Kids Without Stuff

I write another blog, with my daughter Jan, called Kids Without Stuff. In that blog we write about the children at StarShine Academy, where I have volunteered for seven years, and Jan has been principal and now superintendant of the StarShine Schools. We are also writing a book called Kids Without Stuff to be published in the spring of 2012. The following is a post I just wrote for our KWS blog. I would like to share it with you.

There Are Kids Without Stuff all over the world
And volunteers helping them, just like at StarShine. Just this week I heard that my great niece, Stacy has been volunteering at an orphanage in Nepal.
Stacy, an interior designer decided to spend her two week vacation in Nepal. Here are some of her experiences in her own words.

“I walked to the orphanage through the busy and narrow streets. There are 34 children in total . Seven children are pre-school age and there is one baby. I will be spending most of my time with them. The older children are in school. When I first arrived, Krishna who is 2 years old, Himal who is 3, and one boy who normally would be in school but could not attend because he did not have a clean uniform, were playing. I sat and played with them for about an hour. I gave them bouncy balls and covered them in stickers, they loved it. We went outside and I read to them. That is when I met Sony who is 4 year old girl. She came up and jumped in my lap. She held my hands. I learned later that her little friend was recently adopted and she hadn’t been the same since. Later we put together a puzzle.

The next day when I got to the orphanage I was pleasantly surprised to see the children playing outside in the sunshine. They love having their picture taken and then looking at the picture. Later I was upstairs writing with three 5 year old boys when the director’s assistant came in to ask me if I would stay with the baby for awhile. The baby was lying in his bassinet, which is a rusted metal triangular shaped frame that sits on the floor. He was falling asleep when she left the room. Of course the second she walked out he started screaming and crying. I picked him up and held him and started to sing the only lullaby I know. One that my Mom used to sing to me when I was a child. As I sang I lost it. I was sitting on the floor holding the baby and we were crying together.”

Stacy shared some stories about the rest of her time in the orphanage in Nepal. I am so proud of this young professional woman who would give up her vacation and travel so far to help these poor little children without parents. They truly are kids without stuff and Stacy is truly a saint.