I’ve always had thoughts of doing lots of volunteer work, going on volunteer trips/holidays, with the intention of giving back to society and blah blah blah. You know the spiel. But of course, being the self-indulgent and selfish person that I am, I have never gotten down to REALLY doing something. As close as I have gotten to it was writing some newsletter articles for Animals Asia, a charity that rescues and houses moon bears and sun bears – cruelly farmed for their bile – in two rescue centres in China and Vietnam. Then I just sort of lapsed. Well, they didn’t contact me for help either, even though I have always left the door open. But please, help them if you can and want to. Those poor bears!
It is always inspirational to read about other people giving so much of themselves to set up charity organisations to help the less fortunate. I wonder, what drives and motivates them? What was the life-changing moment that made them decide to embark on something like that? Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal by Conor Grennan drew me first with its cover, title and subtitle. Ok, I do judge a book by its cover. But upon reading the synopsis, I felt it was a story I wanted to read about. These days, I’ve been reading more non-fiction, mostly memoirs, just to get a glimpse of how others have lived their lives and to see if I can find inspiration in their experiences.
Because I’m lazy, I’m going to quote the book’s synopsis from the author’s website.

“About to turn 30, Conor Grennan planned a year-long trip around the world. He started his trip with a three-month stint volunteering in the Little Princes Orphanage in war-torn Nepal. What was supposed to be just a three-month experience changed Conor’s life, and the lives of countless others.While playing on the roof of the orphanage, Conor was approached by a woman who would turn out to be the mother of two of the wards. Over hours of conversations with her, Conor learned the truth about the kids he’d come to love. Many of the little princes were not orphans but rather had been taken from their homes and families by child traffickers. In addition to losing two of her boys, this woman, while under the control of a human trafficker, was doing her best to keep seven other terrified kids alive in her mud hut. Conor’s life changed in those moments, as he decided to commit himself to these kids. After securing spots in an orphanage for all seven and arranging for an excellent local staff to run the Little Princes orphanage, Conor escaped Nepal, one day before revolution erupted in Kathmandu, with the King’s police shooting protestors in the streets.
After arriving home, Conor received a devastating email reporting that the seven kids had disappeared, snatched once again by the same trafficker. Soon he was back in Kathmandu, riding through the chaotic streets on the back of a local’s motorcycle, searching for his kids, seven needles in a corrupt haystack. And that is where Conor’s story begins.
Conor pledged to not only start a new orphanage for these seven but to start an entire new program dedicated to reuniting kids with their lost families in remote villages in the Nepalese hills, a four-day walk at best through war-torn precincts with no roads.
Conor’s organization, Next Generation Nepal, has reconnected almost 300 families with children they feared were lost to them forever.”

I started off not liking Grennan at the beginning of the book. He sounded a little immature and was like another American dude out there volunteering in Nepal not because he truly wanted to be there to help, but really because he wanted to show his mates he was doing something cool. Later, even he admitted to his own immaturity.
But as the narrative went along, I felt myself seeing Grennan grow and mature, and it was heartening to read about everything he had done to help these kids he had come to care so much for despite, I’m sure, plenty of naysayers.
As a reader, I, too, came to feel like I knew the children with the photographs that are in the book. While I don’t think I’m capable of such a feat, I enjoyed reading about Grennan’s experiences against a broader backdrop of the problems of corruption and child trafficking that plague Nepal.
Book available from the Hong Kong Public Library and Singapore National Library. eBook also available from the latter.