pegasus childrens project

Pegasus Childrens Project Charity

A charity for creating a long term future for disadvantaged children around the world by providing a loving and ecologically sustainable environment for their childhood and beyond - Pegasus.

In 2001 Angela McCarty and her son visited Nepal to experience the Himalayas, jungles and temples. They also had a passion to run a musical workshop similar to the workshops they had run in a school in the UK. During their visit they were introduced to Kinley Dhendup, Principal of the Pegasus English School in Bouddhnath.

After staying on in Nepal, he began to see and meet many street children in Kathmandu. They were cold, hungry and also were asking to go to school. He began helping by giving meals to the children while talking to Kinley about schooling them. After bringing them to the school they realized that the children were not able to attend regularly as their home life was so poor. Around the same time he made contact with a local clinic run by a Belgium doctor, who told him about two boys who had been found begging and were often beaten and needed a safe home. So Kinley and his wife, Karma agreed they would take them in with their own family and he would sponsor them.

This was the incentive needed to put his and Kinley’s plan into action which was to rent a three room flat with a live-in teacher and cook to care for the children. The happy home hostel was born and in came a further eight boys who desperately needed a stable home life. He returned to the UK and started to raise the funds needed for the home through Tribal Earth and many other musical events.

He organized two treks in Nepal, which he organised with Kinley, the profit from them went towards the rent, food and schooling for the children. On the second trip to Nepal, Kinley informed him that a piece of land was for sale about 30 minutes drive away from Kathmandu. As there was a real need to expand the project with many more children arriving, he decided that we would put a deposit down to secure the land and rushed back to the UK to start asking friends and colleagues to help raise the £20,000 needed.

Angela put the initial deposit down, before Judith Greenfield, a member of the trekking group generously gave us the rest and the land was purchased! There was a large cowshed on the land which, after a group sponsored walk up Ben Nevis, run by Paula Kershaw and a profitable Tribal Earth camp, funds were raised to convert the shed to a small house for fourteen children and growing number of staff. Sadly, that summer, the monsoon rains flooded our land and house and we were advised to sell and move. Kinley found some land higher up in the valley surrounded by a national park. We decided it would be a good option for us, however, we would need a new house to be built and the money to do that.

The magic of this project weaved itself once again as at the same time in the UK, Angela bumped into a customer called Shirley who used to be a regular visitor to her shop for over 20 years and told her of the situation. Shirley then offered us enough money for a bus and later a small building to house the now twenty-three children including five girls. In total she donated £31,000 - we were stunned! So with this money we cleared a space on the land for a new building which the children moved in to during May 2006.

It was then that we heard about the Cal Earth Super Adobe homes. These domes were considered to be a very good option for our community as they were eco sustainable, the main building material is earth - very little wood was required. They are cool in summer, warm in winter and have been tested in California for earthquakes up to 6.4 on the Richter scale. We were then very blessed to be introduced to Chad & Kath, via Nikki Slade. Chad's sister had passed away and they set up a trust for helping children in her memory. After hearing about Pegasus they gave a generous donation of £25,000, which started the Cal Earth building project in October 2006. This paid for our designer Julian and his team to go to Nepal.

In 2007 Lajos, Julian’s co-builder from Hungary stayed on building and supervising. In July 2007 we completed most of the buildings and August saw the children move into their new Eco dome homes! During last year we experienced some tough times financially due to rising costs in Nepal. We almost ran out of money several times, but then yet another angel appeared – Robert Commandeur loaned us £3000 to keep the project going. Robert came to our project from the Ramana’s Garden Project for children in India. Their Director, Prabha was interested in building eco domes In India and so we able to help him, thanks a donation from a supporter of theirs, David Smail from Bakehouse Ltd. We had the privilege to meet Prabha on a visit to the UK who introduced us to David who then became involved in Pegasus. The project is now continuing thanks to his support. Along with the generosity of our other support and their efforts at fundraising events, the building work is well on the way to be completed.

You Can Help

There are many ways you can help us support our Happy Home in Nepal such as:

• You can become a full/part sponsor to a child
• Give a donation of money – no matter how small it all helps!
• Organise fundraising events such as coffee mornings, bring and buy sales, sponsored walks or why not hire a restaurant for an evening and the profits made can be donated.

Donations can be made online through PayPal or by cheque to the Pegasus Children’s Project and post to 55 Tufton Gardens, Hurst Park, West Molesey, Surrey KT8 1TD UK

Please contact us if you would like more information.

© World Of Rhythym 2008