Puja Himalayan Children’s Charities Earthquake Victim

Puja is 9 years old and studying in grade 3. She lives with her mother, two siblings, and her elderly grandfather in a temporary shelter in their remote village in the high hills. She lost her father during the earthquake when their house collapsed. Puja is from an indigenous community. She enjoys and works hard in school, and she is currently getting extra help in math, as it is her weak subject. She also helps her family by bringing water from the tap each day, which is about 30 minutes from her home. She also must walk 2 hours each day to get to school and back. The main income source of her family is from farming, and her mother works in the field as a subsistence farmer for their day-to-day food, and during the harvest season earns a small amount of money as a field laborer. Puja’s mother, Madhu, says “You are all helping my children with their education and I am working hard to fulfill their other basic requirements. I’m very grateful for this support that is allowing me to continue to care for my children, even as a single woman in the village in Nepal. I want to thank the sponsors of my children and all of the people who are directly and indirectly involved in this program. Thank you for giving us a helping hand and making my children’s life different and meaningful.”

Finally the day arrived and we had to arrive at the venue by 3. We rushed to the models and did the final fittings. By that time, Dinesh Uncle, Hira Aunt and Bruce Uncle had arrived. As my sequence was on the 4th we had a huge rush backstage that let me meet them only for a brief minute and we couldn’t even click a picture together. Show started at 7. After the third sequence we had the models change into our designs. Finally, our design was on the runway, and we walked at the end of the sequence with our showstopper, Simpal Kharel. While walking on the runway, there were a huge number of audiences, included; designers, press media, journalists, photographers, ambassadors, etc. After our sequence, we went backstage and we really had a roller coaster of emotions. All those sleepless nights, stresses, no meal days and all the difficulties we went through were finally over. It was worth everything. This concludes my three years of learning and we had the chance to showcase it to the crowd and people. After our sequence we finally had the time to breather. All along these past three months it felt as if somebody had put on something in our neck as we were suffocating but now it felt as if it had been let go. We could breathe in peace.

After the runway we had a huge feast and that tasted like the best meal that I had for the entire life.