Amrit, Chairman of Edventure, 27years old A simple man with high thinking
The seed of starting an orphanage in Nepal has long been planted in Amrit’s life.
When he was 18 years old, his father suddenly got cancer. With limited income, he had to drop out from school and worked as a teacher in a remote area in Kaski District(near Pokhara), so as to support the enormous expenses of his father’s medication. For 2 years, he and his sister were taking care of his father in the hospital. Nonetheless, his father still passed away painfully at the end.
During the time he was working in the village, daily stricken by seeing the suffering of his father and the condition of the poor children, he started to think about what he could do to help all those children.
After his father had passed away, he started working full time as a teacher in Pokhara, so as to pay off the tuition fees of his bachelor degree. In this school, he met Tulasi (the vice-chairman of EdventureNepal) who was a cleaner at the school. The fact that Tulasi was tortured by her ex-husband a lot struck him a lot. He was always trying to help Tulasi in the school kitchen and walking her back home in the late evening.
With all the compassion towards the misfortunate situations of Tulasi and the underprivileged children in the village, he realized that if he only worked as a teacher, receiving a very low pay each month, was not enough to help others than himself. So he left for Kathmandu to work in a travel agency which also had supports to an orphanage. From there, he learnt a lot about how to run a non-profit organization.
In the meantime, his sister was diagnosed with kidney failure. In the fear that he would lose another family member, he quit his job, together with his brother-in-law, they took care of her for months and they even went to India to search for better medication. To their greatest relief, his sister’s situation started to turn stable. He was relieved and went back to Kathmandu.
With no job, but bills to pay, he was thinking about his next move. The dream of starting an organization which helped poor children and Tulasi in his home town, Pokhara appeared to him again. With the advices of his brother-in-law, who worked in the Nepal Tourism Board in Kathmandu, he managed to register Edventure Nepal successfully in April, 2011.
He and Tulasi then rescued the 3 sisters Tulasi, Yemuna and Ganga, together with Tulasi’s daughter, Laxmi, 6 of them are now living in the orphanage in Pokhara.
With compassion, inner strength and implementing what he learnt, he would like to grow Edventure Nepal step by step and leads it to be one of the leading non-profit organizations in Nepal. Hopefully in the future, he could travel to other countries, except seeing the world to broaden his horizon, he would visit other non-profit organizations and be inspired by them, so he could implement the new ideas in this orphanage. In this way, they could uplift more and more underprivileged children and let them be the change of the future world.
Tulasi, Vice-Chairman of Edventure Nepal, 35 years old A tough woman with a tender heart
In Nepal, a country which is dominated by male, women always lack of care and supports. One may wonder, why Tulasi, an illiterate mother of 3 children is so devoted to work in this charitable organization, even though she needed to do hard labour to support the orphans’ living at the beginning.
It is all because of her similar childhood background and her unfortunate marriage. When she was a girl, her father married another woman. Since then, she had no more love and affection from her father and she was deprived of education opportunities.
When she grew up, she was first living with her sister and her brother-in-law as her parents couldn’t support her living. She wanted her marriage to be arranged by her father, but he didn’t even care about Tulasi at all. Finally, her brother-in-law arranged a marriage for her. Only when she got married, she found out her ex-husband happened to be neurotics and violent. All the three children were not conceived under her free will, they all happened when she fell unconscious after severe beating from his ex-husband. His ex-husband was always hitting Tulasi with his hand or kicking her with his leg without any reasons. He even tried to strangle his own baby when he was drunken. Shocked by this incident, she finally made the decision to leave her ex-husband with her children, and started to work days and nights as a low-skilled labour. Because of that, she got a permanent damage on her spinal cord and often suffers from great pain.
With the help of Amrit, her two sons were sent to a well-established orphanage in Kathmandu. Relieved to see that her sons are under good care and protection, she realized that a good orphanage can really change the lives of underprivileged children, so she would like to help other similar children with her love and cares.
Tulasi is devoting her time days and nights in the orphanage, she would love to see Edventure Nepal blooming, helping more underprivileged children with a bigger and bigger international network. Personally, she dreams to see and travel around the world, especially doing a pilgrimage to the ashrams of Amma and Sai BaBa in South India.
Laxmi, 15 years old A humble and loving young lady
She is the daughter of the Vice-Chairman at Edventure Nepal, Tulasi. Growing up in a single-parent family and seeing all the violence imposed by her father on Tulasi, she is far more mature than her age. Sometimes she shows a flash of confusion amid all her charming smiles. Because of Amrit and her mother’s devotion to help the unfortunate ones, she is also inspired and would like to be a social worker in the future. She wishes that when she could acquire more knowledge and skills, she could assist Amrit in running Edventure Nepal.
Girls in Nepal are usually married in a very early age. However, she doesn’t have this dream. She just wants to be a better person, so as to take care and support her mother and let her mother be proud of her.
Despite all that, she is still a teenage girl. During her free time, she likes to sing Nepali and English pop songs, dancing, drawing and learning computer skills. Her favourite foods are vegetable MoMo (Tibetan dumplings), pizza and chocolate cake.
The 3 sisters, Tulasi, Yemuna and Ganga
They are the poor children of Tika Ram and Guma Bastola. They are originally from the remote village of Paiyun (puranchaur VDC, Kaski). Their father suffered a lot from various diseases. Without any proper medical treatments, he was Paralysis. After he had passed away, the mother also went crazy and lost her memory. Since then, the children had been deprived of all sorts of basic necessities. When they were found, they were rescued to the orphanage.
Tulasi, 11years old The little adult
When she lost her parents, she was taken by her relatives to work in a hotel, washing dishes all day long. After Edventure Nepal has rescued her, she and her two sisters are provided with nutritious food, clothing and education opportunities. Though she is only 11, she is very mature and pro-actively helping to take care of her younger sisters in the orphanage. What is really impressive is that she even shows great care to the people around her and acts like a responsible adult. Her dream is to be a social worker or an English teacher, so she could helps other underprivileged children like what she was once to be. She would also like to do a pilgrimage to the ashrams of Amma and Sai BaBa in South India and to study in USA one day. In her spare time, she likes playing games and dancing. Her favourite colour is black, favourite subjects are Nepali and English and her favourite food are meat and orange.
Yemuna, 9 years old The source of joy
When She was first brought to Edventure Nepal orphanage, she was somehow disoriented and showed no interest in everything. After about two weeks, she started to regain her charm. Whenever she gets the chance to play, she will give out lots of laughter and always be energetic. Her dream is to become a pilot, so she could travel around the world and see all the wonderful places. She likes drawing and dancing. Her favourite colour is green, favourite subject is Social Studies (includes Geography and History etc.) and her favourite food are curry pumpkin and pomegranates.
Ganga, 6 years old The enthusiastic learner
Ganga is the youngest among the three sisters, but she loves to learn and she learns really fast. Sometimes you will see her reading her own books and studying by herself. If any volunteers are in the orphanage, she will definitely come to them and ask to teach her English! Her dream is to travel in a bus so as to see the world, she even imagines that she could become a bus driver so she could travel in the bus all day long.
She likes playing the traditional Nepalese game, carom board. Her favourite colour is Yellow, favourite subject is Mathematics and her favourite foods are dhal (lentils) soup and grape.
I am doing a fund-raising for them, so to equip them with essential furniture, cooking utensils, electrical appliances and a motorbike (as they live on the hill). If you would like to give a helping hand, please let me know by emailing me at pinkgata@gmail.com. Your help will be greatly appreciated!
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