I have really enjoyed working for the student council of my school. But the activity that has been most meaningful for me is my participation in Spiny Babbler’s “People at Risk”.

Spiny Babbler is primarily an organization that works with the arts. Initially, it produced a magazine named Spiny Babbler but now the organization runs programs and activities for people at risk. Among its various programs, People at Risk focuses on helping children and patients who are physically, mentally, and emotionally at risk.

Under this program, I have been visiting the surgical ward of the Kanti Children’s Hospital in Kathmandu for the past few months where I try to get the patients to express themselves artistically through drawing and coloring.

I, along with my friend Dharana, started going their since the last week of July 2004. The first few days were difficult. The Kanti Children’s Hospital’s surgical ward is a chaotic place, unlike the calm and organized place I had imagined it would be. Children writhed in pain, nurses moved around hurriedly, and there were only a few doctors attending to a large number of patients. No one was really concerned about who we were and why we were there. Sister Basanti, the head nurse, who at first showed great interest when we proposed to spend our time with the children in the surgical ward, was very busy with her work. So in the beginning we did not know how to get to know the children better.

Deepika Shrestha, a ten-year-old girl from Gorkha (a district in West Nepal), was the first child I got to know at the hospital. She had been admitted because of an abdominal problem and would be operated on in a few weeks. This information was provided by her father. She, on the other hand, was a very shy girl and hardly said anything. But she did say that she liked drawing. So I gave her paper and colors and she started making typical ten-year-old drawings: houses with thatched roofs, temples and hills. And then she and I started coloring them. We made a bright and colorful Nepali village.

In the following weeks, before Deepika had her operation and was discharged from the surgical ward, I got to know that she liked plums, singing, and butterflies. She was not a shy girl any more and I had made a new friend.

We go to the hospital every Tuesday and Thursday. The patients keep changing so it is difficult to get to know the children better. But some of them, like Deepika, stay for relatively longer periods than the others so it is easier to build friendships with them. Sometimes I wonder whether the time I spend with the children, encouraging them to draw and color is helping them in any way. But when I see the joy on their faces when we walk into the surgical ward makes all the difference - These are the times when I feel that they really appreciate what we do there.

I have worked very hard for the student council, raised funds, helped to organize functions, and informed students about the council’s activities, etc. I have also worked for other clubs. But it is in the surgical ward that I got the opportunity to know and befriend many wonderful children from all over Nepal. And this experience has been very satisfying and meaningful.