By Netra Shahi
Khalanga, Sept. 23: Juna Gurung, 58, travelled all the way from Pokhara to Jumla and then to Surkhet with a clay money pot (Khutruke) containing Rs. 50,000. The reason – to provide financial support to sisters Bishnu Maya and Nirmala Budha of Guthichaur Rural Municipality–1 living with severe disability.

Gurung, a resident of Pokhara Metropolitan City–10, and her family had started a fund to collect money for the two sisters aged 24 and 22. Having collected Rs. 50,000, she travelled to Jumla to hand over the money to them but was told that they had been taken to the Manav Sewa Ashram in Surkhet. So, she again went to Surkhet and gave the Budha sisters the money pot and clothes.

“The two sisters suffer from cerebral palsy and had come to Pokhara 10 years ago for therapy,” Gurung said. “Of the Rs. 50,000 provided to them, I gave Rs. 5,000, my relative Om Kumari Gurung gave Rs. 10,000, my family members Rs. 30,000 and friends of daughter Nikita Gurung, who lives in the UK, provided Rs. 5,000 as well as food items, sanitary pads, clothes and soap.”
The Budhas have been living under the care of the Sewa Ashram since last year.

Nine years ago, the sisters were abandoned by their father who remarried after the death of their mother. Samjhana Shahi, a local employee of the International Nepal Fellowship (INF), took them in and looked after them for eight years but she had to leave the country last year for work. So, the Disabled Rehabilitation and Development Centre of Jumla, Guthichaur Rural Municipality and the District Administration Office coordinated to house the two in the Karnali provincial office of the Manav Sewa Ashram in Surkhet.
“I helped them out of humanity and because it is the right thing to do,” Gurung said.