We wish you a Happy New Year!! Thank you everyone who has purchased our 2017 Calendar based on the theme "Let the Children Smile: Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Nepal's Love light Children's Home"! If you haven't already, it's time to start using it!
Child, Mother, Labourer
Two photos, same person, same location, taken two years apart. We first met this girl in 2014 at the slum area in the Dhading District of Nepal. While she was still in her teens, she was already a labourer, a bride, and a mother. We met her again this year, about one year after the great earthquake. She was still there as if nothing had changed. But we noticed that at least one thing had changed. Her once youthful smile had faded away, and the years spent breaking river rocks could never be returned. I wondered, how much longer would she have to continue her days, months, years like this? I wish and pray that we can have more resources to help more people like her to escape the endless cycle of labour and poverty.
Photos: Violin Chan
Words: Joe Lee
Photo taken in 2014
Photo of the same girl taken in 2016
Children Has No Borders
The innocence and purity of children has no borders. We may be from different places. We may speak different languages. Yet when we first meet, they run to me without hesitation and surround me in their circle. They are eager to talk to me, to know me, and to make me their friend. We chat and their enthusiasm escalates, and by the time I offer them snacks, they've already happily accepted me as their own, and it's like we've forgotten all our differences.
Such purity and acceptance is like the Kingdom of Heaven - a place filled with people of pure simplicity, with no boundaries held between anyone.
真正的無國界
兒童的天真、純潔，帶來真正的無國界。雖然他們知道你不是他們其中的一個，聽不明白你的言語；也許是第一次見到，又或者心中有一點怕陌生，但當他們聯群結隊走向你，跟你搭訕，他們就會越來越高興、興奮。你請他們吃東西，他們吃得開開心心，就像自己人。
天國就是這樣純潔及親近，天國充滿孩子一樣純真的成年人。
Words & Photos: Violin Chan
English Translation: Joe Lee