Stichting Veldwerk at Nepal

Secretariaat: Stichting Veldwerk Postbus 163 1850 AD Heiloo The Netherlands

Tel:+31 (0)72-5339585 veldwerk@wlink.com.np IBAN nr. NL51ABNA0543703266 Attn. Stichting Veldwerk, p/a Egmond Binnen Bank: ABN-Amro 543703266

Family reunion, Bhim is going home!

With thanks to Birgit and Foppe. It is true, our Bhim (Bim laden for insiders) went back to Dhading, the place where he was born. This area is located in between Kathmandu and Pokhara. Dhading is a pretty big area that reaches all the way to the Chitwan park. The centre is Dhading Besi and is about 4 hours driving from Kathmandu, touching the Trishuli river, Bhims story comes down to this:

Bhims father killed his wife with an axe, right in front of their two children, this happened in the field where the mother was at work. With their mother dead and their father behind bars for a long long time, the children were left behind with the horrible memory of their mothers bloody death. Unfortanetly is this no exception in Nepal, the situation with the maoists often is the cause for blood baths (also within families). On top of all this Bhim and his sister could practically concider themself orphans from that day.

There is a shelter in Dhading Besi that still had empty places, but there was no more money to take in any more children and provide education for them. This is how the two children ended up at the gate of Hamro Niwas. When we wanted to take them both in Bhims sister told us that she was in the middle of her exams and that she wanted to wait until they were over before coming to stay in Hamro Niwas. This sounded more than reasonable so we waited for 10 days, when I called her after that she said to me that she was waiting for her results so it was going to take a little longer. Still a very reasonable explanation for her absence. But when I called her again after a month she replied that she first wanted to finish the schoolyear because that was the best for her. Impressed by a nine year old girl with such a strong will we still were worried. It was clear that the girl didn't feel like coming to Kathmandu but wanted to stay with her friends, the thing was that by allowing this situation, we were splitting brother and sister up, while there was another uncle of the children living in Dhading Besi, with whom Bhim seemed to get along pretty well.





In the meantime our childrens' home was getting very crowded, and there were a lot more children who were in need of a better place to live. So we decided that it would be in everybodies interest to organise a family reunion, which is also a big priority in our organisation. It means that we bring the child to the family members that agree to take care for him or her and that we check out if it is safe for the child to live there, after that we pay the extra costs that are caused by the reunion if that is necessary.

These costs are taking a big bite out of our limited budget, but this time we were very lucky. Not long ago Brigit and Foppe decided to get married, instead of asking for presents they asked their guests to donate money to them so that they could pick a chairity, it turned out that they choose Hamro Niwas to be their charity.

At the moment Bhim is living with his uncle and sister, and out of Brigits and Foppe's wedding gift we pay his school money, his food and his clothes, and all the other necessaties. Honoured to be picked as their charity we, and Bhim, are very gratful that Brigit and Foppe made this reunion possible. We also want to say conrgatulations to the new parents with their son Menne.





On the big reunion day everybody was a little bit sad in the house, saying goodbye is never fun. The children gave Bhim a lot of gifts, drawings, and a Thika, a red dot, and a flower behind his ear. Bhim will always be very welcome in our big family. We are keeping in contact with Bhim, just as we do with the other children who are leaving the house to be reunited with family. We visited him not long ago in Dhading, to see how he is doing and to see if everything is going according to our agreement with his uncle. The outcome was satisfying, he is going to school, he is fed well, and receives a lot of care at home. On top of that Bhim very happy to be with his sister again.

It was good to see that we did the right thing,
and......

After two days we received three new children who needed our help badly.
Read the story of Sandip & Puja and Samjana.