Happy Hearts heads to Nepal

​It's Back-To-School season across the world, and parents everywhere are getting their kids ready for the new academic year, stocking up on school supplies, purchasing uniforms, sharpening pencils and ripping the tags off brand new backpacks.

Million of children worldwide, however, barely have access to clean water and sufficient nutrition, let alone new school supplies. At The Happy Box, we've committed to doing all we can to help children in need, even if it's just one drop in this vast ocean of need.

So this month, we packed our bags - as well as hundreds of our special Happy Boxes filled to the brim with colourful, fun and practical school supplies - and headed off to Nepal, to celebrate the back-to-school spirit in our own, special, HAPPY way with some of the most wonderful children we have ever met!

As part of our Happy Hearts Giving Program - where we vowed to donate a Happy Box for every single box purchased - our co-founder Jumana Al Darwish flew to Kathmandu with members of our Happy Team to visit the Maiti Nepal rehabilitation centre, a non-profit shelter that provides homes, protection, care and love for rescued children and orphans who have suffered from trafficking, child labor and various other forms of exploitation (www.maitinepal.org).

Jumana has spent her entire life wanting to give back to communities in need, something that was ignited in her at a young age by her father's work in the UN and continued throughout her adult life working for various governments and non-profit organisations.

"I finally feel complete now that we've established Happy Hearts, which is the CSR arm of The Happy Box," said Jumana. "It is all I really know, and if I am going to be an entrepreneur I might as well be a conscious one! Happiness should be totally universal. We'll be opening these trips in the future to the community and would love to have you as part of our happy movement."

Jumana distributed over 100 back-to-school kits and educational activity boxes to little ones age three to 11 and spent a few unforgettable and emotionally moving few days in Nepal, learning about the incredible, important work of the Maiti shelter.

This is already the second trip under the Happy Hearts mandate - last monh, hundreds of boxes were distributed to orphaned children in Amman, Jordan. (Read all about that trip here!)

Here are a few pictures below from the Happy Hearts trip to Nepal last week and a glimpse at some of the talented, intelligent, loving, resilient children we were priveleged enough to meet.

To donate to our Happy Hearts programme, just email info@thehappybox.ae and we'll share with you how you can be involved, whether you'd like to help with one box, a dozen boxes, or hundreds of boxes for children in need.