Sunrise Nima, Nepal.
“As soon as I could walk, I worked in the fields. It was hard. I was badly dressed, poorly fed, uncultivated. I never went to school, but I was too curious to see other places, so when I turned 16, I left the countryside for the big city, Kathmandu”. Nima Sherpini
Brave and relentless to the task, Nima strolled and climbed all the steps in about ten years and then became a guide. She faced the altitude, the ravines, the weight of the bags and the pain until she accomplished her dream: creating her own trekking agency in 1995. Now, at 60 years old, she helps many children. ”I know the situation of the carriers. I know what to do to help them.” Thus she created a foundation, to help the children from villages of the Rolwaling region in their schooling. A gift also extended to the children of her employees : “I give them the chance I never had.”
Created in 2011, the Sunrise Nima Child Care Foundation’s goal is to collect the necessary funds to provide shelter, food, medical care, studies and school materials to the children. Some of them are orphans, some others just with parents that can’t provide a good education. The foundation is located in a neighborhood of Kathmandu, up on the hills, called Balaju. Depending of the years, there could be between 15 to 20 chilren, from very young child to young adult. Nima and her husband Purna offer the opportunity of schooling and of an opening of doors which will allow the beneficiaries to both build a future and find good employment. One often says that the future of a country relies on the education of his children, in the eyes of his youth.
Focusing and starting from the foundation in Balaju, Kathmandu, i tried to have a more global context, to understand what could influence the lives of these kids. So i have met different kind of people and locations in various part of Nepal where the children of the foundation have only gone in their life so far : Kathmandu and its valley, Pokhara in front of the Annapurnas, the National Park of Chitwan near the border of India. From the messy high mountains to the flat expanse of the jungle.
But i wanted also the children to be part of this photographic project. So i gave them analogue/film disposable cameras and told them to make photos of the foundation, their "home", when i was not there. That they were totally free to make pictures of what they want. It shows an insight that of course i wouldn't have been able to have. The insight of children in their total privacy.
You can help the foundation with donation by contacting them directly here : http://snccf.blogspot.fr
