35 year old Anita Yadav was living a content life with her husband, her two sons, and her in-laws in western Nepal. With a third child on the way, Anita and her husband were happy with whatever little they had. However, Anita’s life was soon about to change.
14-year-old Bipani Rai was born with congenital cataracts that were slowly robbing her of her vision. Her school in the remote hills of Nepal did not have any special provision for the visually impaired and Bipani was having a hard time concentrating and couldn’t do her homework. Despite often being excluded from playtime and social occasions, Bipani was cheerful and didn’t lose hope that blindness would not end her educational journey.
One of the underreported tragedies of our time is that nearly 90% of the world’s blind live in low-income countries where poverty and blindness perpetuate in a descending cycle…
When 48-year-old Mai Khanal’s kidneys failed six years ago, doctors said that she would need to undergo regular dialysis. At that time, kidney failure patients in Nepal still had to pay for their dialysis treatment.
63 year old Chandrawati Harijan lives in Mahilwar, Lumbini — 15 minutes west of Maya Devi Temple, the exact place where Lord Buddha was born more than 2500 years ago. Her home is a three room poorly-constructed concrete building which she shares with her husband, son, daughter-in-law, and four grandchildren. Her cattle, one buffalo and a calf share the same space — and one can notice the blurriness in boundaries which force one to ask to what divides her home from the cattle shed.
Growing up, Soorya Mani Rai did not have access to education — there wasn’t a local school in her area, and her parents could not afford to send her away to study. But as it is in the hills of Nepal, there is plenty to do — even for a growing child. She would spend her days grazing the goats, taking care of small household chores, or simply running around her village in a carefree manner.
