NNSC used to be situated at New Baneshwor until 2023. It was a good home: the kind of place where children could grow holistically, doing countless things that gave them joy. But it was also a busy one. The number of people who visited used to be enormous, letting children meet people from all over the world, and yet that same accessibility came at a cost: with so many visitors passing through, relationships rarely had the chance to grow deep.
Around this time, Kamal and Amjad had started falling in love with Bhaktapur’s outskirts: close enough to the Valley to stay connected, far enough to be free of its noise. On one of their bike rides through the area, a blue building stopped them: a notice pasted on its wall read, “सटर भाडामा छ।” (A shutter for rent.)
Amjad pointed it out. Kamal, who has never met an opportunity he didn’t want to investigate, suggested they go in and look anyway. After all, they had nothing to lose. Walking through the empty rooms, he whispered to Amjad: this could actually be a home for the children. They found the owner. There was a conversation, a little bit of convincing, a handshake (well, two), and just like that, NNSC had a new home.
It's funny how the home that today welcomes everyone with Tiger’s blissful bark was itself a stroke of sheer luck. If that notice hadn’t been pasted on that wall, Kamal and Amjad would never have walked into the house where 35 of our children now grow up, cook their own meals, and build multipurpose halls for programs like Ground Diaries with their own hands. And it’s here, in this smaller and steadier home, that the thing Baneshwor could never quite hold onto – real depth, not just reach – finally took root: fewer visitors, but ones who stay long enough to actually know the children they came to meet.
So in the end, भाडाको सटर [a shutter, for rent] is the reason we have सिरुटारमा घर [a home in Sirutar].
NNSC has learned to respect and value every small action, because we’ve seen the domino effect work in our favor once already. It’s what we tell the children too: every भाडाको सटर is an opportunity. Knocking on it probably isn’t such a bad idea.