Buy Chickens for street children in Nepal

So the same as every year, the strange fog is surrounding Birgunj and our Children's Home. This is something that cannot be explained in words but has to be experienced in person. Whilst walking to school in the morning, the boys can hardly see anything in front of them - and on Nepali paths and roads there are always a lot of surprises!

The boys are now really looking forward to their end of the year trip with all the children from the Child Helpline. We will hopefully be able to post some lovely photos after the trip. All the boys have studied so hard this year and really deserve a nice break. 

We are preparing for new boys from the Helpline to join our Children's Home soon - they have nowhere else to go and the boys are more than happy to welcome new brothers. One of them is a 6 years old Biki. He was found by the police at the train station in India, just by the border, where apparently his parents had abandoned him some time ago. His father is in prison for the murder of Biki’s brother and we still haven’t been able to locate his mother, who according to her neighbours in the village is an alcoholic and had disappeared 6 months before. Biki is now staying with us at the Child Helpline and receives extensive counselling. He is very withdrawn and is still having issues playing with other children. Due to his trauma he might need to stay with us for the next few months and then will probably be referred to our Children’s Home. He has now learnt how to hold a pencil and can do basic maths and drawing. 

The boys are so proud of their garden and chickens and always help out in their spare time. They are always proudly announcing that they are eating organic and healthy food, and our cook Tara is very happy with all the support she is getting from the boys. As a result, she cooks the most delicious meals for them. 

As this is our last report this year, we wanted to say a huge thank you to you all. Without your support we would never be able to help so many children who have noone else to turn to. Thank you.

Happy Holidays everyone!

With the monsoon season coming to an end shortly (we hope!), we have just started getting our garden ready for the new season and we have planted some new exciting vegetable favourites of the boys. So now we will be watching new radishes, ladies' fingers and lettuces growing! The chickens seem to be relieved too that they can spend more time outside, in the garden and not just hide from heavy rains in their house. 

The boys have now a new dance teacher that comes to the home twice a week - and they are so excited to show off their new moves! Few days ago they got taken for their regular dental check up and luckily no major issues. 

Before the monsoon started we managed to take them to the swimming pool a few times - all-time favourite for all our boys and they cannot wait until they can go again. The older boys have been helping the younger ones with swimming classes and most are doing really well. In Nepal there are normally no swimming classes and very few people can actually swim so it's a real achievement to have 21 boys being almost professionals at it!

The boys have been asking us to organise a trip somewhere for them as they haven't been anywhere for 2 years due to the pandemic. Sadly, the COVID cases seem to be on the rise again in Nepal so the staff want to wait a bit longer before taking them anywhere - towns and cities are usually very crowded with no distance between people observed. But we might plan an exciting trip to the jungle for them once the rains stop completely. 

Thank you so much for all the support provided to the boys - it really means a lot. Our staff are working round the clock to help children across the whole of Province 2 but sadly the further afield we work, the more children in dire situations we discover with no-one else to help them. Thank you again - all this is only possible thanks to you!

We were so excited to be finally able to visit our boys in Nepal after such a long break. The boys are for sure on a very healthy diet - a lot of muscles around! They all matured so much and we are so proud of them. All have become young men that know what they want to do in the future. We were very impressed with their future chosen career options - chefs, teachers, software engineers and policemen! We will now be very busy arranging some interesting work experience placements for the older boys. 

It was their exam time last week so all the boys were studying very hard, and those that finished their exams were helping with beautiful paintings at the Child Helpline and with the set up of a new classroom in Rautahat for our new project. They have all been showing so much passion and dedication that we were left speechless. Seeing all this made us feel so reassured that we are doing something right. 

We also checked on our chickens of course - they have a very good life; at night staying at their large chicken house (all lovely and clean) and during the day they are running around their huge enclosure, safe from all the dogs and other animals. We are getting around 15 eggs a day which is great and the boys love their omelettes! The boys want to get a few more so the chickens should be getting some new friends soon. 

We want to say a huge thank you to everyone for all the support. With our new project underway, we really need any support we can get to be able to help more and more children. We will be sending some very exciting news shortly and a bit more comprehensive summary of our visit to Nepal. Thank you!!!

Two years with no school, two years with no close contact with friends, two years with no proper socialising. This is what many of us had to do as well and this is what our boys had to experience. They are so excited now to be able to go to school in person again. They all have new school uniforms, new shoes, school bags. We are just hoping it will last for some time but we are preparing for a plan B in case the school gets shut down again. We were lucky with initially very good online teachers and then two teachers coming to the home to give them classes, all nicely set up outside. 

Our garden has been flourishing and all boys have been enjoying their gardening more and more (well, some more than the others!). Our very lucky chickens had an extra brick house built for them to stay inside overnight and they have a large area to run around during the day. Even our dogs have finally accepted that there are other animals living on the grounds. 

We have just welcomed three new boys to our home and they are loving it all, they are being really well looked after. They have started their school for the first time ever so a big change for them. 

We have two amazing volunteers helping out at the home and wherever they are needed so the boys have been getting good quality computer, geography, embroidery, photography and other classes. They have been so happy to have other people around them who are sharing their skills with them. 

We wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who has supported us so far. We wish you very happy holidays and we will be back with more updates in the new year!

With the very harsh second wave of coronavirus, it has been very challenging for the children and the staff. No school, not meetings with friends, not being able to leave the home. The boys have been kept very busy though and luckily are very happy with everything. 

Firstly, we are collecting a lot of eggs from our chickens - so the boys are ecstatic! 

Secondly, they are having online classes everyday and from this month we have started face to face classes outside with some of the teachers from their school. They have also started their monthly sex education classes with a fantastic online teacher as these classes are not a part of the school curriculum. 

When the boys weren't busy with their studies, they were helping with preparing corona relief packages that our staff were distributing to the families that wouldn't be able to survive without those. They all got very involved with that and wanted to help as much as they could - so measuring out the rice or lentils to ensure everyone gets an equal share became a top job for most boys. We are very grateful that we have such wonderful boys.

The boys also got a yoga and meditation course kindly organised for free for us and now they seem to be experts! Apart from their yoga practice they have also been mastering their arts and crafts skills - all so wonderful to see. 

We have also had 2 new boys joining us so the rest of the children have been making sure they settle in well. Our counsellor who is based in Janakpur, went to visit our children's home and child helpline and did her initial face to face counselling with all the children, and now she is doing regular online counselling sessions via video calls. 

We now have to be very careful with the coronavirus and until more people get vaccinated, we will continue just with online and in house classes. We will keep you updated on all the progress of the boys.

A massive thank you again for all your support!