We are so proud when our Ama Ghar young adults graduate from their transition year at the Youth Apartment in Kathmandu to leave the program full-time as self-supporting adults. Four of them left the apartment right before Christmas, which made room for Pratima, Pabita, Sabita and Rama to move from our Ama Ghar home to the apartment. This is an …
Christmas in Nepal
We celebrate Christmas at Ama Ghar even though most of the children are from Hindu or Buddhist cultural backgrounds – we all enjoy it as a celebration of peace and of giving to others. And of course the children enjoy the cookies, decorations and stockings full of small toys and candy that everyone receives. This has been a year of …
We are so proud of Mangel!
As a child, Mangel struggled in school – probably because of malnutrition that he suffered before coming to Ama Ghar – and he didn’t meet his goal of completing Class 10 so that he could go on to higher education. But he is a wonderful reminder to others that there are so many ways to be successful! Mangel has developed …
Five New Children to Make the Season Bright!
Finally – after a long wait to clear paperwork – we have welcomed five more new children from the earthquake affected Districts. After the earthquake in April 2015, each of the 14 districts had numerous Child Safe Places and displaced person camps set-up and monitored by various INGO’s, NGO’s, GoN, and District Child Welfare Officers. Out of over 2,000 displaced …
Mha Puja at Ama Ghar
Ama Ghar celebrated another beautiful and joyful Mha Puja this year – it has become an annual event and a favorite of many of our regular visitors. Jacole, a long-time friend of Ama Ghar who now works in Cambodia, makes a trip to Ama Ghar every Tihar to celebrate Mha Puja, which always takes place on New Year’s Day in …
The Benefits of a Fuel Blockade
How could we possibly benefit from the current fuel blockade? With almost no motorized vehicles on the streets, we have a wonderful walking environment without air or noise pollution! But it’s not easy to get around – it took all the perseverance that Bonnie Auntie, Rama, Samjana, Manju and Pabita could muster to get into town for two major annual …
Visitors Make Chores into Fun!
Rice harvest at Ama Ghar is an annual event, and with so many people to help – kids, staff and visitors – the work is done in a few hours. Rice planting and harvesting is an important part of Nepali culture and a good lesson for the children about where their food comes from. Of course, they also work in …
Happy Dashain 2015!
Dashain is the most popular and longest festival on the Nepali calendar – it’s a time to celebrate family and friends. The tenth day of the festival is Vijaya Dashami – on this day, a mixture of rice, yogurt and vermilion is prepared by the women, which is known as “tika”. Elders put tika on the forehead of younger relatives …
Strike? What Strike?
Demonstrations and strikes continue, petrol is unavailable and there is no cooking gas, but that doesn’t stop our resilient family at Ama Ghar. The little ones play and learn, the older children help out with preparations for Dashain, and our wonderful Dhana keeps on cooking delicious meals outside over a wood …
After Monsoon at Ama Ghar
As our monsoon season is over, we can now weed out the sandbox and use our soccer field, which was a sea of mud for several months. We are preparing for the upcoming Holidays so there is a lot of activity: cleaning the house, weeding the garden and setting up our “briquet factory” to start making briquettes so we have …