“SANO NANI” means “little child” and it is precisely for small children that we wanted to build our own orphanage. Unfortunately, it became immediately clear that building a house from scratch would have been too expensive. Also, after the first contact with bureaucracy and the strict regulations protecting minors, we realized that it wouldn’t work out. So we opted for a different project offering a home to children whose parents were in trouble. So that’s what we did! We started to look for a place big enough to house at least 25 children and we found a very good one. It is the green house you can see in some of the pictures on our website and on social networks. It is not easy for us to count all the volunteers who helped us to renovate this house and to transform it into a livable, welcoming and functional home: builders, plumbers, painters and carpenters, all wonderful people who came to Nepal just to help us, all for free. The importance of their help is enormous and invaluable: thanks to them Sanonani House is now a reality offering to children of different ages a comfortable home, regular meals, warm clothes and adequate schooling in a protected and safe environment.
In Summer 2017, after a change of government and the coming of new laws, we decided to enlarge our project and to face up to the long bureaucratic battle to become an authorized and operative orphanage. Apeiron in Nepal, we managed to present a three year project to the SWC (Social Welfare Council) knowing very well that we would have had a long wait before receiving any authorization. At the end of the year the good news finally arrived: the project had been approved! With this new status, we needed new reference figures and we now have a manager, a supervisor and a psychologist. Two part time teachers assist the children with their homeworks and two caregivers manage the daily house keeping chores and cooking for our little guests. Some of our children have been exposed to very difficult experiences and need kind understanding figures in their lives. Gamini and Pasang, our caregivers, are a constant presence in the house and they very dedicatedly look after the children all day long. We get from these children far more than we give: their positive attitude motivates us every day more and more.
