Through local connections we aim to provide children with a community that supports them in the pursuit of their dreams. The Happy Kids Center was opened on October 14, 2015 in Bhelukhel, Bhaktapur in response to the earthquake that toppled much of this historic city. It all started with a small group of aid workers who quickly fell in love with the city and all of the beautiful people they worked among. Their hearts broke upon seeing children in the street, begging for rice and water for their families. As they got to know these children they quickly recognized they were not living the life of children at all, instead of playing or going to school, they were bearing the weight of providing for their families; simply surviving. The volunteers decided they wanted to give these children something more sustainable than charity, they wanted to give them a future. Thus, the Happy Kids Center was born. We opened our doors with the goal of providing a safe space for children whose lives were devastated by the earthquake. The Center was designed to give these children a happy, safe environment that encouraged and supported them through education and creative play. After nearly two years of success we have seen our Happy Kids grow and flourish in ways we never could have dreamed. Now our goal is shifting as we too expand as an organization. While we will always treat the Happy Kids Center as a safe space first and foremost, we are now on a mission to help provide a future for these kids that is better than the generations before. Through partnerships with community businesses and non-government organizations we are now working towards providing vocational skills and workshops to empower and enable these children to pursue the career of their dreams.