by Karma Loday

23 September 2008

Kathmandhu, Nepal: Due to the three days of riots that broke out in Kathmandu, UNV in Nepal could not celebrate the International Day of Peace with the children of Prayas on 21 September as planned. However, they still went ahead and celebrated it on 23 September instead, at Sankha Park.

Prayas ('Effort') is a local NGO that encourages Kathmandu's street children to come to their drop-in centre for shelter and food. Running the centre along with other recovering colleagues and volunteers both national and international is Programme Officer Mr. Suren Lama, a recovering addict himself.

Mr. Lama says the goal of the centre is to have these children get out of their glue-sniffing habits and direct them towards a better life by giving them opportunities to go back to schools, vocational institutions or other lines of work.

The centre currently operates on funds from other local NGOs and the private sector. So far it has managed to send eight children back to school, and they are happy there.

The day was opened with a short speech on the importance of the International Day of Peace by Mr. Karma Loday, UNV Programme Support Officer with the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), followed by a speech by Mr. Lama highlighting the importance of peace and volunteerism. At 11 o'clock, a hundred balloons with peace messages to world leaders written by the children were released along with five white doves.

The event was later followed by the children singing the song 'Give peace a chance' by John Lennon. The children were later served lunch, and after that they were all engaged in a kite-flying frenzy. Some smaller children were grumpy, for they could not get their hands on the kites, while the others ran around trying to get the kites in the air.

While some were taking an afternoon nap, some were wrestling in their bare feet and some even without their shirts on. The youngest of all was asked what his name was. and he got back to me saying: "Give me 5 rupees and I will tell!" All in all, they were all occupied, happy and engaged for the day - and not thinking about glue-sniffing. This takes us back to the main strategy of Prayas: to keep the children’s minds occupied and engaged.

The event came to an end at around 14:30 with the distribution of UNV pens, stickers and badges to the participants and the children. The children stuck their stickers on their shirts, just below the badges and said; "This is to tell the police that we can’t be touched when we are in the streets begging." Of course, they were reminded that the stickers and badges mean that they have been good children for the day.

Prayas arranged transportation for the children to get back to the centre. While waiting for the transportation, the children started getting in the taxis that were there to transport the band members and their equipment. At one point around 10 of them got in one small car that was meant for only five passengers. “They just love getting in taxis and travelling”, said Iranzu, one of our former UNV volunteers who is still in Nepal and working with Prayas.

The main idea behind holding this event was to promote two things to the people of Nepal and other local and international NGOs; peace and Prayas. There are more events expected with Prayas in the near future, especially in the fields of promotion and capacity-building for Prayas staff members and volunteers.

The event was witnessed by Christian, UNDP-UNV Programme Officer, Sonia, an ex-UNV programme officer, some UNV volunteers, other members of both local and international NGOs and about 30 Children from Prayas. Last but not least, we would like to thank the UNMIN administration for their support.