My sister Phulmaya

This is my 21yr old sister Phulmaya. I fought with my parents and threatened never to speak to them again if they did not allow her to start school at age 12. Phulmaya is now studying pharmacy in Kathmandu and has great dreams for the future. Phulmaya is an inspiration to me and to all of the village girls.

Hello 2013

Just got back from Nepal soon we will post news updates for our supporters

Lots of things happening

Recently you have found a young Saraswati Tamang to work with Kumari at the hostel in Batase village. This was relief for me and I just hope it will go well. Thanks to Pascale for doing great work and making this possible by raising money specially for care person the mum. AGM is coming sooner for Fhc and hoping all will go well. I just want this to get it done. Thank you my team of Fhc and all the supporters around the globe.

Year going fast with FHC

So much have happened in last five years, we have achieved so much and we also have great bunch of FHC committed member. I been so busy this year with New baby Tashi and big girl Tara plus full time study for both of us Kids mum and myself and have not had much time to do fundraiser and cook you some Nepali Dhal-Bath this year. I would like to thank those who have been committed and continuing their support by fundraising FHC big thanks to K to K team, Thelma And Luise team, Walk to Nepal team (Cairns High School) and Coffee Table Book by Gabrielle team and thanks to all other individual support. In Nepal kids are doing so well with their school and few kids have came to Kathmandu to join English course and Computing during their holidays.

 I been in regular contact with the village school for planning to upgrade school up to high school and to plan building orphan house in the village in next coming year. I have no plan to go to Nepal this year as my life is tied with my study and 2 kids but looks like I will have to go again this year because Gabrielle's team for story book is planning to go to village to collect the story from the village, I will go to Nepal to support her effort as I see this as very important project to raise lots of fund for FHC in the future.

Sujan Tamang, President of FHC nepal

I just received a wonderful news from Batase village Nepal, Sujan just called me to update every thing it was great to hear our supporter Steve and Sally Douglas had great time in the village. School has started after long holiday.

Latest News

First of all, we are very happy and excited to announce the birth of our baby boy "Tashi", he was born on March 20th and is a very happy, peaceful and most importantly healthy baby. Tara loves her little brother and is constantly asking to cuddle him. We are truly blessed to have two beautiful and happy children. We couldn't be happier!

Update from Nepal:

• 2 students have completed Grade 10 in Talamarang and are now preparing to move to kathmandu to continue their studies
• All Grade 8 students have passed their exams and will now have to move down to Talamarang to continue with Grade 9. We hope that Batase school will provide Grade 9 and 10 to the students next year (new term for 2069 will start this month).
• Two new girls who are orphaned will move into the home in the village this week. We know that they will be made very welcome and will be well looked after. The two girls will need sponsorship. The total number of children supported by FHC will be 18.
• Cairns couple Steve and Sally Douglass will arrive in Batase village next week, everyone in the village is looking forward to their arrival.
• An Irish couple recently spend 5 days in the village
• Last week Nepal celebrated year 2069 ( Happy new year to everyone!)

Our next FHC meeting will be held on Tuesday the 8th of May, we hope to see you there.

positive year for FHC

It has been a great start this year myself, Sasan, Tara and Janice went to Mareeba Tablelands on Thursday to celebrate international women's day. I'm so impressed to see the the support from Tablelands Mayer  and Councillor Rhonda and community members. They commented on my story " it is strange to invite men to talk on international women's day but it made sense after hearing from Som"  Mayer said. Such great support, we have few new members for FHC and potential future support from the member I would to thank every one who was there and their support.
The meeting with Amanda and Peter went really well and productive on Saturday thank you so much for the time you have committed toward FHC, It was great to see K2K member and their meeting at the same time thank you so much K2K team.
Pascal's Thelma and Luise Expedition has made big progress this is one of the biggest fundraising project ever for FHC and I was so taken by to see the support on this project, the information night on Saturday at Dream Time Backpackers was great I'm very inspired by those people who were there at the night. Thank you so much everyone.
Time has been the issue for ever time has never wait for anything our general meeting is already tomorrow. OOPS. I hope to see you all at the meeting with some new ideas for fundraiser for FHC thanks again. 

News from Nepal and Australia

2012 has started very busy and still finding hard to find spare time to organize Nepali dinner night. I do miss cooking for you all and catching up and I will inform you all as soon as we have something planned. So far it's already March and we only had one fundraiser organized by Pascal who had just returned from Nepal and we hope we will have more fundraiser happening through out the year, this Thursday the 8th there is fundraiser organized in Mareeba  for International women's day by Stacey and I have been invited to talk to the team there and hopefully it will raise more awareness and some fund to FHC if you guys live up in the Tableland please come along to support us the detail is on our face book page.

In Nepal, one of our 8 years old sponsor child who has lost both of here parent have been living with her auntie but aunt has not been very nice to her there for we will be removing her from her aunt's house to Kathmandu boarding school just to give her the freedom and better education. 

It seems strange story but people who has recently been there have eye witnessed and they know what I mean and I hope one day you guys can join us to see the work we have achieved and to volunteer. we have General meeting on the 13th Tuesday please come along to find out more about what we do.

Thelma & Luis Expedition

First fundraiser for Fhc in 2012 was held at vibe bar in cairns on the valentine day event for singles night, I did a sort talk to the people and I met some wonderful people and awesome team of Pascale who are going to take off for expedition soon. On this special even I managed to get three new members and perhaps one child sponsorship. The event was very successful and I would like to see more people taking some task like this to raise some fund for fhc and raise awareness about Nepal and situation for children, in march I got few event to attend one in Mareeba international women's day fundraiser evens for Fhc on the 8th and second is Brisbane on 7th for news limited event of the year. I'm very excited about 2012 looking forward to seeing you at the meeting on Tuesday 21th thanks

News from from Nepal

Fhc Nepal has done so well with registration, they now have monthly meeting to progress the projects and to maintain children"s hostel in Talamarang and in Batase village. Now they are empowered to build the community to sustainable projects and to build the education system in the village. The team fhc Nepal also looking after the school and it's teacher to maintain their duty, Fhc Nepal has aim to build education system as good as in capital city within five to ten years.

Recent news update.

After long running around and hard work in Nepal finally we are registered NGO in Nepal "Friends of Himalayan Children Nepal". I'm so proud to have put all those time when I was in Nepal to get this happened. Thanks to the committee in Nepal and here in cairns for full support. We just had our first Fhc committee meeting for 2012, it was very intense and productive I have to say and we have plan to and general meeting on 21th Tues this month, at this meeting we have plane to have guest speaker who has been to Nepal, if wishing to hear story from village visitor please do not miss it.if you have queries please drop us email. Thanks som

After little holiday

After our volunteer Janice and Tanya left Nepal we came to Pohara for little family holiday. During holiday I still manage to organize hospital visit for eye doctor for our orphan children Pasang and Anjana bw because they been suffering with sour eye since long time, same trip we took five other children to eye hospital from Batase school. The school also started new program for younger children "early childhood" age five and younger will learn in this class and from next week we will start some lunch program for these younger school children. I have also organized little picnic on boxing day with school  which will allow our volunteers to share some experience with student and teacher. This morning we are returning to Kathmandu to meet with group from Adelaide who is visiting Batase village to buy land to expand the school. After the group arrival we will head to village again and we will be returning to Kathmandu to meet with our FHC member Pascal and to do all shopping for school and village.

Village Update

We have been in Kathmandu for a couple of days now and we are missing the village, in particular the beautiful children. Tara can’t wait to go back to the love and fun that she was surrounded with in the village!

Tanya has just left Nepal after spending two weeks volunteering at the school and teaching the hostel children English and Janice is leaving Nepal tomorrow. Both Janice and Tanya did an amazing job, the children loved them and everyone is looking forward to their return we hope next year.

Som spent a lot of his time in the village at the school, he took classes to get an understanding of the level of education that the children have reached. Som was disappointed and realised that there is so much to be done to raise the standard and level of education provided to the children. Som was heartened to see more girls attending school than last year and school enrolment numbers are continually rising.

Som also had meetings with the villagers who own the land adjacent to the school. It was devastating for us to hear that the farmers do not share the vision that most villagers have for the future of Batase school and even though an excellent price was offered for their land, they have been unwilling to cooperate and will not sell their land. This decision lead to many late night conversations between Som and other villagers around the fire. Some landowners a kilometre from the current school are happy to sell their land to start building a high school. This is fantastic news for the village and the land is great location for a high school.  We hope that the land can be purchased with funds raised by Kelly Sullivan during her visit to the village in December but if not, this will be proposed as the main fundraising project for FHC in 2012.

There are currently 14 children living at the hostel and three more children will be joining them in a few weeks time. All of the children are very happy and are excelling at school and with their English. We couldn’t be more proud of them. Kumari is doing a fantastic job in the role of “House Mum” cooking 3 wholesome meals a day over the fire for all of the children and volunteers. I have never enjoyed village food so much and we are grateful for all of Kumari’s hard work and dedication.

It is hard to describe the children and how incredible they are. Each child is mature, caring, hardworking, loving and above all HAPPY! They are a big family living in that house sharing all of the ups and downs of day-to-day life. They get up early; they do their chores, go to school and then come home and help out by cutting grass or washing and assisting with meal preparation. They cooperate with one another and enjoy being a part of this wonderful family. I always feel humbled and privileged to be a part of their lives and for Tara to have the most loving “big brothers and sisters’ in the world.

Every night after dinner we sit around the fire talking, laughing and sharing stories. We have been enjoying giving each other head and shoulder massages and singing songs in English and Nepali. Tara is always busy playing football with the children, dancing and being silly. Tara is exhausted at the end of each day and falls into a deep sleep in Som’s arms before we can make it to bed!

We are very excited that Batase village will have a lot of visitors next month, we know that everyone will be touched by the beauty of the village and the children.

Back in Kathmandu

We have just arrived back in Kathmandu after a wonderful week in Batase village. Volunteers Tanya and Janice had a wonderful time in the village and spent a lot of time teaching English to the children. Tara is the centre of attention in the village and Susan feels great!
A lot of work needs to be done at the school and at the hostel and I look forward to getting things underway. We will update again soon.

The home village Video project.

I have just completed this very basic information video based on Village and Cairns. I hope every one will enjoy and understand please fallow the link. Next post will be from the himalayas of Nepal. http://www.youtube.com/user/Friendsofhimalayan?blend=21&ob=5

Iron Man project from Matt

Event went so successful everyone who were entering pier bar was so generous, thanks to pier bar & grill, Jude and matt for such a great work.

Fhc dinner nights

Thanks all being here

Business banking and cooking

Our new treasurer and myself just organized some bank stuff, now getting ready for Himalayan dinner night. Lots of cooking ahead of me