Reminder - Invitation to launch of 100Views Kathmandu

Libby Hathorn, Adam and Bec Ordish and Randwick City Council invite you to celebrate the launch of the documentary 100 views Kathmandu. Share Libby and Pat's adventures as they travel to the Riviera International Academy in Kathmandu, where, with the help of the Mitrataa Foundation, 100 views unleashed the creativity of almost 250 Nepalese school children. Presented by Jessica Rowe, the evening will transform the way you view the world and your own creative expression. Tuesday 18 November 2008 The Ritz Cinema, The Spot, 39 - 47 St. Pauls Street, Randwick 6.30 pm - 8.00 pm Tickets cost $20 and can be purchased by sending a cheque* made payable to Mitrataa Foundation to: Michelle Kline, Randwick City Library Service, Locked Bag 8, Maroubra 2035. Please include the number of tickets required, your name, postal address, email address and daytime contact number. Only 188 tickets are available, so please book early to avoid disappointment. * To pay for tickets online, email michelle.kline@randwick.nsw.gov.au for details. Proceeds from the sale of tickets will be used to assist Mitrataa Foundation with their valuable work with woman and girls in Nepal. For further information on Mitrataa Foundation and its work go to www.mitrataa.org

Mitrataa in the news!

On our recent visit to Nepal we ran the third pets as therapy afternoon at Bal Mandir. As always, the kids and the dogs had loads of fun and it is becoming even more rewarding as many of the kids now recognise the dogs and show enormous enthusiasm when their furry friends arrive.

A journalist and photographer from Nepali Times, one of Nepal's major English language newspapers, visited us during the session and you can read the resulting story at http://www.nepalitimes.com.np/issue/2008/10/17/Culture/15306.

Plans are now in place for the program to be run on a monthly basis and we are also investigating expanding it to include other institutions so stay tuned...

Cake at Bal Mandir!

Thursday (2nd October) was Bec’s birthday and for something different we decided to share the day, and an enormous cake, with the kids at the orphanage at Bal Mandir. It was surprisingly easy in Kathmandu to arrange a cake to feed 200 kids – the only challenge was getting it into the back of a taxi! We had to put the back seats down and it took 3 of us to maneuver the cake in, thankfully we only had to travel a couple of kms to our destination.

This week was the first week of school holidays in Nepal for the Dashain festival, the major festival of the year here. It is a particularly hard time for orphans and kids living in protection centres such as Bal Mandir as it is the time they would normally be spending with their parents and/or families. It was therefore the perfect time to inject a bit of surprise and fun into one of their afternoons.

I had to walk through the entire orphanage to the ‘party room’ at the back so by the time the cake was sitting on the table nearly all of the 190 kids were hovering nearby with a mixture of curiosity and anticipation. After a raucous rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ the cake was served. We started giving each child a small piece as we wanted to be sure there was enough for everyone. This first round was devoured in seconds and there was plenty left for seconds – at which point it became a much less organized affair with large chunks of cake being whisked away by cheeky little hands!

It was fantastic to see so many smiling faces and we had such a great time that this may become an annual event!