Your caring and compassionate heart beats for those you love. You wish for them to have greater opportunities than you did and to live full, healthy and happy lives.
Halfway around the world in Nepal, Laxmi shares that same dream for her young daughters — especially after the nightmarish childhood she endured.
The devastating heartbreak of a child
Laxmi is one of three sisters. This greatly angered her father, who desperately wanted a son. As a result, he abandoned the family.
At just 2 years old, Laxmi went to work with her mother at a local landowner’s house, doing chores like washing clothes, scrubbing dishes and cleaning.
Sadly, at age 7, Laxmi was sent off — frightened and alone — to work as an indentured servant. Once again, she found herself working for a landlord, doing demanding household chores. The work seemed so much harder without her mother there to help her and keep her company. To make matters worse, she earned no income from her work.
Her suffering ended only when the Nepalese government outlawed indentured servitude. She was 14 years old. Think about that for a moment. Laxmi spent nearly her entire childhood working as a servant. Imagine how lonely that must have been!
The impossible chains of poverty
Laxmi, whose childhood was filled with tragedy and extreme poverty, dreams of breaking the cycle and providing a better life for her children.
Finally, as a teenager, a determined Laxmi had a chance to attend school. She earned money by collecting firewood and small rocks to sell.
Her life and the future began to look even brighter when Laxmi met and married a loving man named Binod. They were thrilled when she became pregnant with their first child.
But six months into her pregnancy, tragedy struck. While harvesting leaves and grass to feed their livestock, Laxmi fell out of a tree and lost the baby.
As if this horrible loss wasn’t painful enough for the couple, Laxmi had to have an expensive surgery. They were forced to take out a loan for Laxmi’s medical care with an extremely high interest rate.
Laxmi and Binod had to move from Nepal to India to find work and earn enough money to pay back the loan.
As time passed, Laxmi and Binod had two daughters. Laxmi moved back to Nepal to open a small store to sell snacks in their village. The store was struggling to earn significant income, so Binod stayed in India to work.
“The children would cry … and we couldn’t provide for them,.” shared Laxmi.
The transformative power of your love
Laxmi was determined to make the store a successful income source for her family. Thanks to the gifts of caring friends in faith, like you, Laxmi entered a training program where she learned how to cook popular snacks like samosas — a traditional fried pa
She also learned important business tactics, like proper food hygiene, customer service skills, accurate bookkeeping and how to maximize profits.
Your love also built a critical expansion to her store! Now, customers have a place to sit and enjoy her new food offerings. These improvements doubled her income, and her husband no longer has to travel to India to work. They both work locally and enjoy learning and growing together.
Most importantly, Laxmi and Binod’s daughters are able to enjoy the happy, full childhood that she never had.
“We didn’t get love and affection from our father and mother, but we’ll not let that happen to our children.” Laxmi says.
You are here to show us the way, and you have already shown the way — now it is up to us to step on the path. We are very happy that we were able to move forward with such support.
There are still many mothers around the world like Laxmi, who are working hard to break the relentless cycle of poverty. But they can’t do it without your help.
Will you help mothers like Laxmi break the cycle of poverty?
When you share your compassion, you provide mothers around the world the resources they need to feed, clothe and shelter their children. You are building brighter futures for God’s children!
Thank you for sharing your caring heart with families in need. Your impact will live on for generations to come.
