December 2003 Dispatch from Kathmandu
Dec 2003

Kathmandu, Nepal

Dear Friends:

Merry Christmas from chilly Kathmandu. Although the Nepalese do not celebrate the holiday, the foreign community goes all out. NYOF itself has a non-religious, jolly Christmas Eve, complete with Father Christmas (a skinny local American resident of Kathmandu padded with sleeping bags), and stockings for the little ones.

Christmas means many things, but part of the celebration is giving and receiving gifts. Here, NYOF is in the business of giving every day – not ties or shirts or perfume, the kind of gift you would give to your loved ones over the holiday – but enduring help to some of the most dreadfully poor people anywhere.

In addition to our regular programs – the nutritional rehabilitation home, scholarships, rescuing little girls from bonded labor – we extend a helping hand to the stream of desperate people who appear at our office gate almost daily.

The story of Deepak, a young father, and his five year old son, Subash, is typical. A few months ago, Deepak and his child came to our nutritional home with a sad story: the child’s mother had left years ago, Deepak was injured in an accident and could not work, and he was reduced to begging to support his little boy. The child was seriously malnourished and was admitted to NRH, restored to good health, and discharged. Deepak still could not find work, and when it looked as though Subash would again slip into a severely malnourished state, they turned to the NYOF office for help. I met them there a couple of weeks ago. Subash, an adorable little thing with a shy smile, was cold and hungry, dressed in thin, torn short pants and shirt, and wearing broken plastic sandals.

The father explained the situation to our staff, and when he came to the purpose of his visit – to give the boy up because he could not support him – he burst into tears. Clearly, he loved his son, but felt compelled to make the sacrifice of relinquishing him for the child’s sake. It was obvious that they needed help, but the question was what kind of help. We could, of course, simply remove the boy from the father’s custody and place him in J House, our home for boys, and there he would be lovingly raised and educated until he could care for himself.

On the other hand, in Nepal, as in many parts of Asia, family is everything. A child without family – even one who lives as well as the children at our children’s homes – is missing something in life that can never be replaced. So we have adopted a policy of keeping families together if the child has parents who are loving and providing support for the child’s education. There are so many children in Nepal without either a loving family or an opportunity for an education, that we focus our limited resources on kids who have neither.

Our solution: we have placed Deepak into a training program as a gardener, Subash is in a school close to home that takes care of him until his father comes home in the evening, and we have every reason to hope that this little family will be back on its feet again soon. Together.

As this little story shows, there are things to celebrate this Christmas in spite of the dreadful news that fills the newspapers. We wish you and your loved ones a joyous holiday season.

Regards, Olga

P.S. Here is a Christmas Card showing a picture of several children at the NRH bundled in holiday sweaters.