Meet the Children

Maya | Maya's story is one of love, hope, and the true meaning of family – amid ruins of many sorts.

When we found Maya, she was living on the open patio of this temple building that literally was about to collapse. The place was a ruin. The brick walls had lost their mortar long ago and were caving in. The only heat came from a rough fire in the corner that she and an elderly man she called her grandfather – her only guardian, though not a blood relative – tried to use for cooking.

We don't know how old Maya is, though she seemed about five years old when we met her. Like many impoverished Nepalese children, no one had recorded her birth date. But in all our years working in Nepal, we had hardly seen a brighter, more joyous child, in spite of terrible circumstances. Her mother had disappeared shortly after her birth; her father left a couple of years later. Maya was left to the care of her "grandfather" – an elderly man who, many years earlier, had cared similarly for Maya's father. Maya had good fortune in this respect, at least compared to other NYF children. Her grandfather might not have had worldly means and struggled with health problems of his own, but she had love.

Maya, in fact, was the light of his life. He adored her. So when one of NYF's Nepalese volunteers discovered Maya and suggested that she come to live at K House and receive an education, he faced a tough decision. If he let her go, he would no longer get to see his little girl every day.

He loved her enough to let her go. Maya entered K House and suddenly had a large new family of sisters. Unlike some children when they first enter J or K House, Maya didn't have a hard time adjusting or learning to trust her new situation. She already knew what it was like to be loved. She was so vivacious that she soon became a favorite of the house. She immediately took to school and recited the alphabet constantly, proud of her skill.

NYF takes great care to keep families together whenever possible, and K House invited Maya's grandfather to visit often, which has worked out to about once a week. The grandfather sometimes has dinner at K House, and NYF has tried to provide some basic help to him as well. When he arrives, Maya runs up and jumps into his arms.

Then another person appeared, and Maya was soon jumping into her arms too. On a visit to Nepal, one of NYF's Board members fell in love with Maya (which is easy to do) and decided to sponsor her, which would be a commitment for years into the future. The Board member asked to meet the grandfather as well so that the grandfather could be personally assured that Maya would be cared for over the long term. The Board member also wanted Maya to see that her sponsor and her grandfather had met, so that Maya would not feel a conflict in her love for either of them.

NYF arranged the meeting (the grandfather came to dinner). But when he arrived, he had tears in his eyes; he feared that the Board member had come to take his little girl far away to the United States. NYF's Board member hastened to explain that Maya would stay right here at K House, and that he could visit as often as he wanted. Then the Board member took some photos of Maya and the grandfather, as well as some of the three of them together. Later those photos were sent to Maya and her grandfather, who had never had a picture of his girl. Maya sleeps with the picture of both of them.

Families take many forms: A grandfather who is related by love, not blood, and releases a child as a supreme act of generosity. A whole house full of new "sisters." A faraway sponsor committed to her Nepalese child. Love is what makes NYF's children's homes so successful.

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