A New Year and a Fresh Coat of Paint
Winter in Kathmandu has been freezing cold this year, and a fuel crisis at the end of 2015 didn’t help – but the children of Aishworya are celebrated the end of a difficult year and the coming of a new one – by painting the walls of our home!
Everyone joined in painting the walls
Even the little ones helped.
The painting was led by a group of professionals who volunteered to run the project and provide the paint, and everyone at Aishworya joined in – from the older teenagers, to the very littlest children, everyone was equipped with a paintbrush and a smile!
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.A Haircut for Everyone
All in a line for the hairdressers!
The children held very still for their hair cut!
The local hairdressers’ school that is based just around the corner from Aishworya offered to give all the children haircuts for free to give their students some practice – we were delighted by the offer!
Welcome to little Karuna!
Karuna Rokaya (3) joined our family in September. Karuna is from Mugu, in Western Nepal.
Karuna is such a little cutie!
Her mother died while giving birth to her younger sister seven months ago, and her father is an alcoholic. We heard about Karuna through a social awareness radio programme. She comes from a very remote village that has no transportation, so we brought her to us by plane.
Karuna is already feeling very comfortable and becoming close with everyone. She loves talking and dancing and we all think she is wonderful.
A Mountaineering Trip for the Kids
Adventures with Rich
Rich Carlson and his friends came to visit and taught our children about mountaineering. Rich owns Canyons & Crags, a canyoneering academy in Utah. His greatest passion is assisting with economic development and quality of life through teaching canyoneering to communities around the world.
Our children had such a fun day learning ropes, building confidence and, of course, climbing trees! Thankyou to Rich and his friends for giving us such a great time!
Swinging from the trees like monkeys!
Children’s Day games!
In September we celebrated Children’s Day – a very special holiday for kids in Nepal celebrated across the country. For Aishworya it’s an important occasion for making our children feel very special and valued. We celebrated it with dance, music and lots of games and prizes.
A Children’s Day race
Cuddles and presents from Mummy!
Dashain and Diwali
At the start of October we celebrated Dashain – an important, 15-day festival for Hindus and Buddhists around the world. Dashain is the biggest festival in the Nepali calendar and celebrates the triumph of good over evil. We celebrated by eating meat and fruits, and on the tenth day our elders gave tika to the children. Tika is a mixture of rice, yogurt and vermilion which is placed on the forehead to bless the wearer with good fortune, health and a long life.
Everyone got tika
a Dashain cake!
A delicious lunch
Volunteers from all over came to help us get back on track!
We are very pleased to have started welcoming volunteers back to Aishworya after the turmoil of last year. And we had some wonderful volunteers this year – including Agathe from France in February; the Friends of Scotland in March; Soonam Maya from the USA in July; Nora and Sara from Switzerland in August; and Sofie, Christopher, Pauli and Mathias from Denmark took a month out of their travels to visit us in May.
Agathe spending time with the girls
Friends of Scotland playing with the kids
Getting the books ready for the kids
Sofie, Christopher, Pauli and Mathias from Denmark generously fundraised for our children’s yearly school text books – the children were so excited when they brought the books out in front of the house to show us!
Our volunteers mean so much to us – they bring the children so much joy, love and support, and we couldn’t do without them.
