Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Children of Nepal
by Conor Grennan (HarperCollins, 2011)
During 1996-2006 Maoist Civil War in the mountain kingdom Nepal, children from the villages were regularly abducted for slave labour by the guerillas. Child traffickers exploited the situation, promising protection for the children in return for money and took them to be sold into illegal adoption or slave labour and begging. Conor Grennan, a young and bored American, had planned a world tour. He volunteered at the Little Princes Children’s Home, near Kathmandu. He picked up the language and familiarized with the local customs, and grew to love the children in the orphanage. He slowly learned that most of the wards in the orphanage were not orphans; they had been taken from their families by traffickers. Around 2004, when the Maoists were forcefully taking children from their families in a village, a trafficker named Golkka had taken a woman’s sons, promising safety at a huge price which reduced the family to lifetime debt and destitution. Golkka kept the children in custody and threatened them to keep silent about their mother. Though their mother had traced them to the orphanage, they were afraid to talk to her, fearing the trafficker’s death threat. Grennan and his friend Farid took a huge risk to rescue the children put them in the orphanage and arranged local volunteers to take care of them. He barely managed to escape when the Maoists invaded Kathmandu in April 2006. Back home, Conor was haunted by the experience. When informed that the children had again been abducted by Golkka, he started a nonprofit organization titled Next Generation Nepal (NGN) for support and returned to Nepal. Conor discovered the value of prayer, which he had given up at the age of ten. Liz, a devout Christian, whom he met online, shared his interest, led him back to his lost faith and eventually to marriage. Liz believed that God wanted Conor to find the lost children. Conor and his friends succeeded in tracing all the lost boys and the NGN is now involved in reaching out to the orphans in Nepal.
Girl Wash Your Face
By Rachel Hollis (Thomas Nelson, 2018)
This popular book showshow stereotyping and judgmental attitudes, especially towards women, can hamper growth. Its striking subtitle tells us what the book is about: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are, so You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be. Though addressed mainly to women, it can be useful for anyone. The key idea is to overcome limitations imposed upon us through cultivated stereotype mindsets. If one desires to change one’s life, the Lord will forge a path. We are often cultured in social environments that inculcate dos and don’ts to which people conform unthinkingly and become frustrated in our self-realization, leading to unhappiness. Hollis calls these mental blocks “lies” that we must ignore in order to grow and gain joy of life. The girl has to “wash her face” and become alive to the reality and take charge of her life. The lessons that she puts forward are taken from her own experience and illustrated engagingly with anecdotes and observations. In twenty chapters Hollis spells out twenty “lies” that she had believed about herself and how she overcame those obstacles. Hollis says that all of us grow up fed on such lies that put us into stereotypes and unconsciously make us fit into the frame of thought and behavior that others around us provided. The book covers a whole range of human experience starting with our search for happiness to social acceptance, relationships with the spouse, family and society, role models, the jobs that we choose. The key message is: “You, and only you, are ultimately responsible for how happy you are.” Small achievements are important in building our confidence to achieve bigger goals. ‘No’ is not always a final answer to discourage us from forging ahead. Sexuality is a very important part in spousal relationships and should not be ignored. Motherhood is not something that is done through prior training. Faith is the belief that your life will unfold as it was meant to, even when it unfolds to something painful and difficult to navigate. God has given each one special talents and He intends them to be shown forth. We should have the courage to act according to our convictions even when others may disapprove.
Dr Gigy Joseph
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