Gurans Bal Uddhyan Children's Home

Background Information:

The Gurans Bal Uddhyan Children's Home was formally registered in 2002 and has been running with the help of individual friends and the founder, Nabin Karki. Why was the home started? Nearly 8 years ago, Nabin was working as tour guide in Kathmandu and lead many groups. During this period, he saw many helpless and needy children living in the street, abandoned, without parents. Can you imagine this? Young children left to sleep in the streets, with nothing: no bed, no food, nobody to care for them? Even through the cold winter nights? As a Nepali citizen, this situation broke his heart and moved him to want to do something to help care for these children, giving them shelter, food, and education. So he opened a home for such children in a small, quiet village just 15 km outside Kathmandu.


A Brief Update:

At the moment we have 10 children in the home, but our aim is to be able to provide for 14 children in the future. The home is running smoothly and the children are settled in, happy, healthy and doing well in school, enjoying their time there.

Our children are doing very well in school. Among them a few are 2nd and 3rd in their classes. They even won prizes, which encouraged and inspired us all very deeply. It is evident that the children's dedication as well as the help of our staff in teaching and tutoring the children in the home brought good results. We are looking forward to continued success in school and hopeful for a bright future for each of them.

In the beginning we had three children from the street, but after fifteen days, they ran away. According to their friends we heard that they used to smoke before and guess that they returned to the streets where they could continue in these habits. We had tried our best to care for them, buying their school dress, books, socks, shoes, bags and we admitted them in school, but even after just a few days in school they left without any information. We waited for a few weeks and also tried to find them on the streets where we had found them before, but we could not. It was their own choice.

After this case, we have understood that it is difficult to take care for and try to change the ways of children that have chosen the lifestyle of the street. Therefore, we do not trust them nor want to be responsible for them and are concerned for the effect they may have on the other children in the home. However, if we see a very young child who is poor, sleeping in the streets, we may feel led to help them.


Entertainment and Activities:

At the home we like to play all sorts of games such as carom board, chess, ludo, football and badminton. They are quite active and have a nice environment for playing.

Once a month, we go trekking for 5-6 hours in the mountains near the home and have a small picnic for lunch. Every week we do other day trips, like going to the park, zoo, historical places or walking in the village area. Earlier in the year we took the children to Manakamana Temple cable car. It was very nice and the children had a great time.


Our Goals for the Children's Home:

Since the beginning, we have been living in a rental house and sometimes we have faced some difficulties with our landlords. Before moving to Thankot, we had been renting a house near Swayambhu Temple, in Kathmandu, but there were many problems such as water shortage; extremely dirty, unkempt yard and paths; and a lack of good gounds for the children to play freely. Besides these, the main problem was the owner's uncivilized behavior with the children. Since moving to Thankot, we have not had these types of problems but we do know that it would be much better financially and emotionally for the children to have our own place. Therefore, we are searching for a suitable small plot of land or house where we can have our own home, grow some vegetables and have a nice clean yard for the children to play.


Our Current Needs:

Our main concern is for the children's health and nutritious food. If either of these is neglected, it is not possible for the children to progress in school and their personal life. The health of the children is also the most unpredictable factor and often the most costly, financially for us.


Children's Background and History:

We take in four kinds of children: (1.) those with no father and no mother, (2.) those who have a single parent (for example, if the mother of the child has died and the father has remarried, often the children by the first marriage are not welcome in the new family and are consequently considered as orphans), (3.) young children sleeping on the street, (4.) those who come from a very poor background where the family is unable to provide food or cope with health problems and who cannot send their child to school

Names and history of our children:

Santosi, girl, 5 yrs old
Daba ward no. 2
Ghatan Mygdi
father - married with another woman
mother - yes , unable to support a child

Suraj, boy, 5 yrs old
Singana -4
father- passed away
mother - yes, unable to support a child.

Bandipur, boy, 11 yrs old
Mallaj-3
father - yes
mother- yes (there are nine children in his family, children do not get enough food at their house. very poor situation)

Gurudev, boy, 9 yrs old
Rakhalbisauna - 9
father - disappeared for a long time
mother- yes , she worries very much. very remote areas. (no money for his treatment, he needs medicine, they couldn't effort it) He is very thin, he takes three tablets a day, so he is alive. He needs an operation which is a major operation. For this he has to be strong enough.

Shanti, girl, 11 yrs old
Mygdi District
father-no
mother- yes. She has many children and could not afford to send her to school could not provide enough food because of her very poor economic status. Now she is in our place and she is happy.

Pramila, girl, 8 yrs old
Dhairing
father- no
mother- no

Two words:

After birth there is several obstacles and difficulties that one encounters, especially during childhood. This time is crucial, especially for those children who may be far away from food, home and love. It was with concern for those children who are facing such problems and with hope to improve their life standards that Gurans Bal Uddhyan (GBU) was first established. In the future we hope to extend our goals to include such things as awareness of female trafficking, adult literacy education program, and health training. In this current situation there are ten children who are benefiting from GBU and we have planned to make them ideal citizens of Nepal. According to our plan, since the last three years, these ten children have been sheltered, fed and nurtured at GBU. Even so we have a plan to take in four more children, to make it seven boys and seven girls, for a total of fourteen children. In the last three years, we have found that our children have shown good signs of making a bright future for themselves in their habits and behavior. The children have been participating in programs which are held at the school, for example cultural programs, games, and exams and have proved their capacity and intelligence and have won all sorts of prizes (money, pencils, notebooks, pens, ink, etc). Because of their progress and results we are encouraged to do more. The GBU Children's Home's slogan is "Hand in Hand", and in this regard, to those friends, brothers, sisters and well-wishers who have come along with us we would like to express our gratitude.

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