In 2007 Conor and Stephen started working with an orphanage called CVO in Gongabu. Through the kindness of families and friends back in Ireland they sponsored all of the living costs for the 16 children there and rescued another 4 kids by bringing them there with the help of the Nepali Child Welfare Board. When it was time to leave Nepal they asked Umbrella to manage the finance and funding they had organised from their friends and family and monitor the home. When Umbrella informed the two guys that CVO was not being run to the Umbrella standard the decision was made that the children should be taken from the home and brought under the Umbrella in Swoyambhu.
This April when the newest house was opened for the CVO kids it was a long dream and a lot of hard work realised for Stephen and Conor and an emotional day for the children.
This house is our smallest house with only 20 children so amongst all the other houses named after Himalayan peaks this latest house is aptly named after a small mountain in Co. Wicklow in Ireland, The Sugar Loaf.
All the children are extremely close to each other and to the house parents Dhurba and Niranjan who worked with them in the orphanage in Gogabu and were highly instrumental in their rescue and resettlement here at Umbrella.
There are also five children who moved from SolHimal girls and two older brothers; Netra and Ashok who moved from Annapurna house where they were a little unsettled. They really seem to have found their place as big brothers in Sugar Loaf and the responsibility of helping to teach, discipline and entertain the other children is as beneficial to them as it is the younger children.
The eleven boys rescued from Gongabu came with six girls who are now happily living in Sohimal Girls House next door.
