Sponsors Arrive in Kathmandu

Lori, Jay and Madeleine arrive in Kathmandu with Mann greeting them.  Jay, who is a vet, is now volunteering for a few days at the animal treatment centre.
Tomorrow we leave for Pokhara to meet other sponsors to introduce them to their children.  Lori and Jay will join us there in a few days.
The Kathmandu Animal Treatment Centre, which is a favourite charity of mine, has lost a lot of their property to the proposed road widening.  They are now having to rent office space up the road.  This is a big problem everywhere in Kathmandu.  This charity spays the female dogs of Kathmandu to help control the dog population in the city.  They also treat injured and sick animals.
Www.katcentre.org.np

Unfinished School

Walking along this balcony felt very unsafe but children are now having to use these rooms

Unfinished classroom which needs windows and a door

Hattiban

Today we visited Hattiban and as usual it was a beautiful sunny day.  Every time we go to Hattiban it is sunny and it is so nice to sit in the sun with the children.  We saw all the children except for two who were visiting relatives.  All the schools are on holiday for the two big festivals, Dashain and Tihar.  As usual we bought them pop and cookies and we gave out more of the clothes sent from Qatar.  Rajendra's wife made us tea and we sat for a couple of hours enjoying the sun and the children.  Hattiban is a delightful village.  The villagers brought us persimmons and pomelos to take home, they grow on the trees there.  So that is our desert tonight.

Children enjoying some snacks

Sushant one of our visually impaired Students

We then visited a school which we had previously we visited in the spring.  It desperately needs some help to finish classrooms and to put a railing around the second floor.  Two children have already fallen from here, one broke a hand and the other a leg.  The second floor was built 3 years ago with some money from the government but there was not enough money to finish it even though the teachers and villagers contributed.  Hopefully we will be able to help them in the future.  This is a government school and the students attending here are all very poor.

Photos

Photos:  Ramila with her sponsor's letter.  Stone quarry families.  Howard and Julia visiting Children's Home.

Aasika with her Sponsor's letter

Visiting Children

Yesterday we visited children at the stone quarry.  Unfortunately they have had to move their home as a college has been built on the land.  Construction is going on all around them and the quarry is becoming smaller and smaller.  So the future does not look good for them.
We had a large shipment of clothes from our donors in Qatar, mostly school uniforms that were brand new  so yesterday we gave some of these out to the children along with letters from sponsors.
we also visited Ramila and Ranjita at the tea shop.  They also have had to move because of road widening which demolished their last shop.  Kathmandu looks like a war zone.  The roads are all rubble and the front of buildings just torn away.  So many people displaced, it is very sad.
Yesterday we had another sponsor visit our office from Qatar.  We also took him to visit Sima's small children's home as funds from Qatar have helped fund this home.  Today they are travelling to Pokhara to visit their sponsored child.  Also tonight Lori and Jay and their daughter arrive from Duncan.  Lots of sponsors visiting which is very good.
Photos Howard from Qatar, Mann, Bob and I.  Juni reading her sponsor's letter with Sanija looking on.  Red shirts and hats from Qatar.

Arrived in Nepal

We arrived in Nepal last night after a holiday in China.

Today we met Johnny and Leonard from Qatar.  Johnny is the son of our sponsors Carol and Keith in Qatar.  Yesterday Mann took them to visit some of the children that their parents sponsor and they told me that they really enjoyed this experience.  Today we took them to another family where they sponsor a boy.  He had gone to visit his village as it is the Dashain festival here.  They were able to visit with the mother and two of the siblings Pradip and Parmila who are also sponsored through NEF.  This family has been sponsored for eight years and was one of our first families.  Pradip is in college now.

Fundraiser for Kristy school

A fundraiser by friends on October 10th for the Kristy school project raised $3,300.. We are very happy with this success.  This will supply more building supplies for the school construction.  Our friends will join us in Nepal in a couple of weeks and will visit the school and present the money.  Photos will follow. many thanks to them.
I am on route to Nepal and will post all news here.