Bratabandha at our Annapurna Children's Home

This week we celebrated the rite of passage 'Bratabandha' for 9 of our boys (Sofal, Sagar, Samyog, Ujiwal, Ravi, Sushil, Shuvas, Bushan & Sonam) at our Annapurna Children Home. This is a sacred Hindu ritual that makes the passage from child to young man and includes counseling and guidance from the priests and elder men in the family (in our case it was some of our school teachers!) including a secret mantra to guide them in life. The ritual includes several steps which symbolize taking care of ones body, mind and energy, stepping out into the world but also returning to family, respecting and caring for them. The sisters, aunties and mothers prepare a feast to symbolize sustaining the young man in his life journey. It also includes enjoying the feasting (which included ice-cream from and many blessings too! It was so heart touching to see these boys/young men reflect and take in this rite of passage to witness and share - profound moments in life journeys ♥♥ We also wish to extend a very heartfelt thank you to the community members in Batulechour who came and celebrated with us and passed on so many blessings to our young men – plus we make a special thank you to Beni Basnet for his encouragement and sincere input for our continued success and future developments! With this heartfelt and good support our children evolve and mature into healthy young adults who contribute back into the community :-) We also extend a very warm thank you to all our board members and neighbours who gave a great helping hand in so many ways making this celebration such a wonderful success!