Madan

I noticed Madan soon after he joined Koseli. What set him apart from the other students of his class was that Madan didn’t smile. I thought it was some thing that I was assuming and I wanted to prove myself wrong, so I started observing him more closely. To my disappointment, I was right.

Even before I realized, it had become my mission to make him smile. And so everytime I went to the class I made it a point to ask the children to smile. In the beginning it was difficult, however after 2 weeks or so, I saw Madan breaking into a lovely, shy smile. The smile only got bigger and better after that, so much so that on Teacher’s Day, class six had scribbled on their white board, “Renu Ma’am SMILE”. It was a “SMILEY” day.

With the scarred backgrounds that Koseli children have, smiling definitely is not an easy job, which I realized in the days that followed. A lot of children did not smile. They talked, they fought, they cried but they didn’t smile. Probably while trying to survive in this ugly world they never learnt how to smile.

“What was even more painful that they never complained of any pain too”. Madan is 14 years old and stays in a slum nearby. He is a very quiet and shy child. He is also a very sincere, hardworking child. In addition to academics, he takes keen interest in his theatre, computer and "after school" activities. With a “smile on his lips” now he was perfect.

But,when the school re-opened after Dashain holidays, Madan was one of the many students who did not return to school. After waiting for 2-3 days, we went searching for him. To my surprise Mukesh found him gambling on the street with other street teenagers. Mukesh asked him to return to school the following, day but Madan didn’t show up. So I went to look for him. Even though I had heard of his gambling streak, it actually broke my heart when I saw him playing cards with my own eyes. He too was a little embarrassed and promised me that he would return to school the following day, and this time he actually did.

Something had changed in him again. For two days Madan did not eat a morsel of food at school. Finally, on the third day I made him sit with me, mixed his rice-dal and made him finish his lunch in front of me. The routine has been normal since. Madan’s mother is a compulsive alcoholic and his father does wood work with which he manages an income of Rs 3500-5000 ($50-70) per month. Madan has come back to school but he has once again left his smile behind. I wonder what goes on in that little head of his. Hoping to see him smile sooooon.

Winter was Setting in

The winter was setting in and everybody  was beginning to get into their sweaters and shoes. But the kids at Koseli were still waiting for their turn. I had promised them that if they return to school after Dashain and Tihaar holidays, they will get sweaters, jackets and shoes.

Rude, as it may sound the truth is that for many of them this was an added attraction. However, returning to school was not such an easy task for a lot of them.

We had to wait for 10 days before all of them turned up. Actually, we had to pester a few kids to come back to school. The school is finally resonating with the happy and gay voices of all the children. And so it was time to distribute their winter gifts.

The little ones were very excited to receive their gifts. They quickly formed a line to enable an easy distribution. It was beautiful to see how they helped each other and once all of them wore their sweaters they very cheerfully posed for pictures. All of them love being photographed and seeing themselves in pictures. I thought they looked like angels but my thought was quite short lived. The very next  moment, I saw them playing football in the ground and now they were all looked like little demons

The older kids were shy and waited very patiently for their turns. The girls, as it is their birth right, fussed over the sizes until they were happy. And before I realized they too were posing for pictures, which our dear volunteer Junu, was only more than happy to take.

Tomorrow, when they get their shoes, they will be fully equipped to face the winter and this year I know is going to be the warmest winter of their lives.
God bless all KOSELI FRIENDS who have helped to make this winter warmer for the kids.

Awesome Diwali

Diwali or Tihar, is the biggest festival in Nepal which falls 20 days after Bada Dashain. It is a festival of lights filled with songs and laughter.The children at Koseli were busy with hush - hush preparations for some time and now I could see why. On 4^th Nov, they were all dressed in their most fancy attire to light up the room with their songs and dances.

 The little ones were guided by their teacher, Nabina,  but the older ones had prepared on their own.

Music filled the room. The choreography of the students was awesome, actually it was so awesome that it brought tears to my eyes. If the kids could do so well without any guidance, what their fate could be if trained properly. The program started with an introduction by their teacher Krisna and then the little girls perfomed a dance in praise of the Godess Laxmi, the Godess of wealth.

There were performances by all the classes, each better than the other. Srijana, Raj, Manju, Sulav and so many others are natural dancers. Chandra's singing touches my heart everytime.We had loads of fun singing along with the performers.

We finally ended the day with singing deusi-bhaili in praise of the Goddess so that soon she would smile at us too, lighting up our futures. I hope that SHE is listening :) 

the COOKIEMAN experience

The trip to City Centre Mall was something we will cherish for a long time. Our kids would not have been allowed to enter a mall if they were left on their own. Being shunned by the society is the saddest experience of a slum dweller. Nevertheless, on 12^th of October the kids were all dressed smartly in their uniforms  and were brimming with confidence.

The “city centre experience” was organized by Pulkit & Megha. Pulkit, along with his Cookieman team welcomed the children at the entrance of the mall. They went to the departmental store to finally see what they had only read in books till now. They were absolutely fascinated to see the display of the products.

After finishing browsing through Big Mart, it was time to go the other floors of the mall, which turned out be the most fascinating experience of the day. They looked at the stairs in bewilderment. These stairs were different from the ordinary stairs for they went up and down on their own. For them they were magic stairs, which for everyone else are escalators. It was both difficult and exciting to get on these for the kids but soon they mastered them and excitedly went up and down a number of times.

Then we finally went to the Cookieman counter. Saw how the cookies are baked. The children had a big round of treat from the Cookieman and a fantastic photo shoot too.

A big thank you to Cookieman for making the day special for us.

enjoying the magic stairs

The naughtiest kid showing so much patience..wow 

The wonder staff at Cookiema

The treat

Koseli - Newsletter, October'10

KOSELI-News Letter, October’10

Dear Mentors and Friends,

Greetings and Namaste!!

Computers and Cameras stole the show in the month of September. Children were introduced to computers. Almost all of them were using the computer for the first time. And obviously, they were quite excited. They were introduced to word, which they practiced daily for about 3 weeks. But what followed next, was even more enthralling.

Stefan Heinz, joined us to teach the children how to use the internet. All Grade VI kids browsed through the web. Their favourite searches were about Nepal, Michael Jackson and Switzerland, the country Stefan came from. They created their email id’s and exchanged mails with their friends. And to my utter delight, they exchanged mails  with us too. Stefan even introduced them to blogging . 

Stefan also brought cameras with him and the kids were only too happy to photograph themselves and their friends. It made me very happy to note that Santosh (our little gambler) showed a lot of interest in the activity. We sincerely hope some of them will take it up seriously when they grow up.

Thank you, Stefan for the gifts.

We also started simple “after school activities” especially for the kids who are engaged in gambling and street fights. They make bags out of old news papers, bookmarks and diya etc. We supplied our first lot of 121 bags, a few book marks and diyas to a local boutique.

October has been a fun month. The kids watched Anjaana-Anjaani, a bollywood  blockbuster at Jai Nepal theatre. We then went to see the City Centre Mall. The most fascinating experience for them at the mall was to get onto the magic stairs, which we call the escalators. There was a big treat by Pulkit Bhimsaria and his team at Cookieman.

Thank you Pulkit for organizing such a beautiful outing.

The school then closed down for dashain holidays.

Renuka (6yrs) and Januka (9yrs) were diagnosed with ulcers in their stomachs and are undergoing treatment . They are doing fine. Both the kids are back to school after the holidays.

We had to wait for a week before all the kids rejoined school. In fact we had to coax Madan to return to school. We have admitted a few more children and have are getting requests for more admissions everyday, which unfortunately, we have to refuse.

This month a special thankyou to Sanjay Golchha for sending in three computers.

Finally, we would like to thank all our sponsors and well wishers for their continued support.

Have a great month,

Koseli Family

MUKESH

Mukesh was 8 or 9 years when I first met him, 12 years ago. Having completed his first petty theft successfully, he was almost on the verge of taking to the streets of Kathmandu like hundreds of other kids who migrate to the valley from remote villages in search of a better life.

He lived with 5 other members of his family in a 6x6 feet room. Obviously till then he had not seen what a school in Kathmandu looked like from inside.

When Mukesh first went to school, the teachers were slightly confused for he was too old for pre-primary and not literate enough to be admitted in the primary section. However, soon he turned out to be a smart kid and within 6 months to the primary section. Mukesh was double promoted 2 more times. Today he is pursuing his undergrad studies in Public Health. He spends his afternoons in Koseli helping with school administration. He dreams of going to America for his advanced studies.

This is Mukesh's story. This is the story of hope. Sometimes all it takes to hold a hand to bring a metamorphosis in child’s life and fill his eyes with dreams of tomorrow.

Shikshantar Evening School

Shikshantar Evening School (also run under Shikshantar Outreach Program) runs from 4pm to 7pm. The school initially catered to children but now all the kids from the evening school have been transferred to Koseli. And the evening school is converted into an ADULT EDUCATION CENTRE for women belonging to the lowest income group.