Travel to Jharkhand (northeast India) and Nepal in March 2024

This trip, carried out on a personal basis and at my expense, aimed to see on site, with my own eyes, the developments and results of the projects carried out in these disadvantaged regions by the Ciao Kids Foundation.

This account is not intended to be exhaustive. To do this, you must read the reports regularly published by the Foundation. I simply want to recount a few highlights that particularly impressed me.

La joie de vivre d’une enfant aveugle

We are in the courtyard of the school for blind children in our Amar Jyoti center. An Ignatian sister who accompanies us hails a little girl and a little boy of about 10 years old who come hand in hand to greet us. Both have ear-to-ear smiles that demonstrate their joy of living and being surrounded by this school. We are told that the little girl is totally blind, while the little boy is “only” visually impaired. They both move in pairs, one helping the other to find their way.

We’ll see them again later. All the students prepared a small demonstration of their talents. The little blind girl sits on a stool and beats rhythmically on two drums placed at her side. He looks like an angel from heaven. As I write this text, three months later, tears invade me again.

Securing the food supply of a remote village

We are taken by women from this village who are part of a self-help group. They are very proud to show us the well they dug and the pump system that brings water to the fields to irrigate them. Thanks to the help of the Foundation and the savings that they themselves have built up as a group, they can supply the village with fruits and vegetables and even sell a surplus part of the harvest outside.

If we know that it was almost 50° Celsius in the Delhi region (same latitude) in May this year, we can imagine what the state of these crops would have been without this irrigation system.

Hot meals in schools in Sindhupalchok, northeast of Kathmandu

It’s time for lunch. A good hundred children are lining up to receive their portion of a hot, healthy and nutritionally balanced meal prepared by cooks paid by the Foundation. They are happy with this moment and do not regret the time when they had to return home to feed. Most no longer return to school in the afternoon.

More than 800 children are fed each school day, ensuring a balanced diet for each of these students.

These children all lost loved ones during the terrible earthquake that devastated their region in 2015. However, their smile and their cheerfulness are the just reward for the efforts and support deployed for them since then.

I could tell you many other anecdotes. But these are enough to demonstrate that the Foundation’s support is largely fruitful. We are forced to limit ourselves to doing what we can within our budget. By being there, we quickly realize that the needs are immense and that we could do better with a larger budget. So help us improve and achieve this! Thanks in advance for them.

Claude-Alain Dumont