Today (March 26), a team of 16 Nepali Tzu Chi volunteers went to the Phenday Care Children Home (PCCH) in Sathikhel village, Pharphing. It was the first charity work conducted by Nepali volunteers independently. The purpose of the trip was not only for distribution, but also for establishment of a compassionate learning environment within the orphanage and the building of a bright future for orphans living in the orphanages of Nepal. Being able to help is compassion; that compassion brought Tzu Chi today to this care home for orphan children to create for them a bright and better life in the future through our support.
Through the vision of Venerable Yogi Norbu Rinpoche, the Phenday Care Children Home was established in 2014 as a non-profit charitable organization, to care for and support needy children by providing basic education, nutrition, health care, sanitation, protection and emergency relief. Overcoming many hardships, Rinpoche started the children’s home using his own funds; as a result, seven staff at the care home are providing basic needs to 47 children. Due to a lack of sufficient space to give the children all they should have, Rinpoche made a request for help to Tzu Chi (Singapore); this was passed on to the headquarters in Taiwan. Tzu Chi, Nepal was informed about this request for help; since then, its volunteers have developed a warm relationship with the Phenday Care Children Home.
Before they set out, the volunteers arranged all the necessary items for today’s program. All 16 volunteers were picked up at their own homes; then, at around 8 a.m., they set out for Pharping and reached there just before 10 a.m. The program started with Buddhist praying by the children of the PCCH which lasted for five minutes. Then Dr. Nirdesh gave a short introduction of Tzu Chi and Master Cheng Yen. “Master Cheng Yen is a very helpful person with a heart full of love and compassion; her help for people with the few supporters in her (early) period was really appreciated,” one of the children said after listening to the briefing.
Then Sanjay Awal told a charming story, in meticulous detail, in a language which the children understood.
For the distribution, the volunteers prepared medicines needed by the children’s home. Mani Bahadur handed the medicines to Yogi Norbu Rinpoche. In addition, the volunteers prepared health awareness lessons for the children. The presentations were done beautifully by Dr. Sarvesh, nurse Maiya Prajapati and volunteers Chodden Lama and Sintara Doplma. The volunteers taught the children the sign-language “One Family” song and practiced it along with the other volunteers. The children were so happy to learn the sign language. After that came the sharing of young volunteers Raj, Netra and Unish; that concluded today’s program, which ended with big smiles on everyone’s faces.
Yogi Rinpoche expressed his deep gratitude to Tzu Chi for coming to visit his place and for today’s program. He said: “I now feel the power of Tzu Chi and its strong support to all people. Helping others with a heart full of compassion shows great devotion which is the strongest of all.”
The children and the staff of Phenday Care Children Home were really happy with today’s program and look forward for such a program again.
Article by Niru Prajapati and Hishina Shakya
