This is Aishworya’s first newsletter, so from all the children and staff we’d like to say a big hello and welcome!
Our House
One of our volunteers has, with the help of her family back in the UK, been able to set up a new website for the Children’s Home so we can update you about what’s going on in the children’s lives.
No Running Water
In February our supply of running water dried up and for two months the children had to carry buckets of water from our local well for washing, cooking and drinking. While our volunteers have struggled with being unable to wash regularly, the children continue to remain happy and un-fazed by the lack of water, despite the extra work it entails for them.
Some of the older boys carrying water to the Home
March saw the celebration of the Holi festival, which is a celebration of water and colour to see in the start of spring and the early monsoon. It is most noticeably celebrated by children throwing water-bombs at passers-by in the street. After several months of drought, we were looking forward to this festival, which brings with it rain to tamp down the dry and dusty roads, fill up our wells again, and relieve the staff and children of the burden of fetching water every day for the Home.
Vaccinations for Everyone!
The volunteers staying at Aishworya, Karita, Anne, and Stephanie, took all of the children to the Teku Hospital in Kathmandu to get them tested for HIV and Hepatitis. The trip was prompted after one of the volunteers was writing profiles on the children and noticed that some of the children’s parents had been positive for either HIV or Hepatitis, and felt that all of the children should be tested.
We were extremely happy to announce that all 25 children tested negative for both HIV and Hepatitis!
The kids showing off their newly vaccinated arms!
The children were brilliantly well-behaved and brave, and only 3 of them cried, so our volunteers rewarded them with a treat of samosas and tea at a local restaurant before riding a tuk-tuk home.
The children all had a wonderful day out, despite it being for a rather serious reason!
Starting School
As our children had been out of school for the past year due to a lack of funding, for several months our lovely volunteers were teaching the kids at home.
Holding up the enrolment forms that will mean the children can go to school
Our volunteers were also working tirelessly to help get the children back into school and successfully raised enough money to pay for the children to return to school for one year, although we are still looking for more permanent funding for the future.
We had several meetings with the school to enrol the children, and bought uniforms ready for the new school year starting on April 15th.
Being measured for school uniforms!
The children were very excited about returning to school, and in honour of their return, the volunteers prepared some exams to test the children on what they have learned with us, and to prepare them for re-entering the school system.
New Friends and New Beds
Two of our volunteers, Karita and Stephanie, met a group of Australian trekkers just back from a trek to Jomson. They were interested in Aishworya and came to visit us before returning to Australia. They were impressed with Aishwora and moved by the children and their stories. They very generously donated a total of 50,000 NPR and asked that we use the money to buy beds for the children. We immediately ordered the beds, which arrived only two weeks later!
The bed frames being assembled in the front yard
The beds all set up in the children’s rooms
We are extremely grateful to them for their kind support and ongoing interest in our orphanage and hope that we will remain friends for many years to come!
That’s all for now – lots of love from Aishworya Children’s Home, do have a look around our new website, and we look forward to sending you the next newsletter update!
