Child Accomplishments
Three of our young adults, Jnagmu, Shailaja and Sunil, have successfully passed SLC (School Leaving Certificate) exam with good marks. They will be joining grade 11 soon. Congratulations kids! We are proud of you!
During the second week of June they attended the character-building Lotus Temple volunteer program in New Delhi, India.
Post-Disaster Activities
As you know, our country Nepal has faced the worst time in its history last month. NECO Home Kathmandu was also seriously affected by the destructive earthquake. You can read some our posts on our website. We lost our shelter, happy environment and our smiles as well. Likewise, our kids and staff lost their home and relatives in their respective villages too. After the disaster, we’ve been having to sleep, cook and have meals inside a small shed. It is a very stressful condition but we HAD to convince ourselves and the small children to look at their neighbors who were facing a far worst condition than us with complete fallen homes and even injuries and deaths. (NECO Home has assisted our neighbors in providing food and tents.) It’s been over two months that the major earthquake occurred. In this period, we received prayers and supports from our well-wishers from all over the world that gave us strength to fight the difficult situation and helped financially for the betterment of NECO Home.
New Residential Hostel Being Built
Meanwhile we are rebuilding our compound and constructing a new residential hostel for all of the children, which will be comprised of 4 large rooms or dormitories. We lost a rented house so even if we repaired the damaged house, our present house does not have enough room for all the children. Meanwhile most all continue to live in the shed or cow barn we are constructing. We now jokingly refer to it as the Animal House, after the movie.
With the initial help of our faithful contributors, we’ve taken the vacant land on lease which is next to NECO compound and have started to build the new hostel. Construction is ongoing. The basic structure is ready and now we need to do the partition framing. And the workers as well as neighbors are really supporting us to complete it as soon as possible.
The building is 28 x 70 feet and it has 10 foot room height with a 15 foot pitched roof. The materials and the design being used will make the structure highly earthquake resistant. There will be enough space for the boys and girls and the house will look beautiful after it is completed and landscaped.
A special update soon.
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4
We also need to build new showers and toilets. We’ve been awaiting cost estimates which has really been delayed. One of our first proposed floor designs is this:
Boys side Girls side
Present stage of construction but concrete floor has been laid (shown below). Next: walls and windows.
Engineers required that we construct the above retaining wall which has added over $2,500 to our costs.
Yesterday, masons put in the concrete slab.
This project is most critical. We know some of you have already helped financially. But more help is really needed, otherwise construction will be delayed or stopped. In this underdeveloped country with low aesthetic standards, the compound will be able to provide a much higher quality of life that we wish to expose to the children and outsiders who witness our work, which can be an example to all. We will continue to landscape the compound most beautifully so that it will be an inspiring home. All the children have been employed to inspire and build their capacity for service, as this we must do…. to empower everyone to recognize and develop their spiritual capacities and to channel their collective energies towards the betterment of their communities in which they will someday work and live.
Credit / Debit / Pay Pal donations can now easily and securely be made:
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New Captain Elected
Ash Bahadur, our new Neco Home Captain (shown here with Surakshya), was voted in office by all the children.
We are updating our photo gallery soon with all new pictures of our children.
Kids’ Activities in the “Animal House”
Construction Recap
As the time passes, we need to get out of the misery and move ahead. After the disaster, NECO has lots of construction and maintenance works. At the first phase, our kids and staff united to remove the trash and clean the surroundings.
Our girl’s hostel was damaged and we lost the boys hostel since the owners needed their house returned. We’re still managing to stay in the small shed. But the kitchen and dining areas are partly damaged although we are working around the problems.
Girls Hostel
This is the picture of girl’s hostel; the dangerous part of the wall has been torn down, but some walls need replacement.
Before
Now
Unity Building: Major reconstruction, Highest Costs
We have to tear out the broken walls of unity building and repaired it by using steel I-Beams. The partition wall of the office floor has been broken down. To reduce the weight, we have removed the concrete perimeter wall on the top of building.
Pictures of Unity Building:
Before
After
Steel I-Beams have been set to give additional support:
The concrete stairs have been replaced with steel, which is stronger and lighter weight. Engineers say we must reduce the weight over the ground floor as much as possible:
Before
After
Cracked walls of the main building has been repaired using lighter weight aluminum windows and frames:
Before
After
Prayers
After the Unity Building received severe damage (where the Unity Room and office exists), our kids started their group prayers and readings in the open area of the dining hall. Despite infrastructure difficulties, they didn’t stop their twice-daily prayers. Our prayers were for peace and healing for all mankind as well as for the victims of the disaster. We also continually pray to help reduce stress and fear in our children, especially as smaller earthquakes continue.
So we continue to move forward to provide an uplifting environment, raising children with intelligence and high moral character to be future leaders in their communities.
If you have any questions, concerns, ideas, advice or recommendations, please write by clicking here. Do NOT click reply.
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Credit / Debit / Pay Pal donations can now easily and securely be made: or Mail check or international money order to:
NECO FOUNDATION 696 Alberta Avenue, Apt. 3, Sunnyvale, CA 94087 USA Telephone: +1-650-417-5977 (Any check made out to “NECO Foundation” will be earmarked for NECO Home in Kathmandu) (Examples: $140 to provide full sponsorship for one child per month, $40 to provide for one month English-medium education; $50 to provide food for one month; $10 to buy one pair of shoes or school uniform) |
