Sharmila, author of today's blog post.

As we all know, education is important in our life. Education is the only thing that helps us to differentiate what is wrong and what is right. Without education we can’t do what we want or we can’t reach our destination. Education helps us in each and every field of our life.

To me education is the gateway to success. Success can be achieved when people have knowledge, skills and attitude. All these things can be gained only with the help of education. I believe that education is the only way which shows us many ways to lead and utilize our life properly. No person in the world with education is neglected.

It is the third eye of the person, because when we gain education, we get to know about things in the world without even seeing them. For example: I have not visited America but because of education I know what is found there, what’s the shape and size of it, what kind of country it is and so on. Education is non-other than material to enrich our knowledge and wisdom which helps us to develop our ideas and concept. Every human have feelings, thoughts, questions and different ideas within them.

Our eight children who are enrolled in higher education.

Education helps us to explore our own thoughts and ideas and makes it able to express it in different forms. So for me education is like a medium through which I can interact with different people and share our ideas. It is also the door to our destiny.        

These village girls can now attend school, thanks to our community scholarship program.

Ama Foundation contributes to three local schools by giving book bags, stationery and material for uniforms.

Two of our older girls, Srijana and Pabita, recently joined in the presentation of these items to the school children of a local school.  These programs are important to the health of our community, and they also teach our Ama Ghar kids the value of social work for others less fortunate than themselves.

Ama Ghar sisters Srijana (far left in red jacket) and Pabita (far right with scarf) helped to present book bags to these local kids.

The principal of our local school hands this girl her first book bag.

Foundation for the Future:

Children’s home is also a model for green architecture

BRITTANY SEARLE

FROM ISSUE #587 (13 JAN 2012 – 19 JAN 2012) | TABLE OF CONTENTS
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SMALL FOOTPRINT: Bonnie Ellison who grew up in Nepal as a child is now helping Nepali children grow up in Ama Ghar’s new building (below) which is designed to conserve energy and water.

SMALL FOOTPRINT: Bonnie Ellison begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting who grew up in Nepal as a child is now helping Nepali children grow up in Ama Ghar's new building (below) which is designed to conserve energy and water.

Ama Ghar was founded in 2001 by Sharwan Nepali, who grew up in an orphanage in Kathmandu and was inspired by his guardian there to set up a shelter for Nepali children like him.

Last November, Ama Ghar moved into its new home which was designed by Bonnie Ellison, who herself grew up in Nepal in the 1960s. She wanted it to be a bright and comfortable home for children but also energy efficient and easy on the utility bills.

“Using our resources wisely first means to be eco friendly but the other good reason is to save money on utilities, which in turn frees up money for other necessities like food and educational expenses,”says Ellison, who is affectionately called “Bonnie Aunty” by the children and staff. Ama Ghar doesn’t just conserve resources but is also designed out of necessity because of the shortage of water and power.

The building has a rainwater harvesting system that collects monsoon runoff from its roof, filters and stores it in a 30,000 litre underground cistern. Excess water is used to recharge ground water through a well, or redirected into an irrigation canal so neighborhood farmers can put it to good use.

The shelter has a 2.2 KW photo-voltaic array on the roof that keeps Ama Ghar brightly lit at night while the surrounding settlement is in darkness during power cuts.

“A relay switch flicks the circuit to solar when the power goes off, so we don’t have a lights-out problem,” Ellison explains. The shelter often uses solar power even when there is electricity from the mains supply to save on the utility bill.

Ama Ghar also has a decentralised water treatment system that treats waste water though a filtration system. A planted gravel filter treats excess water before it is discharged into the stream flowing nearby.

“I used to swim in the Bagmati as a child, it had fish in it,” remembers Ellison, “the condition of the Bagmati today hurts my heart, I don’t want our waste to pollute the river.”

Water that leaves Ama Ghar is tested regularly by the Environmental and Public Health Organisataion that run a government accredited laboratory for testing and environmental analysis. The most recent tests have found that the water is more than suitable to travel back to the river.

Solid waste at Ama Ghar is either composted into fertiliser, or piped into an underground digester which generates methane that can be used for cooking, thus reducing dependence on expensive LPG.

Ellison hopes that the Ama Ghar house can act as a showcase for the valley, encouraging people to take responsibility for their waste. “They can see how simple it is,” she says. “We’ve had a lot of vistors, but we haven’t quite figured out how to get the attention of the locals.” But, even more importantly, Ama Ghar wants its children to be raised with a value system that emphasizes sustainable living.

Ellison plans on using the building as an educational tool for the children: “The other purpose of our eco systems is to educate our children , who are the future of Nepal as well as our neighbors. Hopefully we can work together as a community and keep our beautiful valley clean.”

www.ama-foundation.org

Krishna in costume, singing at the Grand Opening of our new Ama Ghar home.

Respect is a thing which comes from deep inside one’s heart. A human heart must have the word “respect” within oneself. In this world there are many types of respect. The most important one is to respect ourselves. If we can respect ourselves then only we will learn to respect others. Respect can be related to the Newton’s third law of motion. If you respect you will get equal respect as a reaction, but if you disrespect you will get equal disrespect as a reaction. Too much respect for own selves is also not good as too much sugar is not good for us. A person with self-respect is admired everywhere because he can respect other person too.
“Respect” is a very precious word that a human can get. It is precious because it is not found in abundance amount like the air in the atmosphere. There are different types of respect prevailing on mankind. For example respect for elders, respect for ourselves, respect for people’s skills, talent, hard work and nature.

Krishna, a budding artist, enjoying an exhibit in Kathmandu with her Ama Ghar sister Samjana.

– Krishna Nagarkoti, Age 16, Grade 10

There are ways… our longtime Ama Ghar friend Margaret Fabian’s California book group, the Ross Valley Readers, decided that instead of their traditional holiday gift exchange, they would pool their resources and send a donation check to a charity of their choice. This year was Margaret’s turn to choose, and we were the lucky recipients.

The result of their generosity? New school books for the Ama Ghar kids – maybe that’s what being a Reader is really all about.

The Ross Valley Readers raise a toast to Ama Ghar - we thank them!

Rupa is all smiles on Christmas morning...

“Christmas 2011 at Ama Ghar brought the return visit of Mary Averil and her family from New York. We sang carols for the first time and decorated some awesome cookies as Mary brought all the required sprinkles and icings. We put up a felt fabric holiday tree and decorated it with trimmings and candy – the kids loved it. All the children received a small bag of candies and little stocking stuffers on Christmas morning, from our Ama Ghar “Santa”.   It was also nice to have Shrawan Uncle  here for our Christmas acivities.

The little ones especially enjoyed their bags of goodies!

The day after Christmas  brought more return friends from Switzerland who bought us a new TV which takes pen drive input, so we’ll have more options for our weekly Friday Night Movies. The old TV was streaking and the buttons didn’t work…so we are excited to have a workable TV with remote control!

Most importantly, we used the holiday to remind ourselves of how lucky we are to have each other and our extended Ama Ghar family. We hope your holidays were joyful, too!”

–Bonnie Ellison

The children enjoyed working on their computer skills with Rob.

The result? Plenty of wonderful blog posts, including the two winning entries – the one entitled “Visit to a Refugee Camp” by Srijana (14 years and older category) and the other entitled “Do You Know Me?” by Ashim (under 14 years old category).

Rob congratulates Srijana on her winning blog post.

The weeks preceding the deadline for entries were great fun, as the children interviewed each other and thought about their recent experiences in order to come up with interesting topics for their blog posts. As you can see by the photos, Rob Uncle enjoyed it, too – he encouraged the children by showing them other interesting websites and helping them with their compositions. We’ll be showcasing more of the childrens’ work in the coming months… we hope you enjoy them as well!

The author, Ashim Nepali

My name is Ashim Nepali. I’m twelve years old Nepali boy and very proud to be who I am. I came to Ama Ghar at the age of eight, when I was really little. It means a lot to me. Ama Ghar has been my mother since six years. The love and care of Ama Ghar has nourished me. I have grown to be a healthy and a happy boy.

When I think about my past, I realize how lucky I’m to be held in the loving arms of this beautiful loving home Ama Ghar. When I see some less fortunate children in the street struggling to be able to get a meal, my small heart begins to beat a little faster. I see myself in the place of the children in the street and wish the depth of my heart that I could do some thing for this less fortunate children and I’m very sure that I’ll do something for these children as Ama Ghar has done for me in the future, when I’m a successful person.

The brothers and sisters and aunties and uncles at this house are like my unwished but very wanted gift of my life that the god choose me to give. They help me in every struggle of my life. They have been guiding me in the path of success with their gentle but strong hands and I am very proud to be a part of them .

I may not look like this from outside but this is who I am inside. So, do you know me?

Srijana with child at the refugee camp.

During my holidays, I visited Bouddhapatitar, a refugee camp in Kathmandu,  with my friends. We bought some biscuits, chocolates and some candies on the way. We had to walk through different small lanes until we reached our destination. There was a big field and about 15-20 small shanty shacks made up of plastics. There was a foul smell all over the place because of ill managed latrines. The people who lived in these shacks were refugees, most of them from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The environment was filthy but it didn’t bother me much because I was really excited and happy to see all the beautiful faces of the children, old men and women.

Mostly these people were engaged in collecting garbage and polishing others’ shoes for their survival. They had to struggle very hard. They don’t have good shelter, food and education. It was a pitiful situation. I could only feel pity for what they were enduring. When I heard that the small children were also going out to collect garbage to overcome their hunger, my heart broke into million pieces.

Children were friendly, they shared their life stories with us, we gave some chocolates, biscuits and candies that we bought on the way. It was little but they ate it happily. I observed the inside of their shacks, it was congested  with few belongings. We spent around three hours with them and I enjoyed a lot by playing with children. We promised them that we will be back to help them. This time we are planning to take some small gifts for them from our side.

You can also help those people too. It doesn’t matter how big or small it is but it should come from your heart.

I want to change their world no matter how difficult it is because AMA GHAR has planted a seed inside me with care and love to build strong hope inside me.

Hi, it’s Meena again from Ama Ghar. I am really happy to be at Ama Ghar. I feel that Ama Ghar is my own home now. When I didnt get love from my own father, I got love of both mother and fathers at Ama Ghar. I am very thankful towards AmaGhar for doing this.We can go to our own home on our long holidays to meet our parents. I went home to celebrate the biggest festival Dashain and I was at Ama Ghar for another big festival called Tihar.I am going to write some information about this Nepali festival Tihar which is very popular at Nepal.Tihar is one of the main festival of Hindus. Tihar lasts for 5 days.

The first day is called Kaag puja,in this day, we worship the crows by feeding them.

The second day is called Kukur puja. Kukur puja means Worshipping the Dogs.

The third day is called Laxmi Puja. Laxmi is the goddess of money. In this day we worship the cows as well and every house is decorated with lights and flowers.

Meena celebrating via candlelight with brothers and sisters.

The fourth day is called maha puja. We worship ourself in this day and we get to eat different kinds of food.

Meena self worshipping at maha puja.

The fifth day is the main festival called Bhai Tika. We put tika on our brothers forehead and the brothers will give clothes or money to the  sisters and the sisters give foods to the brothers.

Meena giving tika to her Ama Ghar brother.

We also celebrate Tihar at Ama Ghar. It was better than last year. This is the first time we celebrated Tihar at our new Ama Ghar. Shrawan uncle was with us to celebrate Tihar this year. I like Maha puja the most because we get to eat lots of different kinds of foods. It was fun when we worshipped ourselves. At Ama Ghar we celebrate many festivals which is very fun. Ama Ghar helps us to go ahead in our life. Many people have only one home but I have two home who loves me equally. One is my birth home and the other is Ama Ghar. I love both the homes equally. The aunties and uncles of Ama Ghar are my second mom and Dad. The sisters and brothers are like my own. I am very happy to be at Ama Ghar.