Celebrating Children’s Day 2017 in Nepal

Children’s Day or Bal Diwas is a National holiday to celebrate children and to highlight the need to protect their welfare and to give them opportunities to grow up happy and safe. We know that not all children receive the same opportunities, so we enjoyed celebrating this program by ensuring boys and girls from all backgrounds had a chance to show off their artistic abilities, have fun with their friends and to enjoy a good meal together. Thank you to our Nepal Team for organizing this beautiful program that celebrates the power of Children.

It was fitting that 2 youths: Bikram (left) and Smirti, a Rukmini Scholar, emceed the program

The program was held at Shikharapur School Event Hall early in the morning and many school children, LitClub members, Rukmini Foundation mentors and staff and others attended the program. The program was hosted by our scholar Smiriti Shrestha and a fellow student Bikram Lama. They started the program by having one of the team members from our music program called Kalaa play some instruments for the audience. This was followed by LitClub Member, Kristina Maharjan presenting a poem about children’s rights.

Kristina inspired the audience with her poem about children’s rights.

Other students: Dikshya Balami, Sarina Balami, Deepika Sthaphit and Diya Basnet also presented their poems. Students: Khusbu Nagarkoti, Susmita Adhikari, Binita Maharjan and Shristee Maharjan shared their essays about the importance of Children’s Day. We were all so proud of our Bahinis for being able to speak aloud to the entire group on this important topic.

Singing and dancing was a big part of the program.

Besides poems and essays, we also had great musical performances thanks to the Kalaa Program. Rukmini Scholar, Sabina Rumba sang a nice song with other Kalaa members. Other members of the Music program, Anish Pudasaini and Biraj Acharaya also presented their song. Some of the LitClub members also presented their arts on the theme of children’s rights.

Talented LitClub members created beautiful posters like this one.

At last, the program was closed by the Kalaa members by playing musical instruments. They played a fusion of traditional and modern instruments and all students participated in singing and dancing. The program was short, but everyone enjoyed it. With great involvement of Kalaa members and LitClub members we celebrated Children’s Day with a lot of happiness. Before we ended the program, all of the children were served with a nice meal of rice and vegetables prepared on-site.

The children enjoyed the nice meal as well as the program.

All of the participants seemed very happy and everyone actively participated in this program.  We think that involving the students to organize and manage their events made it even more successful. Providing such opportunities to students will help building their leadership skills and boost their confidence. Giving children a safe place to enjoy themselves while learning and growing is what Children’s Day is all about, and as mentors we were happy to do that for them.

Puja Pudasaini
Mentor (Didi), Rukmini Foundation