This week we celebrated the rite of passage 'Bratabandha' for 9 of our boys (Sofal, Sagar, Samyog, Ujiwal, Ravi, Sushil, Shuvas, Bushan & Sonam) at our Annapurna Children Home. This is a sacred Hindu ritual that makes the passage from child to young man and includes counseling and guidance from the priests and elder men in the family (in our case it was some of our school teachers!) including a secret mantra to guide them in life. The ritual includes several steps which symbolize taking care of ones body, mind and energy, stepping out into the world but also returning to family, respecting and caring for them. The sisters, aunties and mothers prepare a feast to symbolize sustaining the young man in his life journey. It also includes enjoying the feasting (which included ice-cream from and many blessings too! It was so heart touching to see these boys/young men reflect and take in this rite of passage to witness and share - profound moments in life journeys ♥♥ We also wish to extend a very heartfelt thank you to the community members in Batulechour who came and celebrated with us and passed on so many blessings to our young men – plus we make a special thank you to Beni Basnet for his encouragement and sincere input for our continued success and future developments! With this heartfelt and good support our children evolve and mature into healthy young adults who contribute back into the community :-) We also extend a very warm thank you to all our board members and neighbours who gave a great helping hand in so many ways making this celebration such a wonderful success!

With the efforts of Sibjan & SMILES, 3 schools in Sindhuli district are now benefited by bamboo buildings that serve as temporary school rooms for children to continue their studies. Having children back in school is truly an important need – Education is a vital key for children to unlock their own potential and effectively engage in their communities, environment and society, to create healthy futures. Educating children, especially the encouragement of girls in schools, directly benefits entire future communities and the whole country of Nepal. Having no school for an extended period can mean many children will drop out of school and not return, leaving them open to exploitation and with fewer future options. Schools provide a regulated place for the children to be, especially as many of their family homes are not safe. Additionally, teachers and local community members associated with schools support children and parents to be aware of child trafficking dangers which is an increased risk post earthquake.

Today happens to be exactly 2 months to the day after the Nepal Earthquake - I had not planned it this way but I ended up at our Bhaktapur Self-Sustaining Orphan Home at exactly the same time, sitting outside eating fruit playing with the children as we were on April 25th Saturday at same time as the quake ... this time however there was no earth shaking! The only shaking was from dancing & laughing! Our building is very damaged & we are in the process of evaluation with engineers for repairs which will take some months to undertake as we have quite extensive work to be done to ensure we are super earthquake proofed!! Meanwhile we are sorting out additional temporary shelter support to make these next months of monsoon more comfortable