Nepal is among the poorest and least developed countries in the world, with almost one-quarter of its population living below the poverty line. Every day we see children begging throughout Kathmandu. The other day we headed into Thamel, an area where you find many tourists. On our way through the crazy busy streets where every shop owner is attempting to sell you everything from fake North Face to prayer wheels we were approached by homeless children begging. They put on their gorgeous smiles and look at you with their big eyes. We are constantly told not to give them money. On this particular evening, there were a group of boys. We saw two fighting in the streets and then realized the reason why – glue. Many are addicted to glue. They were all between 8 and 14 and were high on drugs.
They asked if we’d buy them rice, so we took them to a little restaurant nearby and gave the money to the waiter to feed them.
Yesterday we visited a Buddhist Stupa where we saw one little homeless girl who followed us around. I took this photo of her just looking at our girls and couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened to them?
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