Some of our youths in Kathmandu went to Bhimphedi last November 17th 2017 to organize the second edition of the Balman Market (the first edition was in August 2017).
The children from the centre were really excited with all the products they brought with them and this time they even managed to buy some of the products that were not sold in the first edition.
The youths showed a great more interest for this market than they had showed previously, up to the point were they all wanted to get into “the shop” at the same time.
This was not all, after the Balman Market, the youngsters from the Youth Program coordinated Bhimpedi’s children to prepare a kind of fruit preserve. They prepared 8 jugs of soury radish and lapsi (a seasonal fruit from Nepal)
Why Balman Market is so important to Bhimpedi’s children?
This activities carried out in Bhimpedi Children’s Home helps develop the concept of the culture of effort in child psychology. It is good for the children to learn they have to work and make an effort in order to achieve the goals they have in their lives. At some stage they will have to leave the Shelter’s Home so it is important they realize that we have to work and strive to achieve our goals.
Some skills are needed to carry out such an event, since it means a challenge for all of them, as they need to be able to get over their problems. In spite of organizing this event, it provides the youngsters of the Youth Program with some knowledge on how to coordinate an event, labelling and registering products in an excel file, control the current market, etc… Management students, can gain through fun, several really useful skills.
Why is the food preservation “achar” so important for the children of Bhimpedi?
At present, a coordinated project is being carried out by Agronomy students of UPC, that has the objective of increasing the performance of the vegetable garden. This two year long project is very effective for the students, since it allows them to learn what can be done with the vegetables that are collected and how to treat them. Preserved food is an essential part of daily food supply of Nepal and learning about different techniques of preservation and canning, turns out very useful for the future of the students.
Once again, the youths must organize all of the process: the women from Literacy Program of Kathmandu, write the receipts to prepare the soury preparations and the youths buy all ingredients in Kathmandu. Then they do all the work back in bhimpedi. This system allows diiferent programs of Amics del Nepal to connect and interact.