Your caring and compassionate heart beats for those you love. You wish for them to have greater opportunities than you did and to live full, healthy and happy lives.
Halfway around the world in Nepal, Laxmi shares that same dream for her young daughters — especially after the nightmarish childhood she endured.
Laxmi weeps as she remembers her extremely painful childhood. She is one of three sisters, which greatly angered her father who badly wanted a son. As a result, her father abused her mother and eventually left her to marry another woman. Starting at age 2, Laxmi went with her mother to work at a local landowner’s house doing chores like washing clothes, doing dishes and cleaning. Seeing that the child needed a better life and a chance to go to school, Laxmi’s mother sent her to live with her father – because she believed that he would only take care of his daughter if she no longer did. So Laxmi’s mother left her/her sisters and married someone else. But Laxmi’s stepmother did not accept her, and she sent the girl (by then aged 7 or 8) to work as an indentured servant.
Again Laxmi found herself working for a landlord doing household chores, but this time she was alone. She worked there for nearly 8 years – her whole childhood, for the most part – and the landlord would give her father groceries, grains an
Laxmi is one of three sisters. This greatly angered her father, who desperately wanted a son. As a result, he abandoned the family.
At just 2 years old, Laxmi went to work with her mother at a local landowner’s house, doing chores like washing clothes, scrubbing dishes and cleaning.
Sadly, at age 7, Laxmi was sent off — frightened and alone — to work as an indentured servant. Once again, she found herself working for a landlord, doing demanding household chores. The work seemed so much harder without her mother there to help her and keep her company. To make matters worse, she earned no income from her work.
Her suffering ended only when the Nepalese government outlawed indentured servitude. She was 14 years old. Think about that for a moment. Laxmi spent nearly her entire childhood working as a servant. Imagine how lonely that must have been!
Finally, as a teenager, a determined Laxmi had a chance to attend school. She earned money by collecting firewood and small rocks to sell.
Her life and the future began to look even brighter when Laxmi met and married a loving man named Binod. They were thrilled when she became pregnant with their first child.
But six months into her pregnancy, tragedy struck. While harvesting leaves and grass to feed their livestock, Laxmi fell out of a tree and lost the baby.
As if this horrible loss wasn’t painful enough for the couple, Laxmi had to have an expensive surgery. They were forced to take out a loan for Laxmi’s medical care with an extremely high interest rate.
Laxmi and Binod had to move from Nepal to India to find work and earn enough money to pay back the loan.
s time passed, Laxmi and Binod had two daughters. Laxmi moved back to Nepal to open a small store to sell snacks in their village. The store was struggling to earn significant income, so Binod stayed in India to work.
“The children would cry … and we couldn’t provide for them,.” shared Laxmi.
She also learned important business tactics, like proper food hygiene, customer service skills, accurate bookkeeping and how to maximize profits.
Your love also built a critical expansion to her store! Now, customers have a place to sit and enjoy her new food offerings. These improvements doubled her income, and her husband no longer has to travel to India to work. They both work locally and enjoy learning and growing together.
Most importantly, Laxmi and Binod’s daughters are able to enjoy the happy, full childhood that she never had.
Lutheran World Relief is a faithful partner of The Bolick Foundation.