“Mother had saved money for me by sacrificing her own dreams. There must have been things that she would have wanted to do for herself. After all her life has been difficult. She deserved some comfort. But she would keep on toiling and save penny after penny. I think she saw hers dreams through me. So she had managed to save some money, for me to be able to do something after I complete school. She would just tell me to focus on my studies and not worry about money. But life was to take a different turn. The fire that engulfed out house during the earthquake took away from us everything we had. That is when I witnessed true hurt in my mother’s eyes. I will never forget the look of hopelessness when I watched mother frantically search in the ashes. But there was nothing, except a few burnt coins.” (Duth Kumari Gurung with her mother Santa Maya Gurung, Barpak, gorkha)