Week 5: 18 - 24 Oct 2010

When a child is abandoned in Nepal, the law requires that the case is reported to the police, who then hands over the child to a child welfare home/orphanage. This was indeed tried when Ghane was born and left by her mother, but noone wanted to take her due to her condition.

THE WAY FORWARD
Dr. Basant Pant's suggestion is as follows: he will now raise the case of Ghane in his network, in order to arrange for a child welfare org to support her after treatment. When this is in place, Christian and I can come forward as sponsors, and I can travel to Kathmandu and be with Ghane through her treatment.

WE THINK the plan sounds viable - it makes sense to try this approach and also, it is understandable if Dr. Pant has some honorable wish to be the driver of Ghane's help, being Nepalese, so that she is not rescued by a couple of foreigners, when capabilities are actually present within Nepal. We fully respect this.

This week, we also received a reply from the Director of Paropakar, who welcomes our help - this is great news, meaning that we now have consent from the formal custody holders (if the hospital can be called such) to take action!

The Dashain festival is ending soon, and Dr. Pant has asked for some time to work on his plan - in the meantime, we are researching orphanages of our own, and there are so many nice and generous orphanage-leaders who want to help as much as they can, they are just not able to take a disabled child.

If only we could get Ghane treated soon and subsequently, stabilised somewhere in an orphanage or other care center. This would give us time to consider if this is a permanent solution for her, or a temporary one. And if temporary, we would then have time to work at the possibilities of giving her the best home she can get: ours!