The Padma Organization :: OCAYHN Home

Padma’s current primary project is in conjunction with the Optimistic Children and Youth Home of Nepal, or OCAYHN. This organization was started by a Nepali named Anjit Bista. Before founding OCAYHN, Anjit worked in the internationally funded Shechen Hospital. He designed a substance abuse program, worked with countless battered women, as well as working in the hospice care center filled primarily with AIDS patients. After watching the same impoverished families routinely coming through the doors of the hospital, Anjit decided to work to eliminate the primary cause of these people's suffering: poverty. With a team of others, Anjit designed OCAYHN to take orphaned and impoverished children from their current living situations and place them in a home where adequate services and education could be provided to help stem their rampant illness, and to lighten the load on an overburdened society. After selecting 15 such children, Padma began financial support for OCAYHN to make their dream become reality. In August 2007, 15 children and 4 full time staff members moved into the first OCAYHN home.

It is now the responsibility of Padma to continue financial support so these 15 children can have an opportunity at a decent life. The costs to run the OCAYHN home cover food, school, clothing, recreation, 4 full-time employees, and savings for medical needs and emergencies. The total cost to run the house is $900 a month, breaking down to $60 per child. As the house grows and is able to hold more children the cost per child will decrease. OCAYHN’s goal is to raise a prudent reserve of $10,000 before expanding. Once this is raised, several options for expansion will be considered.