This and That

One of our newest sponsored students.

It’s been a while since I've had time to settle down and write an update. Working with children is always a bit disorganized ..things come up unexpectedly and need to be dealt with ..that's the challenge and the fun of it. Well, since the earthquake, that has multiplied exponentially. There are needs and details that come up, change and shift daily Thank goodness I’m pretty good at multi-tasking!

To give you just a hint, here are some of the things I've been juggling:

After the herculean task of trying to locate and sort out which of our sponsored kids are coming back to school (or not), where they are staying, if they are coming back to the hostel or not…after that was finally, finally fairly clear…we have had the task of finding sponsorship for 15 new children (who were impacted by the earthquake) and with moving another 9 from Day students to Boarding. Above you will see a photo of one of our new students. This boy lost both parents and two sisters in the earthquake. He is slowly recovering from this trauma and the stability of school and caring friends is a huge blessing. 

Getting the school bus repaired! This was pressing. The bus takes all the Pegasus boarders from the hostel to school and back every day over rough roads, a half hour or more journey. Without it, the kids were stuck at the hostel and missing classes. It took a long time because almost all good mechanics are from India and they fled back to home after the quake. We are thrilled that the bus has been repaired now and the children just finished their first term exams!

Metal roofing sheets for slum families. We've been trying to help where and when we can after the quakes. A friend told us about 9 slum families in dire straits in one of the slums in Kathmandu. Their shelter had been damaged by the earthquake and with monsoon approaching fast, they were in a bad way. We were able to buy and distribute metal roofing sheets to these families to give them good shelter during the rains. 

Collecting letters from our sponsors to send to the children! Post-earthquake it seemed important to me that we offer reassurance to the kids: to let them know we understood what they had gone through and that we were sending them love and concern. It took me about 6 weeks to collect letters from all the sponsors and to write letters myself to those new kids who did not yet have a sponsor. This was a big project but one I'm really happy about. I know it will mean the world to the kids. Getting letters is a celebration for them. They love it.

Medical and dental. Yup, kids get sick and they get cavities, even after an earthquake. We've been running back and forth to clinics and I’ve been monitoring and getting reports. One eye exam and new pair of glasses, one xray and arm sling, two cavities (for some crazy reason getting a cavity filled requires FIVE visits to the dentist!! x 2 kids= 10 visits!), one diarhhea, and one bloody nose and dr visit. Tejendra has also arranged for a Dentist to visit both our schools and give dental hygiene education plus do a dental check on all the children! I expect more dentist visits in the wake of those exams...

And last but certainly not least, we are rebuilding (from the ground up) the girls hostel It was damaged so badly by the quake that it's been uninhabitable. Girls are currently sleeping on the floor in the kitchen, the storage room and in the garden (they did get nice new bedding, which they love!) The new building is a big project and has taken quite some planning. When finished it will house 48-56 girls! and more if they squeeze. This will give a solid, earthquake resistant new "home" to our sponsored girls at Pegasus.

These are just a few of the details. I am on the phone almost daily with Tejendra in Nepal. He interviews new kids and their families, ferrys kids to the dr., buys and distributes relief materials, visits the schools and families and helps with our Class11-12 kids. He's a godsend and I’m so appreciative.'

I am also emailing with the schools, the older kids, donors, sponsors and potential sponsors, people doing fundraising and our Board of Directors. And doing bookkeeping, writing Thank-you's and social media updates, managing budgets, reading earthquake updates, planning fundraisers, banking and wire transfers.

It's all in a days work and I feel blessed. The children are a joy, always. We have become closer and closer through this shared experience. 

And I think we are all feeling the satisfaction of being able to do something meaningful: helping our fellow human beings. For your part in this I am deeply grateful.