The story of the Forget Me Not Childrens Home in Nepal was told to Rotarians of D9640 at the October meeting of RAWCS. In what was an inspiring presentation Rotarian Lars Olsen spoke with passion about this project which was his brainchild in 2006.

The Forget Me Not home focuses on providing a family structure for each of the children in their care. The children are educated in great schools and they are provided with a secure environment where kids are free to be kids.

The program has grown to support projects in Nepal and Uganda, and there is a child sponsorship program available, which offers a unique and personal connection unlike any other.

Please read the full story by clicking on the read more button below.

Lars and Lawrie Beacham from the Rotary Club of Hervey Bay Sunrise have recently returned from working on a Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS) project at Rani Pauwa (26 kilometres from Kathmandu) in Nepal.

Contending with biting spiders, rain, no formal toilets, cold water washes instead of showers, lack of machinery and the remote location they have been constructing stone walls as retainers on the roadway that travels through what will eventually be an eco-friendly, sustainable village which will support 60 children and employ 10-15 local Nepali staff.

The dream of Forget Me Not Children’s Home founder and now Rotarian Lars Olsen has been many years in the planning and now following the purchase 2 years ago of over 27,000 sq metres of land and with the second RAWCS working party to travel there in the past 12 months is starting to come to fruition.

Six of the volunteers were from Hervey Bay, Qld and 2 from Mooroolbark, Vic. All the digging and preparation was by hand including the mixing of the sand and cement and breaking and placement of the large rocks that were trucked 6 ton at a time from a quarry 15 kilometres away.

On behalf of the Rotary Club of Hervey Bay City they presented a projector to the local school of Rani Pauwa (955 students) and during a rather formal ceremony with the head master and teachers were invited back on to present an Aussie musical recital with guitar, didgeridoo and drums.

With assistance from 2 Nepalese stone masons (known as mysteries) and 2 labourers they were able to complete one wall 14 metres in length and 2.5 metres high beginning with an underground foundation of 1.2 metres wide and tapering to 600mm at the top and 22 metres of a 74 metre wall in the first 7 days.

They completed 855 hours of hard labour even with some downtime caused by sickness and fatigue. Locals will complete the job within the next few weeks and by then 240 tonne of rocks and 96 tons of river sand will have been used in the 114 metres of wall and 132 metres of drain construction.

Rain and cold along with tents not quite suitable for the job at hand slowed their efforts but they took advantage of the “down time” to spend some enthralling hours visiting the 21 girls at the Forget Me Not Children’s Home in Kathmandu itself. Dubbed the “house of Love” by the volunteers they were totally immersed in the aura of the girls and staff and enjoyed many hours of laughter, dancing and food preparation.

Forget Me Not Children's Home first opened their door in Nepal to 6 girls in January 2006, then in Dec 2006 10 girls moved to a new large house. They now support 21 little girls and six local orphanage staff in Nepal. They also run a sponsorship program supporting a Ugandan children's home of 39 children.

For more info visit http://www.forgetmenot.org.au