Ram Himalayan Children’s Charities Earthquake Victim

<11-year-old Ram now is in grade 3. He lost his mother during the earthquake and now stays with his father, twin brother Laxman, two elder brothers and a younger sister. They live in a very remote, mountainous area that is a half-day walk from the nearest dirt road. Ram’s father, Dal Bahadur, is just now learning the Nepali language (he speaks a local language) and grew up as a subsistence farmer in the high hills of Northern Dhading. Before the earthquake, he was working abroad as a laborer in the Gulf in order to make some money to support his wife and 5 children. As soon as he got the news of the earthquakes and his wife's death, he came back for his children. “Now I spend all of my time cooking for my children, cleaning, and washing their clothes. I do not want to leave my children. I want to be there for my children and give them a good life and education. I am sure that my children will do something great and I will be a proud father.”

Finally the day arrived and we had to arrive at the venue by 3. We rushed to the models and did the final fittings. By that time, Dinesh Uncle, Hira Aunt and Bruce Uncle had arrived. As my sequence was on the 4th we had a huge rush backstage that let me meet them only for a brief minute and we couldn’t even click a picture together. Show started at 7. After the third sequence we had the models change into our designs. Finally, our design was on the runway, and we walked at the end of the sequence with our showstopper, Simpal Kharel. While walking on the runway, there were a huge number of audiences, included; designers, press media, journalists, photographers, ambassadors, etc. After our sequence, we went backstage and we really had a roller coaster of emotions. All those sleepless nights, stresses, no meal days and all the difficulties we went through were finally over. It was worth everything. This concludes my three years of learning and we had the chance to showcase it to the crowd and people. After our sequence we finally had the time to breather. All along these past three months it felt as if somebody had put on something in our neck as we were suffocating but now it felt as if it had been let go. We could breathe in peace.

After the runway we had a huge feast and that tasted like the best meal that I had for the entire life.