Childrens Bios

LocMaya and Renuka with white tops & red scarves. Dressed up for visiting the Hindu temple on Shivaratri.

LOKMAYA MARASINI
DOB: 9/24/1997
Age: 10 years
Arrived: 7/21/2004
Father: Missing
Mother: Very sick
Siblings: Two
District: Kaski

When Lokmaya was six years old, she and her siblings were abandoned by their parents. After a quarrel one night, her father left and did not return. Soon afterward, her mother left as well, leaving Lokmaya and her sister with their grandmother. Their grandmother was eighty-one years old, and lived in a small village on a hillside. She had only a small plot of land and had trouble collecting enough food for all of them. Because Lokmaya was born missing her right hand, it was more difficult for her to help her grandmother and she was also teased by neighboring children in the village. Sometimes the villagers would give clothing or food to them, but it was a difficult time for everyone, with little hope of change for the better. Eventually, Lokmaya’s grandmother heard about Namaste and came and filled out an application. After we met Lokmaya and saw the difficult living conditions, we decided to help her. So it was then that Lokmaya became the 44th member of Namaste.

Lokmaya is a great girl. She is funny, caring, interested, absolutely beautiful, and has an amazing spirit. Although she only has one hand, she has much courage and strength of character. She has eagerly learned how to type on the computer, make bracelets, and even knit. Lokmaya loves to play games such as daki, skipping, and tag. She is very affectionate and loves to laugh and be close with aunties and friends. Without question, Lokmaya is a girl to treasure.

RENUKA MAHATO

D.O.B: 4/24/1997
Class: THREE
Arrived: 7/29/2003
Father: Missing
Mother: Very sick
Siblings: 2 brothers,
1 sister
District: Meghauli-6,
Chitwan


Renuka is a very quiet and intelligent girl, she is from the Terai region of the Nepal. After her father ran away, her mother was not able to earn sufficient money to feed her children and send them to school. Two of Renuka’s siblings worked as house servants. Upon observation of the disadvantageous state of this family, Namaste Children House decided it would be in her best interest to make Renuka the seventh child of the NCH family.

Renuka is sweet, shy, and has little spunk to her. She loves to act funny and silly and do wacky things. Mostly it seems she just likes to keep herself amused. Renuka is clever and picks up on things quickly. She also does very well on her exams at school and has scored in the top percentage of her class. Renuka is independent and feels comfortable being alone. She likes to do her own thing, but also gets along well with other girls her age. Renuka and her friends are at an age where make-believe games and athletic games are equally fun. They are as likely to be found inventing a story as they are to be playing badminton, soccer, or their favorite, hackey sack. Renuka is a well-loved child here at Namaste.

How you can help!

How can you help?

1) Participate in our 2 books and a buck program. We are asking for 2 used soft cover children’s books and $1. The dollar will help defray the cost of shipping the books which will average just over $2.00 per book.

2) Sponsor a box. $56.00 will cover the cost for one 11 pound box of books sent USPS M-bag. We provide the books, you pay the shipping cost, we provide the leg work of packaging and sending the books.

3) Do you work in a high traffic environment? Put out a collection box and hang up an informational flyer!

4) Simply make a donation. All donations go directly to shipping cost, all time is voluntary and all materials are donated.

5) Invite us to visit your classroom or organization. We will tell stories and show a slideshow detailing the beautiful children who will benefit from your kindness.

To learn more about the future goals of Namaste Fund For Children please email me at NamasteFundForChildren@yahoo.com.

Read Nepal! Why the Books.

Our goal for the Read Nepal! campaign is to provide 1000 books for the Namaste Organization encompassing the orphanage, women's center, scholarship children and staff.

Initially the books will be focused toward the beginner readers. Many of the children don’t start learning to read until 10 or 12 years old as they have not had an opportunity to go to school. Some of the teenage children expressed specific career interests in teaching, banking and medical fields. We would like to support them by sending text books specific to those interests.

The average per capita income for Nepal is US$260. This makes Nepal the poorest country in Asia and the 12th poorest in the world. This extreme poverty leads to hunger, illiteracy, child labour, lack of health care, sanitation and clean water.

According to UNICEF the current adult literacy rate in Nepal is 49%, (some statistics show it as even lower) the lowest in Asia, with less than half of that number being women. Literacy is viewed as “A person who is able to read and write short and simple sentences related to daily life in his/her mother tongue or national language with understanding and who is able to communicate with others and perform simple tasks of calculation.”

Overall, people who tend to remain poor are households of agricultural wage earners, those who are landless, those with illiterate household heads, and those living in large households (7+ members)

In our area of the world reading can be taken for granted. It is important to recognize Nepal as a developing nation who needs our help in achieving their literacy goal of 90% by 2015. Literacy is a major step to ensure the future success of this generation of children. Through our good fortune we will give them the opportunity to improve their lives and the lives of their children.

Finding Namaste

Our trip to Nepal was an amazing adventure!
The highlight was our time spent volunteering at the Namaste Children’s Home in Pokhara, Nepal.

While volunteering at the orphanage we helped the children with homework, getting ready for school, cleaning at the orphanage, playing games and providing entertainment, (and being entertained by them) They shared their meals with us, performed plays, sang and danced with us.

These are children who have been abused and abandoned, left alone to beg in the streets with no family who are able or willing to care for them. Yet they thought nothing of inviting us into their home and their hearts sharing their lives for a brief time.

Leaving the orphanage we knew we needed to do something more for our new Nepalese family. But what can we do from New York?

That’s when Namaste Fund for Children was born. Our foremost objective is to assist the Namaste Children’s Home in fulfilling their goal to support the women and children of Nepal. Our first project is READ NEPAL!

`Thank you,
Donna and Harrison