Prisoners Assistance Nepal
Landing in Nepal we found the kids at P.A. Nepal are part of a vibrant and very active community.
They have school, homework, rehearsals, chores and play to fit in every day. Many days there are additional activities planned to keep them active, creative, learning and occupied. I have witnessed an unwavering dedication to the kids and to maintaining structure in their lives. Despite incredibly challenging histories, some very recent, the kids function with a pride, strength, joy, openness and grace that every parent would hope for their child.
Mark talks with Zach on the roof of the P.A. Nepal home in Kathmandu.
We explored this dichotomy with Zach Barton, the director of the Kamala Foundation that helps support P.A. Nepal and husband to Shova who runs the P.A. Nepal children’s home in Kathmandu. He talked about how the kids have been brought together as family. All the conventional terms one uses to describe a children’s or ‘group’ home fail here. The kids call each other sister or brother; the volunteers and staff, auntie and uncle; those who run the homes they call Amma or mother. The kids are all accepted here, where sometimes their own parents have shunned them.
Volunteer and journalist, Auntie Monesha holds Christina on the balcony of the P.A. Nepal home.
Zach spoke of the creating a space for the kids to accept their past and move forward.
Shova elaborated on how they aim to help the kids be examples for their community. Many people believe that if a child’s parents are criminals, the child has the seed of criminal intent waiting to burst. Shova and P.A. Nepal are here to help their kids prove to these people wrong.
The kids look after each other like siblings.
This aspiration became more poignant as some of the youth shared their experiences. Many spoke of the family members turning them away when their parents went to jail. Others spoke of being sent away when the father left the country to avoid jail and their mothers remarried. Children of previous husbands are often seen as burdens to new marriages.
Waiting for their Didi (sister) outside the school gates.
P.A. Nepal has given these youth the stability of school, shelter, medicine, regular meals and people who make it their life’s work to care for them. They have created an environment in their two homes that is like a family…
and we have been welcomed into that family.
Thanks for reading.
Erica.
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