Jagat phoned to tell me that the father of the Lama family committed suicide last Sunday. This is one of the stone quarry families and a family that has been supported through NEF since almost the beginning, I think we started sponsoring the children in 2005. This man was a good husband and very hard worker who always came in to hello to me and seemed always to be grateful for our help. The family is extremely poor but always welcoming and I have always enjoyed visiting them. Life is very tough for them as they live in a tin dwelling on the company property and it has been moved at least 3 or 4 times in the last few years as the land was sold and built on. I had been worried that the time would come when the last of the land was sold and then where would they go and where would they work? They had to pay an expensive rent just for the land as the tin shack they lived in was theirs but there was not even a toilet for them. So life for Mr. Lama must have been hard and seemed hopeless. This unfortunately is the face of poverty. Now his wife and children have to fend for themselves. The wife is a sweet lady and quite frail.
There is one son who is working and I do not believe he is married. There are three children still at school. Mann and Jagat are going there today to visit them. These photos were taken in 2007.
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