Libby Hathorn inspires our girls with poetry

Well-known Australian children’s author, Libby Hathorn, has been a wonderful supporter of Mitrataa for a long time now, beginning with her support of 100 Views Kathmandu in 2008. She visited Kathmandu again in November, with her friend Sandra, to again share her creativity with us. In addition to working with the illustrator of her children’s book called Sangita’s Singing which was inspired by her first visit in 2008, she is also exploring a short film based on the book to help raise funds for Mitrataa. She managed to fit in time to run a poetry workshop for some of the girls at Bal Mandir and we were very happy (but not surprised!) to discover that we have some budding poets in our midst! The girls all threw themselves into the workshop as they imagined themselves as a river flowing down through the Himalayas and then explored the sounds, smells, sights of the river’s journey to write poems.

Thanks, Libby, for all your support and energy. You are an inspiration!

Wiley Runs for the Biggest Dream Yet!

John Wiley & Sons is one of our closest partners and we love working with them so much. They embrace everything that Mitrataa stands for – following dreams, creating friendships and networks and building on what is already working to become even better.

Over the last few years, Wiley has sponsored our Wiley Dream Centre in Chandol, our Wiley Women’s Dream Centre in Gyaneshwor and our soon to be Resource Centre at Bal Mandir Children’s Home.

Every year they hold a wonderful fundraising event for us called “Run for a Dream”. They invite all their Singapore employees to get involved as well as all their local partners, so it’s a complete Wiley family event and so many volunteers really make the event happen (the team are in the photo in their red shirts with the Executive Director). They provide opportunities for other offices to get involved too – through online auctions and opportunities to pledge support for the Singapore team.

This year they outdid themselves, raising S$32,000 for Mitrataa! We were so excited! Unfortunately, Bec was unable to attend at the last minute so Gemma Glynn stepped in to receive the wonderful cheque. Thanks, Gem! The money from this year will be spent on education and tuition facilities at Bal Mandir Naxal Children’s Home, in line with Wiley’s commitment to education.

Thanks so much to Eleanor and Lisa for all their wonderful work – you inspire us constantly with your passion, energy and commitment to Mitrataa. And thanks to all the Wiley team for continuing to believe in Mitrataa and our partnership with Wiley. We look forward to continuing to work with you and to updating you on the latest developments in Nepal!

Update!

It is about time to update all our wonderful supporters on our progress at Naxal Children’s Home. Apologies for the lack of postings recently – we have had our heads down and tails up for the last few months, topping it off with Dashain Celebrations recently. So, firstly, you can read our “3 Month Celebrations” here which gives you a flavour of what we’ve been focused on for the first few months. As you can see, our priorities have been nutrition, hygiene, security and education for the children.

We recently had a team from Spain visit for a month – they come every Dashain to teach the kids dance and do various activities with them. They left on Sunday after a wonderful celebration of dance and shadow puppets stories. Jose Luis, the team leader, commented on how much energy and enthusiasm have this year and that he can really see the difference in them which was lovely to hear. Thank you to the team for all your passion and energy – the kids had so much fun!

We also took 6 of our 2 year olds to the Garden of Dreams for their first outing. They loved every minute of it and were so good. It’s good to get them out of the home and into the world and we hope to organise more of these activities for them.

Lastly, many of our supporters have asked how they can help. We would love some help with fundraising and there are easy ways to do this – you could start by giving up one cup of coffee a week and encouraging 9 friends to do the same. In a year, you’ll then raise enough to cover a salary for one of our wonderful house mothers. More details by clicking on the image on the left. Or with Christmas around the corner, you could set up an Everyday Hero page and ask friends and family to donate to Mitrataa rather than buying presents. Let us know if you need any more information – we’re here to support your fundraising efforts however we can!

Thank you all for your wonderful support. We couldn’t do the work we do without you and, on behalf of the kids and the Mitrataa team, THANK YOU!

St Cath's and Mitrataa in the Sun Herald

There was an independent schools section in last Sunday's (31st July) Sun Herald and it included an article on St Catherine's in Waverley and in particular their work with Mitrataa.

The school has sent a number of groups to Nepal so far with more in the planning. The trips always provide an amazing opportunity for the girls to see a different side to the world and I'm sure they always come home changed forever.

Our thanks go to St Cath's and in particular Sarah Hatch, the teacher responsible for the service program and organising the trips, and for the wonderful write-up in the paper.

You can click on the image below to enlarge it to read, or email me and I will gladly send you a copy of the article.

St Cath's models leadership and motivation in the Dream Centres

From Bec in Kathmandu:


Our friends from St Catherine’s in Waverley sent another wonderful group of 12 girls from years 10 and 11 to spend a week in our Dream Centres recently. The girls were accompanied by teachers Sarah Hatch (who was returning for the second year) and Julie Park (who was on her first trip) and by Mitrataa board member, Sarah Bartram. After a few days trekking, the girls went straight to work attending our Dream Centre Picnic for all our recent and past Dream Centre graduate girls. We had almost 100 girls on the day which got off to a great start with lots of games organised by the St Cath’s girls. We then had a slight mishap as a huge storm rolled in and we sheltered under the marquee. The girls engaged in some singing games as the mud rolled down the hill and through our sheltering place. As the roof collapsed for the second time, we decided it was time to move everyone to the buses where we continued with some singing including the teaching of Home Among the Gum Trees and some Nepali classics. After our improvised bus party, the rain cleared and we all headed back for some well-deserved lunch followed by an afternoon of ball games. At 3pm everyone loaded onto the buses exhausted but having made some great new friends and had lots of fun. These picnics, as well as being a great opportunity for our girls to interact with the Australian volunteers and practise their English, are a rare day for the girls to just be kids and run around and enjoy themselves. Many of the girls in our Dream Centres are domestic workers who do not often get a chance to relax and enjoy themselves like this.

The team from St Cath’s then ran a workshop on leadership in each of our 3 Dream Centres. This is one of the most difficult life skills for the girls to grasp so it was fantastic for them to have some interesting and varied new activities to practise with. The girls started with a game of “Guess the Leader” before brainstorming leadership qualities and examples of great leaders. They then identified their own strengths and leadership qualities to share with the group.  They then settled in for some reading aloud before finishing with a game of Human Knots which is always popular.

On the Saturday, we held a combined session for all our most recent graduates from the 3 Centres at the Wiley Dream Centre in Chandol on the very important topic of Motivation, another one of our crucial life skills. Watching both the St Cath’s girls and our Dream Centre girls grow in their confidence over the week together was inspiring and is what I love the most about these programs. Some fantastic friendships were made and there were some tears as the groups farewelled each other.

For their last day, St Cath’s group hosted a trivia competition for classes 1-10 at Riviera, our Model School, to free the teachers for a training session (more on this shortly). It was a good opportunity for the volunteers to see a different type of school where students’ English and general knowledge is far better than those in the Dream Centres who are studying in government schools which teach in Nepali. Their energy on this last challenging day was fantastic.

We always enjoy having the St Cath’s girls here and this year was no exception. Their energy and enthusiasm for trying new things and dealing with difficult situations not only inspired me but really impacted the Dream Centre girls. Thanks to Sarah Hatch and Julie Park for leading the group and to the girls for their wonderful work. We look forward to continuing to grow our relationship with St Cath’s.


More photos can be found on our facebook page.  

It’s not only our Nepali girls who achieve their dreams!

From Bec in Kathmandu...


Tori McCarten and Amelia Baker from Lithgow, NSW, are true leaders – they were inspired by a challenge I set when I gave a presentation at Women’s College last May. I challenged all the girls present to follow their dreams and to step forward and take action to change the world. By the time Tori and Amelia had reached home on the train, they had made the decision to come to Nepal and recently they took 2 weeks out of their busy Year 12 schedule to come to Nepal and work with Mitrataa and fulfilling that dream. They were accompanied by Jo Reeves. The trio began by attending the Dream Centre graduations where they taught the girls Incy Wincy Spider which was a popular choice! They spent some time with the girls at Bal Mandir teaching them volley ball, they stepped in to help facilitate the Fashion Workshops when our fashion expert fell ill.

Then their true colours shone through when they ran 3 workshops for a mixed group of our girls – 3 girls from each of our Dream Centres, 3 of our Project Snow Leopard girls and around 8 of the girls who are studying at Riviera, our Model School. The workshops were run at Riviera for 3 half days. The first was on “Accepting and Understanding Yourself” and the girls learned about how to respect and like yourself for your star qualities. The next workshop was based around team work and, with a game of basketball and writing of poems, the group really cemented some new friendships. The final workshop was “Creative Story Telling” and the girls wrote some fantastic stories in groups, practising their teamwork skills from the previous workshop. We’ll be publishing some of these stories on our website shortly. All of our Mitrataa girls loves the workshops and came away with new confidence, new inspiration and having had a lot of fun!

I am really proud of Tori and Amelia for following their dream. They definitely faced some challenges in Kathmandu but they really stepped up and I know they had a huge impact on a lot of people during their time over here. Thank you, guys. You were amazing! Keep dreaming big!

 

Great way to become involved - become an Everyday Hero!

We had a wonderful problem (if there is such a thing!). People kept asking us how they could help us with fundraising. So we have joined forces with Everyday Hero to make it even easier for everyone to contribute to our work through fundraising.

Through Everyday Hero you can set up your own fundraising page so that if, for example, you take part in the upcoming Sydney Morning Herald Half Marathon, it is easy for you create your own web page which can then be emailed to all of your friends asking them to sponsor you with their donations going to Mitrataa. Everyday Hero make the collection of donations easy as people simply follow the links from your page and enter their payment details. The site collects the donations, automatically issues the receipts, and then passes the funds on to Mitrataa.

Your fundraising page is personalised with a photo as well as whatever information you would like to put there, including the reasons for your participation. You are able to set yourself a fundraising target and then log in from time to time to see how you are going.

From my own experience doing this for the city2surf last year I can honestly say that asking people for support and monitoring my fundraising target was also a great motivator to keep training for the big day!

Some upcoming events you might consider joining include:

• The Sun-Herald Surf Swim at Dee Why on 13^th March
• The Canberra Times Canberra Marathon on 9^th & 10^th April
• The Sydney Morning Herald Half Marathon on 15^th May
• Run Melbourne, presented by The Age on 17^th July

Or perhaps there is a smaller event in your local area which you could join.

You don’t need to be running a marathon though to help fundraise for us! You can set up a personal fundraising page for anything eg. if you are having a birthday and want to encourage your friends and family to donate to Mitrataa rather than giving you presents. Or if you have a goal that you want to achieve and need some motivation to help you get there!

2010 was a very successful year for us but we still have so much more work to do. With your help we can continue to reach more and more of the amazing women and girls in Nepal who just need that little bit of help up to really spread their wings and follow their dreams. Every little bit you raise helps!

Visit the Everyday Hero site to see how you can create your own fundraising page (remembering to add Mitrataa as your chosen charity!) or email me (adam@mitrataa.org) and I can help you with the set up or any questions you may have. Don’t forget, all donations to Mitrataa are fully tax deductible too.

Thank you in advance for your support,

Adam. 

Project Snow Leopard part 3

Once back in Kathmandu we had two more workshops with the Project Snow Leopard girls at Bal Mandir. Linda reviewed their photos from Pokhara and discussed some of the best ones with the group. The girls always love to see their work displayed on the big projector screen!

The last outing for the girls was a day trip to Panauti, a traditional old Newar village about an hour from Kathmandu. There we took the girls on a walk around the town to see the sights including some stunning old temples, pokey little cobbled alleyways, and lots of ducks, chickens and pigs. Panauti sits on the confluence of two rivers so there were lots of photo opportunities there too with many people bathing and doing their washing on the banks.

Throughout the course of this trip we had also assigned ‘official photographer’ positions to each of the girls at the various programs that were held. The last of these was the Daisy Chains Women’s Project conference and picnic, also held in Panauti. Three of the Snow Leopard girls joined us for the day and their brief was to take lots of photos that captured the mood of the day and ‘told the story’ of the women. In addition to this the girls did a fantastic job of assisting with translation work during the formal parts of the program.

That concluded phase two of Project Snow Leopard and it was fantastic to see not only the development of the girls’ photography skills but also their growth in confidence, communication and leadership. We are planning the next set of workshops for March/April next year and the girls are already excited about Linda’s next visit!

We are presently working with the assistance of John Wiley & Sons on gift cards using the girls’ photos which we will be selling as a fundraiser. Also, as the girls continue to amass a very impressive collection of photos we will be starting work on a book highlighting their achievements so look out for that late next year or early 2012.

Our thanks as always to Linda for all of the time and energy she has put into the project.

  

Project Snow Leopard part 2

Following an amazing morning of mountain views at Sarangkot, we took the Project Snow Leopard girls to the lake at Pokhara for an adventure they could never have imagined – catching a row boat to the other side of the lake! Swimming and water sports are not common leisure activities in Nepal so many of the girls were quite daunted by the prospect of venturing out onto the beautiful lake in a small wooden boat. However once out on the lake most of the girls were able to relax and enjoy the amazing views back to shore and to the hills and mountains behind. Pokhara is a popular adventure sport destination and from the lake we were also able to enjoy the views of some crazy people para-hawking and hang-gliding from nearby hills!

After around half an hour on the water all 4 boats landed on the opposite shore. It was then time for the real stress to begin as we had to trek up a fairly steep and rocky track for about an hour to reach the top of the hill. We were however, rewarded at the top with stunning views over the lake, the Pokhara township and surrounding hills. We could even see back across the valley to Sarangkot where we had been that morning!

In addition to the views, the top of this hill was home to the World Peace Pagoda – a beautiful big pagoda built by the Japanese a few years ago. It was the perfect location for more photos and some group shots to commemorate our trip.

By now the light was fading and it was time to return to our guest house for some well earned dinner and an early night. It had been a fantastic day both for the girls and for us.

The following morning we had one more surprise in store for the girls. They thought they were getting on the bus and going straight back to Kathmandu but we planned a quick stop at another of Pokhara’s famous sights – Devi’s Falls. This is a waterfall with a small blow hole but made famous for the story that a Swiss couple were bathing in a rock pool on the edge only to be washed away during a sudden gush of water. The girls were thrilled to see it as they had been disappointed that they thought they had missed out.

With this final burst of excitement it was now really time to head back to Kathmandu.

More photos from the trip can be found on our facebook page.

  

MLC back in Kathmandu Part 4

The day after the fun and excitement of the Dream Centre picnic, the MLC group spent the afternoon at the Wiley Dream Centre in Chandol.

Prior to the trip, a number of senior students from the school had prepared a Dream Book which contained a series of activities designed to assist the Dream Centre students with the life skills component of the program. The MLC girls split up into groups and worked with girls from the Wiley and Baneshwor Dream Centres through the books. As always there was time for some crazy games such as ‘amoeba’, and also some snack boxes for lunch.

It was a fantastic afternoon and gave each girl in the MLC group the chance to really get to know some of the amazing girls we work with here in Nepal. It gave the Dream Centre girls the opportunity to work on their English and to share their thoughts and ideas with their peers in the wider world.

The following day was the final day of MLC’s program and it was time to open the MLC Dream Centre!

The school had raised the funds to sponsor a new Dream Centre including the running costs for the next 2 years. The centre is located in Koteshwor and when we arrived there were 20 excited girls from the local school eagerly waiting to start their Dream Centre experience.

After group leader, Rosemary King, cut the official ribbon so that we could enter the centre, Bec and Chetana led the group through introductions and some welcome speeches. The Nepali girls were shy and a little nervous of course but the MLC students showed the way and before long everyone was laughing and enjoying themselves. We had arranged for 2 girls each from our two other Dream Centres to come and give short speeches on the things they learned from the program. This was a really inspiring moment to see these girls stand so confidently and share their experiences. One of the girls’ mothers also came to talk about the changes she had seen in her daughter and how proud she felt of her achievements.

Brittany, one of the MLC students, performed a beautiful rendition of ‘Hands’ by Jewel. Standing up to sing, unaccompanied, in front of a room full of strangers is not easy and you could see how impressed the Nepali girls were. The local school principal then gave a short speech, the MLC girls gave a wonderful combined presentation with many inspiring messages for the Nepali girls and Bec spoke about the journey these girls were about to embark upon and the importance of having dreams.

After some quick votes of thanks it was time for the party to begin, starting with a special layered sponge cake decorated for the occasion, and cut by Rosemary on behalf of the MLC group. There were also cookies and plenty of soft drink. The MLC girls also presented a number of beautiful big blankets that had been made by students from the school back in Sydney. As we come into winter in Nepal these will be well used! The group also presented some pencil cases fully equipped with pens, pencils and all the things the Dream Centre girls will need to get the most from their studies.

Our immense gratitude and thanks must go to Rosemary, the MLC girls who visited us in Nepal, the wider MLC family who all contributed to this trip and made the MLC Dream Centre a reality, and especially MLC’s principal, Ms Barbara Stone, who personally donated the remaining funds to get the centre started. We look forward to sharing the updates with you of the ways in which the centre will no doubt change the lives of many girls in Nepal.

 More photos from the MLC Dream Centre opening can be found on our facebook page.

MLC back in Kathmandu Part 3

The final part of the MLC group’s program in Nepal was working with our Dream Centre girls and culminated in the opening of the MLC Dream Centre.

For the first day we took around 60 graduates from the Dream Centre program to Thangkot for an activities day and picnic. This provided a great chance for the MLC girls to get to know the Nepali girls in a fun and relaxed environment. Breakfast was served as soon as we arrived at the park and then everyone was allocated a team number. It was then straight into team building activities with the first being a getting to know you game in which each team member had to learn the name, age, school and favourite hobby of each of their team mates. Once these new connections had been made the groups had to choose a team name which always brings some fun and unusual results!

The first ‘serious’ activity of the day involved each team having to design an outfit made entirely of newspaper and dress one team member in it. We gave each team some small strips of crepe paper to add a little colour and the craziness began. We saw everything from dresses, skirts and shoes to handbags, watches and earrings! The girls had so much fun and really had to work as a team to achieve a good result. It was a good chance to illustrate how creative you can be even with minimal and inexpensive resources. They knew the stakes were high as there was to be a fashion parade with prizes for the best outfits. Once all of the entrants were complete we lined them up on a pathway in the park and had everyone else stand on each side and then the girls paraded their teams’ designs up and down the ‘runway’. We had everyone clicking the cameras furiously to create the fashion parade effect and the entire group were in stitches of laughter. Winners were chosen, the prizes (chuppa chups and chocolates) were presented to the winning teams and everyone was congratulated on a fantastic effort and some great entertainment!

With no time to rest the groups were then split with half going to play ball games while the other half played a crazy version of fruit salad. All of these games had been prepared and were led by the MLC girls. The ball games – captain ball, tunnel ball and under/over – were complete chaos as the teams frantically raced to be the fastest. Fruit salad was not much better with the numbers hidden in a ‘story’ so that the girls really had to listen carefully to see if their number was called. At times it was hard to tell whether games were being played at all or whether there were just 70 girls running around screaming – the sign of a great program!

By now with the sun high in the sky the girls were thoroughly exhausted and it was time to sit and enjoy some dahl bhat for lunch. This was the que for some very well-fed looking dogs to start hanging around, but they didn’t have much success as everyone ate all of their lunch and many went back for seconds.

Now replenished it was time for all the groups to come together for some larger games such as ‘bang’ and bull rush. I don’t know how the MLC girls or the Dream Centre girls had the energy but they went on running, screaming and laughing for another 2 hours. I think they would have continued into the evening but as the shadows began to grow longer it and the day became cooler it was time to return to the buses for the trip back to Kathmandu. No doubt all involved would sleep well that night!

The day was a great success and a fantastic opportunity for the MLC group to meet Nepali girls from a variety of different backgrounds and see the importance of programs such as the Dream Centres’ ‘skills for learning, skills for life’.

To be continued…

MLC back in Kathmandu Part 1

A group of 9 students from MLC School, Sydney have once again been working with us in Kathmandu. Arriving on the 16^th of October they spent 7 days with us on a mix of service work and cultural activities, as well as a few more days doing sightseeing, shopping etc.

After an orientation meeting and a trip to Boudha, the first day of ‘work’ involved an afternoon visit to the child protection home at Bal Mandir. There the girls paired up with similar aged girls from Project Snow Leopard and they spent an hour or so discussing youth issues in Nepal and comparing them with Australia. As well as some obvious differences I think the girls were quite surprised at how similar teenagers are all over the world. Once the girls were feeling comfortable in each others’ company the singing started with rounds of Resham Phiriri bursting out from all over the playground! This was the cue for all the groups to come together for one combined rendition which included dancing and which a couple of the MLC girls attempted to learn. This led into the Macarena which always works to get everyone moving as they try to learn the moves.

By now a large number of other curious children from the home had arrived to join in the fun. The MLC students had prepared a number of larger group games and activities which they started to allow everyone to be involved. It is always amazing to see the way children can learn to play a game without any understanding of the English explanation they were given – play and fun really are universal. All too soon it was time for the Australian group to leave however there was no doubt about the fun and excitement they had brought to Bal Mandir that afternoon.

The following day the group returned for some more work with the Snow Leopard girls. First up was a quiz contest for which the girls were divided into three mixed teams. I gave them a variety of questions covering geography, culture, current affairs, entertainment, maths and logical thinking. All teams did very well and it was a great way for the girls to get to know each other better. After the quiz we divided the group into four teams and gave them two debate questions – it is more important to focus on education than health for the development of Nepal, and women are more important than men for the future of Nepal. Both of these topics had somewhat controversial elements to them and it was fascinating to see the arguments some of the teams came up with.

At the conclusion of the debates it was time for MLC to present the girls from Bal Mandir with some beautiful hand made blankets from the MLC students back in Sydney. The girls were extremely grateful and immediately told us that they would give them to the toddlers and babies in the home as they needed them the most as winter approached. With that, it was time for the MLC girls to depart and begin plans for their next activities in the days to come.

You can see more photos at our facebook page.

To be continued…  

Dream Centres Graduation - Part 2

Last Friday (1^st October) we attended the graduation of the second group of girls from the Wiley Dream Centre in Chandol, Kathmandu. The program was also attended by our volunteer from Scotland, Katya and her daughters, Fern and Clover.

We were taken through the afternoon’s proceedings by 2 girls from the centre acting as MCs, one announced everything in Nepali and the other in English. They had obviously prepared a great deal and they did themselves proud on their big day.

To begin with, each of the girls stood up and introduced themselves in English. This was a huge deal for these girls as many of them struggle with English at school and it was the first time they had to stand in front of others and speak. They all did exceptionally well and it set the tone for an inspiring and happy occasion.

After a speech from the head of the local community group who have provided us with the room for the centre, and a quick speech from me, it was Fern’s turn to wow everyone by giving a short speech she had prepared in Nepali. Both Fern and Clover have been studying at Riviera, our Model School, and the Nepali classes were clearly helping!

It was then time for the serious business of the afternoon – prize giving! Awards were presented in the following categories: Highest Star Achiever, Best Performance, Best Improvement, Most Creative, Most Co-operative, Highest Attendance, Best Speaker and Best Speller. The winners were presented with a special note book and a badge recognising their achievement.

We then presented each of the graduating girls with a certificate and their memory book which they had been working on over the 6 month course. This was a touching moment for these girls and there were a few tears.

Last order of business was the food. Snack boxes were distributed and everyone mingled and shared in the wonderful achievements of this group of girls. It wasn’t long too before the music started and some impromptu dance performances began. As the afternoon drew to a close it was again truly inspiring to reflect on the progress these girls had made and exciting to think of where they will go with their new found skills and confidence.

Thanks must go especially to John Wiley & Sons for their sponsorship of this Dream Centre.

Children's Day @ the Dream Centres

Tuesday, 14^th September was Children’s Day in Nepal and at both Dream Centres it was time to celebrate.

I visited the Baneshwor Centre with a volunteer from Scotland, Katya, and her daughter Clover. The girls at the centre first had a discussion about child rights and some of the things they need to know in order to keep themselves safe in the sometimes difficult situations teenage girls face in Nepal. It was a very interesting discussion for us and a sobering reminder of the challenges faced by girls in the developing world.

The discussion was followed by a quiz contest which brought out the competitive streaks in the girls! I was invited to ask some questions but was unable to trip them up as someone even knew the capital city of Australia was Canberra (most people here think it is Sydney!). Clover delivered chocolates to all the girls for their correct answers.

Some of the girls then sang songs for the group that they had been working on. This was a wonderful display of their improved confidence. Then it was time for the real fun to begin with the whole group singing and dancing.

At the Wiley Dream Centre in Chandol, Bec attended the party with the other half of our Scottish volunteer team, Rufus and Fern. There the girls had each prepared a short speech about some aspect of child rights which they presented to the group. As always it was touching to see girls so young talking about issues of abuse and exploitation, often from personal experience.

It was then time for the ‘candle game’. Candles are placed around the edge of a table and each person must try to light all of them with just one match. Ok, so this probably wouldn’t pass OH&S policy at home but the girls had a lot of fun trying, Fern even had a go!

As with the Baneshwor Centre, the final activity on the program was a round of singing and dancing! A fitting way to end a day of celebration for these amazing girls.

More photos from the day can be found at our facebook page.