Rizal

Rizal b 2011 comes from a very poor family from Kavre district with no land and no animals of its own. Both parents are farm labourers, when there is work, and are uneducated.

Alain met Rizal in 2016 whilst working on the rebuilding project he was sponsoring in their village. The villagers told him that the boy was a menace to the community and that he was for ever getting into trouble. He was not going to school and often did not sleep at his home. His parents, just having had a new baby, had given up and the boy was becoming feral.

Rizal visited the building site every day Alain was there. Slowly the two bonded and soon, Alain realised some of the reasons for the child’s mis-behaviour and saw the potential. He took him under his wing and requested him to help do small tasks on the site. Soon Rizal became more focused and a real need to please became obvious.

One day Alain took him to Namo Buddha School, only to play with other children. The other children we sponsor took him in and made him feel welcome. The next day Alain spoke the parents and proposed to sponsor the boy’s education as a full boarder at the school.

Rizal’s attitude and life have totally changed to the point that his parents and the community cannot recognise him when he goes home on holidays. He has become a most gentle and sensitive child constantly caring for others and sharing all he gets.   

Although a little behind the other students of his age group, this lovely soul is doing well and seems to have taken to coaching and protecting younger boarding children at our school, volunteering to do tasks around the school and the grounds, especially in the very productive organic vegetable plot.