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Meet: Braveheart.

Braveheart’s real name is Chirring. In the background his little brother Mumoju, never to leave his side. They both live in Gorakhani, a mountainvillage in Nepal. With a magnitude of 7.8, a severe earthquake in 2015 destroyed their houses and schools. That’s why photographer Ines, her brother Josse and her mom Mieke decided to raise money in Belgium for the reconstruction of the village in Nepal. A 16h fligt to Kathmandu, 10h jeep ride and 6h hike later Ines, Josse and Mieke were finding themselves in Gorakhani volunteering to help rebuild the affected buildings.

“Most of the inhabitants had never seen somebody from different origin before. Especially the children were terified at first. Skiddish and curious they would look at us -weird language speaking pale creatures-  while we were rebuilding alongside the rest of the villagers. Day by day they found more courage to come closer. And as we were starting to learn how to speak Nepali after 3 weeks of living in the village, their curiousness would conquer their fear. In comparison to other children in the village, Chirring had never said a word. Not using verbal language at least, yet his eyes were speaking more than a thousand words.” Ines says.

If you would like to have more background on the story behind the picture, feel free to watch this 12 minute mini documentary of their volunteering mission to Nepal in 2016: