Thoughts from BSF’s Yogesh during this uncertain time

As individuals, as a race, as a species, as families and communities, as cities and countries, we are all experiencing a near existential challenge on a global scale due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ironically, this physical distancing has also brought the whole of humanity much closer together.

For all the pain and grief that the pandemic has inflicted, it has also given us an invaluable epiphany. We are rediscovering our interconnectedness and interdependence as global kin. We are undergoing a rare transformation into a ‘global sangha’, a global community of practice. We are sharing, learning, practicing, and creating fun, enlightening activities and healthy habits together. Thanks to advances in electronic communication and digital tools, connections, communications, and collaboration are still amazingly possible in real-time. This unexpected and unprecedented solitude and distancing have nudged us to dig deeper to find answers to the profound life questions: our relationship with the universe, our purpose on earth, and our relationships with each other and with ourselves.

Yogesh with the Contact Center children before the pandemic hit

All too often, the lessons we learn from any experience are short-lived. Going through this event has the potential experience to expand and enrich our worldview for years to come. We should take to heart the many global public health lessons learned from this pandemic to guide us through all of our future decisions, choices, and behaviors.  

BSF and Mitrata have been working very closely and consistently for many years in providing education, care, nutrition, housing, and psychological and medical support to hundreds of severely underprivileged children in Nepal. These kids come from highly disadvantaged families. They are mostly children of itinerant and migrant workers. The families have landed up in Kathmandu from their villages overcome with poverty and have undergone unspeakable hardships, struggling to buy enough food for their families. They have been in an ongoing pandemic of poverty, vulnerability, and neglect. COVID-19 has only parted the fog so that we are able to more clearly see and feel their pain and that of many million others like them all around the world. Their needs and pain too often go unaddressed by both the market and the policies. As a result, they continue to exist on the margins, often getting forgotten or neglected. And nothing is a more powerful force to support their upward mobility as education.

Through education and by inculcating healthy overall outlook on life, we hope to bring some real positive change to the lives of our children, their families, and to society. We know it is a long game, and our outcomes are distant and nuanced. Their individual journeys with us start as early as their enrollment into the Contact Center and continue on until they graduate from our program, find a career, and achieve stability and financial independence as young adults. Along the way, we try our best to provide normal childhood to our kids which they might be usually deprived because of their difficult backgrounds. That requires us to be constantly mindful of our high-level view as well as low-level view of things as we help our kids acquire an education and training, life skills, and even self confidence and self-esteem.

How exactly the COVID-19 situation is going to pan out over the coming weeks and coming months and how well we are prepared as a country to successfully cope with the crisis is anybody’s guess. With still very low number of confirmed cases and lack of adequate testing, we are preparing in every way we can. Schools and colleges are closed, businesses are shut down, and people are asked to remain indoors unless they have to come out to buy their essentials. Our kids are staying inside with their families, and they are doing their best to comply with the stay-at-home order, but our families often include many members living in a small, one room apartment with very little food or money. And as if that was not enough, they have poor access to proper sanitation and hygiene. 

In a time like this, it is very natural for some of the parents to have concerns regarding their child’s education and the continuation of our support. They are already so much hard pressed in life. As with our children, our coordinators and counselor have been regularly connecting with their parents and guardians, too, because the ongoing disruptions and displacement will very likely render them even more vulnerable tomorrow. They might need greater support. Many will be out of work, jobless for many months, before the economy finally starts to even pick back up. We might have to be more creative in providing our care and support to the children and their families.

A BSF staff meeting

We have no words to express our deepest gratitude to everybody at Mitrata and BSF for the leadership, board, various committees, sponsors, and friends for all your support. The love and affirmations from around the world gives us an enormous uplift. Our BSF staff have been amazing and flexible during this time. Christine is in constant touch with Leena, and they are sharing copious amounts of information, ideas, and updates several times a week to update and inform each other. Thank you all for what you do! 

Finally, I just want to conclude with one of my favorite affirmations from Viktor Frankl as we continue to brave our way through the current crisis:

Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.

Stay safe, stay positive and stay connected. And may you always be blessed!!

— Yogesh Satyal, Chairperson, Bhuvaneshwori Satyal Foundation (BSF)

BSF staff, children, and Karma Thalo volunteers