A lot of you will remember this child, her name is Sunita and I put her photo up here a couple years ago. She is on the website and on our brochures. She is a mountain child who I visited two years ago. She lived high in the mountains north of Chimkhola. I wanted to help her when I first met her but was unable to at that time. On this trip to Chimkhola we made the day trek further north to see her and her family again. This time we asked her parents if they would allow her to come to Pokhara to live with Mann's parents and attend private school. The parents were very happy they said to have one child educated. Sunita wanted to come with us that very day but she was in the middle of finishing her school year in the village school. Last night she arrived here and I visited her today. She had had an 11 hour walk down and then a three hour bus ride on a very bumpy road and had experienced travel sickness as she had never been on a bus before. She looked happy today although it is a huge change for her. She had never seen a television before and was quite enthralled with it. Rita from the village brought her and she told us that Sunita had said to her parents when she left "I am going to study in Pokhara so please do not bother me". She is 12 years old. Tonight we had dinner with Carol and Keith and a friend of thiers and he immediately wanted to sponsor her and is going to meet her in the morning.
Somehow I feel that Sunita will be successful, she seems a tough little girl especially as she has never left her home before. If we had left her there she would have been married off in two or three years and an old woman by age 40.