Friday, February 28, 2014

My Placement

The volunteers are shown a few places around Kathmandu where they can work , its either that or you can head out to the more rural areas to teach English . We went to two pretty depressing orphanages : "Bal Mandir" which is a government run orphanage where one of our volunteers Sam was actually adopted from when he was two months old and "Our Childrens Protection Foundation" which is just down the street here .
Everybody seems to just get a feeling of where they want to volunteer and Amy and Katie, the two London girls have opted for Bal Mandir . I on the other hand couldn't get over the severe squalor of the Our Childrens and decided to spend my six -8 weeks there.
Its a 4 roomed house about 10mins walk from the volunteer house. One room has 2 sets of bunk beds which house 11 boys . 6 beds for 11 boys aged between 6 and 14. One room is the so called "play room" although when there are no toys I don't see how you can actually play there ...this is otherwise known as the school room and the girls bedroom - a rug is thrown on the floor at night for 10 girls to sleep on . Aged 1.5yrs to 12 .  The third room is the office/owners room . This room contains a desk , a large wardrobe in which the "toys" and "school things" are locked , a bed for the owner and her two year old daughter and a mattress for the 16yr old sister. It seems the husband is away in Qatar working. The fourth room is the kitchen off of which is a damp , dark smelly "cupboard" where are the childrens belongings are kept . There is a "bathroom" although it consists of a hole in the floor toilet , a sink and a tap on the wall with a plastic bucket underneath . This is the shower/ bath/ washing machine.





As you can see in the second photo there is nothing in their playroom. No seats, desks, toys ....
Of the 21 kids that live here only 10 go to school, or are supposed to go to school . Every day there are various numbers of kids who stay at home . In Nepal the school and school lunch is not free , so the orphanage relies on donations to get the kids into school ( or the childrens family members to sponsor them). The NOH has donated school uniforms around one year ago and I assume that these were the 12 kids who were here originally and who attend school. The newer arrivals are waiting ....
Some of the kids are not orphans but kids who have been abandoned or whose parents are either single and cannot cope or are plain old alcoholics or glue addicts. One child has downs syndrome - he is 19. One child is 7 but has some form of growth deficiency or dwarfism and is the size and it seems mental capacity of a two year old. Another child ( my little favourite) is a twelve year old with cerebral palsy . Although he clearly has physical difficulties he is bright and is sooo willing to learn . I don't think he has ever been in school because he cannot write Nepali and has troubles holding a pencil , but this kid has a heart of gold and looks after the smaller children . He always has a big smile ! Another one of my cool kids is a 13 yr old who has been at school in the past and he acts as my little translator . Thank God for my Nepali Phrasebook which has a small dictionary !
The standards here are clearly awful !! Gifts and toys which are donated seem to go astray ...we think they are sold on ...and its not clear if the money goes to the owner or if its spent on food ...Its difficult to be trusting when things like that happen .
On one hand being here seems like a better alternative to being forced to live on the street and beg for your alcoholic parent ....and the other hand this orphanage is like something from Oliver Twist ...and obviously a far cry from the standard of the NOH (Nepal Orphans Homes) . I cant decipher yet if this place is good or bad ...its definitely in need of a hell of a lot of help though ...will keep you updated !

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