Wind of Change International
December 2016
Onni Children's House celebrates 8th Anniversary: It has already been 8 years since the first laughter, screams and giggles filled the pink and blue hallways of Onni Children's House. Now almost a decade later the corridors breath calmness and order with relaxed youngsters going about their everyday life, taking care of themselves and each other, their school work and the house that has become a real home filled with compassion and love. Indeed it'll only be a few more years now until the eldest children will graduate from Fishtail Academy and future plans will start sketching on the horizon. Whether their different paths will lead towards universities, vocational training or perhaps apprenticeships with trade professionals, each individual journey is soon starting to take shape. In addition, Onni's current lease will expire in September 2018, which is certainly stimulating a vigorous future planning for us at an organisational level as well.
Whilst life at Onni is going along really well, it is also picking up nicely for the rest of Nepal. 18 months after the Earthquake life in general is seemingly much better; the tourists have slowly returned, the streets are busy again and people are happy. Certainly the reconstruction work in the affected areas will continue for years to come but life in general has bounced back for most of the Nepalese.
In September the extended Onni-family also welcomed a new member when Sara from Finland joined us for three months with her endless energy, positive attitude and cheerfulness. In this newsletter you'll get to hear Sara's thoughts about Nepal and Onni through a few passages from her blog. Indeed we continue to be very grateful for all the people around us who year after year support this cause by donating their precious time or resources. Thank you all for making our work possible!
Enjoy reading the latest news - and the long holidays approaching around the corner..
Warm Greetings,
Tuuli and Carl
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8th Anniversary of Onni
Children at Onni Children's House continue to grow and flourish: 26th of October marked the 8th Anniversary of Onni Children's House and our work in Nepal. As always the birthday was full of fun and laughter. We kicked off the beautiful morning with a heated game of soccer in the near by park under the close watch of the gorgeous Annapurna mountains. Afterwards it was the time for everyone's favourite - a local momo-hole where we all enjoyed a special birthday feast. Later on the party got wild at the house with a birthday cake-fuelled dancing and music. Anyone who has ever visited Onni on this special day knows exactly what I'm talking about..
The best thing about this particular day though is that it always, year after year, gathers people from all over the world together. It is such a fun day but mostly it is a day filled with so much appreciation for what has been created together. What an incredible journey with so many incredible people. Again we must stress the huge influence of our wonderful staff who make sure that this beautiful dream becomes a reality - every day. We are so grateful for all these wonderful years that we've had the great honour to spend with the Onni crew.
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Daytrip to Begnas lake
What a great outing for the whole gang: One warm October morning we packed up the house and headed for an Onni-family adventure to one of the more pristine lakes in the Pokhara region. What a fun ride on a local bus, which the 27 of us filled up to the brim. Begnas lake welcomed us with tranquillity and fresh air. The fun times were heightened further as we took some paddle boats out onto the glassy lake. Massive excitement and giggles filled the air as the three big boats all of a sudden found themselves in a heated competition. There was so much laughter, paddling, instructions given and taken - and so much sweat!! What a great day had by all.
To keep up to date with news and other happenings with our work in Nepal, please visit our website at www.windofchangeinternational.org. For the latest updates we also invite you to follow us on Facebook.
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Greetings from Pokhara
A passage from Sara's Blog:
"20% of Nepal’s population lives in cities. So far I have got to known this part of the culture, and it has been rich.
The locals I have got to known are mainly from Namaste Community Foundation. People here don’t really go out, women often are not even able to, because most of them are working hard all day. It is crazy to see old ladies carrying baskets full of stones or water bottles or chicken… and the people running little shops (they are everywhere, with snacks and sanitary items or fruits in them), who sit there all day. I am really happy I have my family, Onni.
Every morning I sweep down stairs and mop three storeys. Atma, the house brother and Usha, the house mother are helping me. House sisters usually do the cooking. I may help them chop potatoes or what ever. Though communicating is difficult we laugh a lot. They have a great sense of humour.
The children do two hours a day homework. Usually they read aloud the text they have written in their note books during the lessons. All private schools in Nepal are in english, so there are difficulties. During the free time we play ping pong or Rummikub or just talk. Today we listened to Sia and Coldplay and they taught me Nepalese dancing. They love One Direction and Taylor Swift, unfortunately for me…I also sometimes draw the kids when they are studying, and the boys want me to draw them with rock star hair..."
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Happy Holidays
Thank you for the year 2016: While another year is turning, we would like to take this opportunity to once more send a huge thank you to all of you!
We cannot enough emphasise how important your continuous support is to our work in Nepal. Thank you everyone for being an essential part of this succesful journey. We would particularly like to thank:
- Namaste Community Foundation
- Global Development Group
- Pitcher Partners
- Cooper investors
- PSA Project
- Child Sponsors
- Volunteers
Donate: To make a donation please click here
All donations towards our Nepal Program are tax-deductible in Australia and the US.
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