Dubai: When Saran Silwal was a young child begging for food and rummaging through garbage on the streets of Kathmandu, he could never have imagined he would end up working for a five-star hotel in Dubai.
He had fallen out with his family and ended up homeless by the time he was just eight years old.
"I was just wandering the streets and I found other children sleeping in the street and joined them.
"The worst part was the hunger. I would see somebody eating something mouth-watering in a restaurant. I just wanted to kill my hunger," he said.
Many street youngsters in the capital of Nepal, to cope with the hunger and the cold nights of sleeping in rags, fall into the abyss of glue-sniffing.
But Saran was lucky. He was rescued from despair by the kindness of Nicole Wick Thakuri, a volunteer from Switzerland who started a group called Nawa Asha Griha (NAG) or Home of New Hopes.
She began with just six children and one room. Now, NAG is not just a home for street children and youngsters from less fortunate backgrounds, but is also a government-accredited school with 162 students boarding in the home and an additional 146 day students. The organisation also sponsors 20 students who have gone on to higher education.
Saran was among the first group of children who left NAG and went on to higher education. He got a diploma in hotel management from the Silver Mountain School of Hotel Management in Kathmandu, Nepal, in February this year and now works ironically for someone who once went hungry as a chef at Le Royal Meridian Beach Resort and Spa. His two brothers are now at NAG.
"People came to the college in Nepal and asked if anybody was interested in working in Dubai. I thought: 'Why not take this opportunity?"
"I am a breakfast chef and I make waffles, crepes and omelettes. I am learning many different things. The job is challenging.
Saran now not only supports himself, but is also sponsoring another former street child now at NAG.
"My goal in life is to help the street kids and to be able to support myself," he said.
NAG is registered in Switzerland and is a non-profit charity that is run entirely on donations.
The organisation, which is run by Nicole and her husband Jeeten, has just moved to a new home after converting a deserted carpet factory just outside Kathmandu into a colourful and clean school and dormitory.
- With inputs from Daniel Bardsley, Staff Reporter. The writer is a member of the Gulf News Readers' Club.
