Lucky by Margaret Richardson

In February this year I spent an enjoyable stay in Nepal. A very happy trip, full of surprises, loving kindnesses and sunny days.

One of my stories is that I met Tsultrim who owns a carpet factory where a lot of women work and live on site. Talking to Tsultrim, I asked if there was a way that we could help in some small way in Nepal, I suggested that we could start small and not overcommit ourselves and suggested funding a teacher to teach children who had no access to education at all. He said that if I really wanted to help, to help people, that just before Christmas, he found a baby, a few days old, in a plastic bag, left on his vegetable table outside his factory gate. He took the baby in, informed the police and there was one woman in particular who really wanted to keep the baby, she had no family of her own.

Tsultrim said that this baby wasn’t anything to do with his women. He said that the women were poor, they looked after each other and they had a lot of love for each other. What was needed was support for the baby with the cost of food, nappies, clothes etc. I asked how much, Tsultrim came up with an amount in rupees to the value of £14 a month, I said no problem I can give this.

I arrived in Nepal at 7.30pm on the Tuesday evening, found myself at the carpet factory at 10.30am the following morning having agreed to help support the baby. They have named the baby Lucky – Laxmi – as Tsultrim says – “she is lucky”.