 

I mean think about it for a sec, what would we do without our biannual visits to the dentist? Can you even imagine going years without ever being told how to take care of--or even that you should take care of your teeth? I will be the first to admit I couldn't. Dental decay and periodontal diseases are rampant in developing nations.

In fact, there are no Childrens' hospitals in Pokhara, Nepal where Nepal House is located. This dental camp marks Nepal House getting one step closer to the dream of establishing proper childrens facilities in Nepal.  

Thank you to all the Nepal House supporters who have been able to make programs such as this one a reality!! 

Check out some photos from the dental camp!

Namaste, 

Kylesh

Founder

 

Participate in the Month of Giving - Yew Yoga Style!

FOR THE THIRD YEAR IN A ROW, Tami Roberts of the Yew Studio is featuring Nepal House for her donation efforts for the month of April!

Any activity that you sign up for go directly to the efforts of Nepal House US Chapter's Girl School. Whether it is a Thai Massage or a yoga class from this brilliantly grounded teacher, you not only receive but also have the chance to give...

To set up your massage, yoga or other activities offered by Yew Studio, please contact Tami through the main website: http://www.yewstudio.com

Kylesh

Girl Power - Go North View High School!!

A LOUD SHOUT OUT AND THANK YOU TO NORTH VIEW HIGH SCHOOL'S THE GIRL EFFECT CLUB!! Last year, Nepal House was invited to speak with the club and their desire to help in global communities aligned well with our mission - they understood the importance of strong, intelligent, and educated women in developing nations. Early this 2013, they took it upon themselves to raise awareness for the Girls School by hosting a week long fundraiser and got the whole school to participate.

The leaders in this club did a tremendous job educating their peers and teachers  about Nepal House efforts. If you do get a chance to read through this website, you will note that in such countries like Nepal where hierarchy is deeply embedded in the culture, when a male is educated, he will most likely leave the country for more opportunities and seldom physically come back to the community to share his knowledge. No blame but a simple fact. On the flipside, when a female from such communities is educated, she has a natural tendency to stay in her homeland and  contirbute to society. Those around her learn about life skills and the knowledge is shared freely. In essence, it's a domino effect that leads to more educated, aware, and assertive females.

Nepal House US Chapter wants to sincerely thank every single member of The Girl Effect Club at Northview Highschool and their wonderful sponsor Mrs. Tania Pope . Your contributions are enabling twenty little bright eyed little girls at  the Girls School to grow and flourish in all the best possible ways.

Saika Sharma

US Ambassador

The Realities of Social Work in Nepal

The Nepal House team builds genuine bonds with the children they encounter. Many of these children have been through so much hardship and have developed a callous perspective of the world, while others have been victim to a series of unfortunate events and only crave love and attention. The following entry is a written account of the relationship between a Nepal House counselor and a young girl who suffered from AIDS. 

Juna (her nickname) lived in one of the children’s homes that support children with HIV and AIDS after her parents died of AIDS.  Nepal House Kaski has a mobile counseling centre here. Juna was in counseling with me for over two years. Juna was HIV positive and had pneumonia when she was a small child. Both her lungs were not functioning well since that time. The children’s home caregivers referred her to us reporting that Juna was often angry, cried easily and did not believe staff when they said she would get better. When I worked with her she shared her confusion about her future; whether she would get better or not. She was very sick, probably dying when I started working with her and no one at the home would talk with her about her condition. She was worried about what was happening to her. Her body got swollen and she could not breathe well.  She had a sister who refused to visit her because of the AIDs.

I taught her many experiential exercises that she found helpful. We also talked in phone many times.  She liked to talk and share, and did a lot of art work.  She had a huge desire to go to school like her friends but her health never allowed her to. I talked to the staff this and they arranged to do some classes with her at the children’s home. After working with her many months the staff reported that, she was less angry and cried less and was more confident.  I started doing two sessions a week with her because she was getting so sick. One time she told me that one of her caregivers was hitting her at night when she was coughing and wheezing from pneumonia. I spoke with the administration and made sure that the staff stopped doing that. 

Her pneumonia got worse and she was hospitalized. I visited her there until she got worse and was transferred to Kathmandu. We continued to talk on the phone regularly. I had given her a small statue of the god Ganesh 2 months earlier after she had told me that her own statue was broken and she could no longer pray. She was so happy when I gave it to her, but it was left behind in Pokhara. When a staff told her she was coming to visit, Juna asked especially for them to bring her “the Ganesh statue Laxmi-Miss gave me”. The staff called to tell me that, and it touched me deeply.  I spoke with her by phone often until she died in August. While I could not stop her from dying, I know that I provided her with safe place to share her emotional pain; that I was there to care about her and provide comfort and support.

Laxmi Gautam

Counselor

There Is a Way...

The Nepal House team works diligently to help all children whom they encounter to find a safer, more loving environment than the situtation they may currently face. In this particular blog entry from our Nepal House Kaski team, counselor Basanta Subedi recounts a heartwrenching experience he had when he met the children of a family he was told about by a friend who works with another charitable organization known as Shakti Group.

A friend of mine who works in Shakti Group talked about a particular family that lives at Malepatan, Pokhara.  After hearing the story of family I was curious to visit them.  Shakti group found a girl 11years old while being the victim of trafficking and rescued from the boarder of Nepal and India.  Shakti Group staff visited her family in Malepaten.  While visiting, they found one year girl inside the dark room which was locked from outside.  They could not do anything at that time and in the next days they try to meet the parents. Fortunately they were able to meet them and could learn few things about them.  After that they contact me and I wanted to visit the family immediately. I went with my friend from Shakti Group to see the girl. It is really hard to express in words how I felt when I see the situation. I just could hear the girl crying inside. In the dark room I could not see anything and try to pull the window out and was able to pull it out and hardly saw a little one inside. The girl stopped crying. I thought the little girl was scared but I came to know that she heard some human around her and stopped crying.  I hardly saw her head through the iron rod bar and thought she was tied with rope on her leg because she was not moving. I wanted to visit the parents immediately if possible and talked in the neighbor. Luckily we met the lady in neighbor and she gave some information where the mother works. We found the place. At that time it was already getting dark. When we saw her, she was still mixing cement and sand to finish water tank.  She sounded like she needs one more hour then she could go to home. I saw a little girl by the side of mother. I found, she is her daughter, another daughter. I thought that I need to talk to my friends in Nepal House, Kaski and make plan to help the family. While talking to the mother I got to know that her husband is in the hospital. He has tuberculosis and is really ill. I came to Nepal House, Kaski and shared the fact what I saw and every one at Nepal House are ready to do something that is helpful. I shared the story with our supervisor from Canada and felt better after that. Nepal House team is working to help the family and the girl who is in Shakti Group started to come to NHK School. Situation in the family is already is getting better. Most importantly the one year old  girl is getting time from her mother and not locked all day long in the dark room.  The father is not in the hospital anymore and is in regular medication.  The family is seeing some changes already and there is hope.

Written by

Basanta Subedi

Counsellor NHK