Wine Tasting Fundraiser

Last Saturday (24^th July) our good friend Libby Hathorn hosted a wine tasting fundraiser at her home in Sydney. On a cold evening we enjoyed the company of around 40 people who came to enjoy a selection of wines, a delicious meal and some fundraising for Mitrataa.

The evening started with everyone mingling with a glass of wine and some canapés – at this point I must thank Nell, from Lickie Lea’s catering, who provided the most amazing food for the evening! This was followed by a short welcome from Libby and then Bec and I had the chance to give everyone a quick update on our projects in Nepal as well as sharing initial plans for our newest project – taking over the management of a children’s home in Kathmandu where 210 children live! (Formal announcements on the details of that exciting new project coming in September.)  

It was then time for the serious business of the wine tasting. 5 wines had been chosen and we were guided through the tasting by friends of the group, Isabelle and Mark. We enjoyed a taste of Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Shiraz. All present really got into the tasting with some bizarre comments on the flavours and smells being detected in the wines, perhaps a little too much wine had been sampled?! People were then able to place orders for the wines with a portion of the takings being donated to Mitrataa.

Mark then took control of the floor to auction a painting which had been very generously donated by Sydney artist, Brenda Humble. Bidding was furious and the work eventually went under the hammer for $850 – all of which was donated to Mitrataa!

This concluded the formal part of the evening and meant people could then disperse to enjoy their dinner. We had set up a wall containing bricks that people could buy or sponsor for different amounts to contribute to our projects in Nepal. This raised a lot of interest and helped collect more donations for the Foundation.

The evening raised around $3,000 in donations to Mitrataa which is a fantastic effort and will go a long way in helping with our efforts to improve the lives of Nepal’s women and girls.

We must thank Libby for her immense generosity and support in organising and hosting this event, it was a wonderful night that was I am sure enjoyed by all who attended. Thanks must also go to Nell, Pat, Isabelle, Mark and anyone else I may have forgotten(!) who helped make the night such a huge success! Of course thanks also go to everyone who attended and were so generous with their support and donations, it will make a huge difference.

Saris and toothbrushes

The Project Snow Leopard girls were the “Official Photographers” for 2 exciting events at Bal Mandir Children’s Home in April. After practising their skills in Bhaktapur and Boudha, they were very proud to be taking photos to share these experiences with you all.

Lots of clean teeth for kids of Nepal, thanks to Cadbury and McKinney Rogers

“This is the way we brush our teeth” was the chant around Bal Mandir Children’s Home in Kathmandu in April, 2010 as the children were all presented with a brand new toothbrush, each with a tube of toothpaste in a brightly coloured bag made by one of the women we work with. We enlisted the help of former Cadbury nutritionist from Melbourne, Amy Valender, who is working with Mitrataa for 3 months in Nepal, to distribute the toothbrushes. I don’t know who had the bigger grin – the kids or Amy!

Members of both Cadbury and McKinney Rogers Asia Pacific teams had been collecting the toothbrushes as they travelled around the region on business. This was the third delivery we had made to the children of Nepal, thanks to the generosity of the Cadbury and McKinney Rogers staff.

For children who very rarely have possessions of their own, to have a toothbrush and paste in their own little bag means so much – they always ask with big grins “Who sent these to us? They must really care about us!”

Thanks as always to the staff of Cadbury and McKinney Rogers for your contributions.

A new uniform for the House Mothers at Bal Mandir

The House Mothers at Bal Mandir are the most important people in the lives of the 200 children who call this Children’s Home “home”. But they are so busy giving their love to the children, that they often forget to stop and give themselves a pat on the back for their dedication. So we decided to celebrate them while at the same time giving them a new sense of pride and team work but giving them each a new sari, a uniform for them to wear at work.

Once again, our budding Snow Leopard Project photographers were on hand to capture the grins on the House Mothers faces as they received their uniform, and later as they showed them off for all to admire!

Project Snow Leopard - Part 1

We have just completed the most amazing 5 days with Linda Jocelyn and the start of Project Snow Leopard. The project started last week when 10 girls from the orphanage at Bal Mandir were selected. Each girl had submitted an application to join the project that included answers to questions such as what they wanted to do with their lives, why they wanted to learn photography, what did they believe would make a better future for Nepal etc. The quality of their answers suggested we had found a great group of girls to start this journey.

The first workshop with Linda was last Wednesday, 21st April and involved a basic introduction to the use of the cameras as well as some theory on some of the basics of photography including use of light, composition, rule of thirds etc. A quote from Linda on Day 1 is below:


Today I started teaching and it was wonderful. We started at 11am and talked about photography and what outputs there were from photography and I showed them some picture books of Australia and some slide shows to music. Then we handed out the cameras. Well...only about three of the girls had ever used a camera before but within no more than 15 minutes they had figured them out!

We then let them loose around the orphanage for about an hour taking photos before having lunch. After lunch it was time for some serious theory for about an hour on light and composition and the mechanics of how a camera works. 

On Thursday (22nd April) in addition to reviewing the photos from the day before, we took the girls on their first field trip to Boudha. By now they were growing in confidence and some amazing shots and ideas for shots were being developed. We were all looking forward to seeing the results that night!

Friday was a rest day and then on Saturday, 24th April we headed off early in the morning for the old town of Bhaktapur. This town is a major tourist attraction in Nepal for foreigners and locals alike as it has retained a strong sense of traditional culture which flows through all aspects of daily life. After some much needed breakfast a few hours of walking and photo taking ensued and as Linda's comments attest, the girls were really getting into the swing of things by now:

One of the especially amusing things was the girls asking tourists if they could take their photos. It was interesting watching their reactions, some thought it was a hoot and one woman looked totally flummoxed but then relaxed and got into the spirit of it. It was good seeing the tables turned as the tourists take all these photos rarely asking permission and this time it was the kids taking their photos!

It was also interesting seeing the reaction of the locals when the girls asked if they could take their photos. Mostly there were huge grins but the girls' confidence was growing such that when they got a knockback they bounced back and asked someone else.

Stay tuned for the summary of the last two days of what has been an exciting and fun-filled new project!

Creative Writing for Kids in Kathmandu

On our recent trip to Nepal we were joined by our good friend, Australian children's author Libby Hathorn. This was Libby's second visit to Nepal after her wonderfully successful 100 Views Kathmandu program run at our model school in 2008.

This time Libby ran a one day creative writing workshop for class 7 and 8 girls living in the orphanage at Bal Mandir. The program was also joined by 4 specially selected students from the model school, 3 of our Dream Centre facilitators, and two children's authors working with Room-to-Read.

Libby started the workshop talking about different types of creative writing and had plenty of her own work on hand to show as examples. The children were so excited to be sitting in the same room as a published author! She next delved into poetry and had everyone standing and jumping around to act out the words in some poems. Continuing with the focus on words the students were divided into groups and had to work on describing two contrasting feelings/emotions using other similar words. This really got the students thinking and once this was finished, they then had to devise and perform a short drama illustrating the feelings described. Most of the groups chose to mime their dramas and ask the class to guess the feelings being conveyed which led to some hilarious results!

After some quick lunch the final work for the day saw the children begin to write their own poems. Libby shared a number of different techniques for structuring poetry with the class and the results were fantastic! Many of the students really managed to capture some strong feelings and descriptions in their short piece of writing. The class was left with a homework assignment of writing a short story of about two pages in length which they were all eager to begin immediately.

We must once again thank Libby for sharing her wealth of knowledge and experience with us and really making a wonderful day for the students. I'm sure it gave our Dream Centre facilitators and the Room-to-Read writers lots of great new ideas too! Thanks also to Libby and Room-to-Read who both donated books for the children at Bal Mandir to enjoy.

Books & Fruit Delivery

Last Saturday (8th August) Bec and I delivered two very special surprises to the kids at the orphanage at Bal Mandir. The first was a box of books we had collected from various donors in Sydney and Singapore. The second was a crate full of delicious fruit including mangoes, bananas, apples, pineapples and pomegranates!

We arrived around midday and the kids were all playing in the courtyard, unaware of the pending excitement. As Bec and I walked in carrying two very big boxes we quickly acquired a big group of curious followers. We first opened the box full of books and after an initial frenzy of squealing and grabbing we managed to get everyone to line up so that they could choose a book to take and read.

It was amazing to see all of the children so enthusiastic about reading and learning new things. It was also very touching to see the older children helping the younger ones to read their books. Bec got in on the act too with some fantastic facial expressions and sound effects to add to her reading, making her easily the most popular sideshow! Another favourite was a book all about Transformers, which kept the boys very busy as they debated which of the ‘robots in disguise’ had the best powers.

We spent about 2 hours with all of the children reading book after book and just as everyone appeared to be getting tired the fruit, now chopped up and ready to eat, arrived. Another frenzy ensued but somehow all the children ended up with their fair share of fruit.

As everyone settled down to eat it was our queue to leave. We were exhausted but also invigorated by spending the time with such energetic and inspiring kids. Thanks to all those who have donated books after the past year, they are being well used and loved!

Fun and games at Bal Mandir!

Below is a report from our new staff member in Nepal covering a recent program we ran:

Two Australian Blues Musicians, Owen Campbell and James Kavannagh, gave a short musical performance at the Bal Mandir orphanage on October 21. About 150 children aged between 4 - 18 were present to enjoy the festivities. The objective for the day was to have fun and entertain the children with music, particularly as it took place during the main festival of the year in Nepal, Dashain. To this end, we arranged for around 50 kids from a nearby child protection home to join us for the afternoon’s program.

The performance was staged in a beautiful courtyard inside Bal Mandir with enough space to conduct games, singing, dancing and playing. When James and Owen first arrived the kids immediately had them engrossed in a massive soccer game!

This was followed by the musical performances with Owen playing the guitar and James singing. They performed nursery rhymes such as Twinkle Twinkle, Baa Baa Black Sheep, If You’re Happy, etc. Many of the children knew the songs so they sang and danced along.

After the performance, there were more games followed by a snack break. James and Owen helped volunteers from Bal Mandir to give snack boxes to each of the children.

It was then time for more playing as the children were still very excited. With their unmatchable enthusiasm they were running around with friends or footballs. It became difficult to gather them once again at the same place. So we decided to attract them with a game.

After a couple of hours everyone including James and Owen were exhausted! James in particular said it was the most exercise he had had in a long while! On bidding farewell, James, Owen and Mitrataa donated the soccer balls to the children at the orphanage.


We must thank James and Owen for their time and also their energy and enthusiasm. They helped to create a very special day for these children and everyone involved thoroughly enjoyed themselves!

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...

Trip to an orphanage, dogs included!

With all the excitement of last week’s events finally settling down, and after a 10 hour bus ride (due to some mechanical trouble and petrol shortage traffic jams!) to return to Kathmandu from Pokhara, Sarah and D were back at work on Monday.

The day’s program involved working with two groups of orphans at the Bal Mandir orphanage. The first group were toddlers around 2 to 3 years old. Some of the kids had disabilities, this was most likely the reason they were abandoned in the first place. This is one of the harsh realities of life in a country like Nepal and Sarah and D were fantastic in taking it all in their stride.

We arrived just as these kids were getting dressed for the day however upon seeing us they were more interested in playing football than putting their clothes on! So after a game with semi-naked kids running around the halls of the orphanage we managed to get them dressed just in time for their teacher to arrive to start the class. Sarah and D spent the morning with the class helping the teacher do some craft activities with the kids and they also had the chance to help prepare and feed the kids their morning tea as well.

After lunch the girls moved on to the kindergarten class which kept their hands full for the rest of the afternoon. The kids here are between 4 and 6 years old although there is also a boy who is 9. He had recently been abandoned in a village in southern Nepal and had never been to school. He also could not speak Nepali when he came to the orphanage as he spoke the local language of his village. Sarah and D took a particular shine to this boy and by the end of the afternoon they had him counting to 10 in English and also saying some basic words and phrases. It is amazing how quickly kids can learn when given the tiniest bit of care and attention and Sarah and D should be really proud of the impact they have had on this boy’s life.

All of the kids in the class enjoyed the girls reading a story, “Spot Goes To The Farm”, complete with all the noises of typical farmyard animals! Then there were some colouring activities and also some games outside including skipping which managed to incorporate a counting lesson.

Whilst all of this was happening I managed to sneak away to collect Mango and Tara from KAT for the second running of our Pets as Therapy program. You can read more about this program in my post for the first day we ran a few weeks ago. When I arrived in the kids’ room with the two dogs there were some tears again but this time many of the kids had remembered their previous experience and were thrilled to see their new friends return. We spent well over 2 hours playing with the kids and the dogs and this time the favourite activity was feeding Mango treats which he was content to eat all afternoon. Nearly all of the kids were brave enough to hand feed Mango although some of them were more interested in trying the biscuits for themselves!

Sarah and D arrived just in time to help us finish up with the dogs and take a few photos before bidding farewell to the little ones once more. So overall it was a big day at Bal Mandir with all kinds of programs happening for the kids. The rest of the girls’ time is going to spent working at drop-in centres with kids who work as domestic labourers. This promises to be a challenging and touching experience for Sarah and D as some of these children’s stories are horrific. I will post an update on this in the coming days.

I have posted some photos of the first visit to Bal Mandir with the dogs on our website, and I will post some more from the second visit soon.

MLC Sydney - Nepal Service Project Day 1

The dust has settled in Nepal (well, as much as it does in the lead up to the beginning of the monsoon!), we have caught our breaths, and the team from MLC Sydney have returned safe and sound to Australia. We spent a truly fantastic 5 days with the group working on various service projects and we were truly inspired by the energy and enthusiasm the girls brought to each task. Visiting Nepal for the first time is exhausting enough for any tourist but when you combine that with some of the challenging sights and stories confronted by the girls during their work, it really becomes a life changing experience.

I will post an entry for each of the 5 days as each one was unique and full of fun and excitement. We also collected many great photos and movie clips and I am working on posting these to a special section on our website for everyone to see.


The group had spent the previous week trekking so day 1 of their service project was set up to allow a relatively easy transition into the week’s work, but there is nothing easy about visiting an orphanage in a country like Nepal. The girls were first introduced to a number of rooms full of orphaned children ranging in age from 2 weeks to 3 years old. I could see on many of the girl’s faces the despair as they realised that many of these kids have never known a mother or father and will probably remain in the orphanage until they are adults.

After spending some time cuddling and playing with the babies and learning more about what it means to be an orphan in Nepal, we took the group to the play room where around 40 excited kids were waiting for their ‘performance’. And what a performance it was. The girls and some of the parents and teachers had put together a brilliant program on the importance of personal hygiene and cleanliness. The opening song taught them how to say ‘hello’ in Australia – “In Australia, we say ‘G’Day, how are you going?’”. Then came a stellar performance from puppet Dr Amy who had the children in stitches of laughter. By the end of the first part the children knew exactly what to shout when asked “what are germs?”, “BAD!” came their reply. “Where are they?”, was instantly responded to with “EVERYWHERE!” “What is soap?” was immediately followed by squeals of “GOOD!”

Upon completion of Dr Amy’s presentation it was time to divide the kids into groups and they set to work on various art and craft activities related to what they had learnt. The room soon transformed into a whirl of activity pierced with cries of “more glue!” and “scissors please!” By the end of it we had all kinds of posters, drawings, find-a-words and message chains declaring the personal hygiene mantras. Once we had decorated the TV room with the artworks (as well as placing a few in choice positions outside the toilet areas) it was time to bid farewell and let the kids have their dinner.

I think everyone was sad that the afternoon had to come to an end. The success of the program was obvious by the size of the smiles on the kids’ faces thanks to an obviously huge amount of preparation and thought put into it by the MLC group. Their energy was immediately apparent and the kids picked up on this and responded in kind. It really was a life changing experience in the best possible way for everyone involved.

Day with dogs and a donkey...need therapy anyone?!

Yesterday afternoon provided us with one of the most enjoyable experiences here as we visited the KAT centre, just north of Kathmandu city. KAT is an organisation that rescues street dogs, provides them with vaccinations against rabies and other health care and also gives them the ‘family planning’ operation. When appropriate, the dogs are then fostered out to families or in some instances returned to the street. Kathmandu has a relatively large street dog problem although this has noticeably reduced in the past few years thanks to the work done by KAT. It is very important work as rabies is a serious problem when you have dogs roaming the streets amongst people and particularly children. It also helps to reduce the spread of other diseases which has to be a good thing for everybody.

We are working with KAT to introduce a Pets as Therapy program to Kathmandu. You can read more about this on our website - http://www.mitrataa.org/projects/pets_as_therapy.htm. In 2 weeks time we will be taking 3 of the well trained dogs from KAT to the Bal Mandir orphanage to let a small group of children play with them. The long term plan is to have these dogs provide stimulation and support to the disabled children at the orphanage, and then to expand to other orphanages and maybe even hospitals around the valley. We will also be providing a fun education program to the kids on appropriate ways to treat animals and the importance of looking after the health of animals to protect all of us.

As a part of this project we are also helping KAT with their animal education program that they give to school groups who visit the centre. In order to help them with this work we will be taking a small bus of around 10 children to the KAT centre to see the work that they do and also to learn about the importance of this work.

When at the centre yesterday afternoon it was so much fun to see all of the rehabilitated dogs and play with them for a while. Of course there were a number of less healthy dogs and this was difficult to see. In some instances their situation was the direct result of human abuse, an extremely disappointing and frustrating thing to witness. An unusual patient at the centre is a young donkey. It was found discarded in a rubbish pile with a broken leg – the result of being overworked and underfed in a local brickworks. Its situation was dire when it was rescued however it is responding very well to treatment and is surprisingly comfortable with human contact. We are looking at various possibilities for a long term home for her and already have some great potential locations!

If you are ever in Kathmandu, a visit to KAT is well worth your while. It gives you an uplifting and rewarding experience as well as a very different insight into Nepal and its culture.