My time in Hetauda then, as at Godawari, is spent at the Esther Benjamins Trust's refuge, teaching the children from day to day. The refuge here is home to around 20 circus returnees and whilst some attend school, an unfortuantely high number have missed too many years of their education and are too old to go back to it now. This group of girls receive structured non-formal educaton every day from the local staff, and learn predominently Nepali, English and Maths. It's a good system for them to gain some important skills, but there is always the concern of how they will progress out in the real world without any sort of formal education. I'm spending my time teaching some English, Art and also running a ceramic mosaic course (following my 1 days training in Kathmandu...). Mosaics are potentially a route to a trade and therefore an income for the girls as they grow older, so with a group of recently rescued girls now resident here as well, i'm hoping to start them off towards a future where they can support themselves. Of course the chances of us actually being able to fulfill a large order from the United States when I have only 1 days training, can't communicate with the girls verbally or in writing, and have only a limited number of bathroom tiles with me is a question of some debate, but we'll at least have fun breaking stuff whilst we try.
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