In April, we celebrated Nepali New Year. It also marked almost exactly a calendar year of lockdowns, school closures, rising infections, and a worsening situation on all fronts for Nepali people. Unfortunately, this new year seems to be bringing more of the same issues and challenges.

However, we do not want to dwell on all that is terrible in this update. In this update we will cover the latest updates related to COVID, but we will also share stories of perseverance, of love, and of hope. We wish those same feelings and wishes for you and your loved ones. Happy New Year!

Rukmini Foundation celebrated Earth day on April 22 in a small program outside Shikharapur School . Rukmini Staff, mentors and Bahinis attended. The purpose was to explain the importance of trees to save the environment and help our planet be a little greener.  Participants were given lemon and guava plants. They will take care of the plant in their garden.

An agricultural technician was brought in to explain how to plant and take care of the fruit tree. The resource person was Ms. Yamuna Khatri from the municipality who demonstrated planting two fruit trees in the school garden.

See our team and the girls doing their part to keep our Earth green

For the past few weeks, COVID infection is rapidly increasing in Nepal, especially in Kathmandu and other big cities. The first wave of infections peaked in October 2020 and since then it “decreased” dramatically. Starting in February of this year, the government decided to open up the economy and everything was allowed to operate at full capacity, including educational institutions.

As most experts had warned, COVID infections are once again spreading like wildfire all across Nepal. Because of the mutant variants, infection rates is now very high and more young people and children are starting to get sick. Most of the ICU and ventilators allocated for COVID patients are occupied and the supply of oxygen is grossly inadequate.

A quick summary of the current COVID situation, how we got here, and what we can do.

This story is about a girl who grew up in a small town, Pharping. About two miles away from her home, there is a famous temple of The Goddess Dakshinkali. Thousands of people visit this temple every year. Many local people have a shop to serve the pilgrims. Puja’s parents also have a shop there. They worship the Goddess every morning before opening the shop. When their second daughter was born, they named her Puja or Pooja, which means Worship in Sanskrit. 

Read our Apri edition of Laxmi's Heroes

In order to end our update on a high note, we wanted to share about Book Day, which takes place the day after Earth Day.

We celebrated World Book Day at Kalika High School by providing small story books to all G.L.O.W. Club members.  The theme of World Book Day was “Share a story”. In order to enhance the habit of reading besides course books, we gave different books to all the participants to read and share the story. We asked them to keep those books in school so that all the students can read  in their free time.

Photos of Book Day