The background
In 1981 the SDB School was founded in the district Lalitpur, Kathmandu (Nepal) with the aim to help poor and underprivileged children of the area to get a school education. The school is named after Shahid Dharma Bhakta, a martyr who committed himself to education, democracy and human rights. During many journeys in Nepal I have felt a growing desire to do something for the people of this country. Concretely I wanted to make it possible that children from poor families will get a good education.
Since 1998 there is a close contact with Anupendra Acharya, a Nepalese school manager. This has led to a project of school sponsorship by which 27 children are supported meanwhile.
Great changes
I have been deeply affected by the enormous earthquake on April 25 and I feel a strong emotional link with Nepal and its charming people. Fortunately none of our children was hurt. However the family houses were partly damaged or collapsed at all. For this reason I started a project together with Anupendra Acharya so as to provide the most affected families with tents, blankets, food, gas, cooking gear etc. Some of the money was used to repair the biggest damages in the school building.
With further donations we were able to build a new large external staircase which will be used in case of emergency. In addition, a classroom was secured with iron pillars and the cracks in the school were repaired.
The hostels
In July 2015 I flew to Nepal to get an idea of the situation, to visit the school and the families and to coordinate the donation fund. After the earthquake some of the families cannot feed their children sufficiently, some have no home and live in tents or shacks. And I met some girls from broken families or half orphans who are living with their relatives now, working indoor or in the fields. In the worst case they are forced to drop the school and to work in a factory. This has caused in me the idea to found a hostel, a children’s home to give them an affectionate home with sufficient food, time for playing, a room for learning and to make a promising future possible for them .
Our goal was to open the children's house in October 2016 with a sufficient number of members and sponsors. We are very happy that we made it and the first nine girls could already move in on July 29, 2016. Meanwhile, 31 girls are living in two hostels. Three of them are going to college and are taking care of her "sisters" as volunteers. Two girls are in training to become nurses; they and all the girls who return to live with their families after grade 10 and now go to college are financially supported by us. Thanks to our members and sponsors, we were able to realize our vision of giving more needy girls a future while maintaining the same quality by building another Surya Kiran hostel directly on the neighboring property in 2020. We are very happy about this and also a bit proud!
The concept
We give a home to underprivileged and needy girls, taken care by a hostel mother and a cook. Yoga and child-like meditation should be offered besides regular schooling. The girls will learn cooking and taking care of the younger "siblings." Learning in and from the nature is a part as well as the deliberate use of TV and new media. Parents or relatives may be asked to take a little share of the costs, if possible.
