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Sahara Ghar

A permanent address for a shelter in Kailali whose whole public record lived on a Facebook page.

The Sahara Ghar home page on a laptop, open on a wooden table between two armchairs.
Client
Sahara Ghar | Helping Hands Nepal
Year
2026
Role
Design, and part of the build
Services
Research, UX/UI Design, Development
Visit the live site

Overview

Sahara Ghar shelters around a hundred forgotten people in Kailali, Nepal, and for ten years its only record was a Facebook page. At Aurora Studios I worked on the design of the new site and built parts of it. Now it has a permanent address, in two languages.

What it is

A shelter in Kailali, run by Helping Hands Nepal, for people nobody else will take in: the destitute, the mentally ill with no family, abandoned children, elders, people with severe disabilities. Around a hundred live there at any time.

Made at Aurora Studios as a community initiative. I worked on the design and built parts of it.

Ten years on a Facebook feed

Everything the home had done lived on its Facebook page. A donor abroad or a district officer checking whether it was real had nothing to read but a feed. You cannot send a district officer to a feed.

Four constraints set the design

  • 01Two languages: Nepali and English, neither one a fallback
  • 02Android, outdoors: a mid-range phone in daylight on a patchy connection
  • 03No web staff: what changes weekly, the home posts itself
  • 04Nobody links to it: structured data has to vouch for it instead

Don’t compete with the feed. Embed it.

The site became the permanent record: who the home is, what it has done, who backs it. Daily life stays on Facebook, embedded live on the home page.

The Sahara Ghar home page: “Every person deserves a place to belong.” with “belong” in marigold, beside a photograph of the founder with children around a flower rangoli.
Who they are, in one sentence and one photograph.
The same home page in Nepali, with the headline, body, buttons and navigation all translated.
The same page in Nepali.

Five pages, one question each

Home: who they are. About: is this real. Impact: what happens here. Supporters: who else backs it. Contact: reach a person. And Donate, the ask.

“The people in our care.” above four photographs, labelled Stranded, The unwell, Elders & kids, and Disabled.
Who the home takes in, named plainly.
A navy band headed “A decade of round-the-clock care.” with four figures in marigold: ~100 residents, 10+ years, a 1.5 crore NPR government grant, and 24/7 care.
Ten years of work, in four numbers.
“One man’s promise to the forgotten.” beside a photograph of Bal Bahadur Bista carrying an elderly man on his back.
The founder’s story.

Marigold and civic blue

Both colours were already in the home’s own photographs. Anton for headlines, Onest for text, Mukta for Nepali.

“From the home”: three record cards for a National Planning Commission grant, a partner bank’s donation of water filters and dining sets, and a planned expansion of the building.
The record: grants, partners and plans.
“Day to day, on Facebook” with a Follow the page button, beside the home’s Facebook page embedded live.
And the feed, embedded.

What review on a phone caught

  • 01Cards cropped everyone’s face off
  • 02A quarter of the screen was empty
  • 03Too much scrolling went to decoration
  • 04The Facebook feed looked cut off
  • 05You couldn’t tell which page you were on
Three phone screens side by side: the home page opening, “The people in our care”, and the donation page headed “Your donation keeps ~100 people fed, sheltered, and cared for.”
Where most visitors meet it.
The About page: “A home built on compassion, held up by community.” beside a photograph of the founder holding marigolds in front of the shelter’s sign.
About: the answer to “is this real?”
The donation page: “Your donation keeps ~100 people fed, sheltered, and cared for.” above bank transfer details, eSewa and Khalti, and where a gift goes.
Donate: the ask.
“Spend your special day here.” beside a Request a date form asking for the occasion, a preferred date, how many are coming and what they would like to do.
Birthdays and memorials at the home, in one form.

The outcome

A permanent address for a decade of work, in both languages, that anyone can link to and check.

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The Ahskid portfolio on a laptop in a dark room: a red-and-black “Who am I” page with Diksha’s portrait and pinned prints of the work.