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By Yitzchak Cohen, HaMechadesh

Mrs. Chani Lifshitz, the Rebbe’s Shlucha in Nepal, shared a deeply moving story on social media about an encounter with a two-week-old baby girl lying on a sidewalk in Kathmandu beside her mother, who was struggling to care for her.

In a post she published on social media, Mrs. Lifshitz described how she came across a situation that made it impossible for her to simply continue with her day.

“When I filmed this video on a street in Kathmandu, I had no idea that within a few days, I would find myself changing diapers, feeding a two-week-old baby, and anxiously searching for someone who would care for her the following morning,” she wrote.

Mrs. Lifshitz, who has lived and worked in Nepal for 25 years, said that at first, she found it difficult to ignore what she was seeing.

“After 25 years in Nepal, I thought I had seen almost everything. Hungry children, families living on the streets, poverty that is difficult to describe in words. But something about this sight would not let me keep walking,” she wrote.

However, speaking with the mother revealed a much more complicated reality.

The woman had come to Kathmandu from a small village in search of work. She found a job at a sewing workshop and rented a small room. When she discovered that she was expecting a baby girl, she hoped she would be able to manage. But after giving birth, she returned from the hospital alone, with her baby.

“At night, she cried. And I cried with her,” Mrs. Lifshitz recounted.

The mother’s words revealed just how difficult it had become for her to cope with the daily demands of caring for her daughter.

“I wake up in the morning and I have no strength. She cries and I have no strength. I know she needs me, but I simply can’t,” the woman said.

Later, she added, “I love her. You don’t understand? I love her. I just have no strength.”

Even choosing a name for the baby had become a task the mother could not bring herself to complete. When Mrs. Lifshitz asked what the baby’s name was, the woman replied, “Every day I say that tomorrow I’ll choose one. Two weeks have already passed. I don’t even have the strength to give her a name.”

In another moment described in the post, the baby began to cry, and Mrs. Lifshitz picked her up. When she tried to place the infant in her mother’s arms, the woman hesitated and pulled back.

“Not now. I’m afraid I won’t be able to manage,” she said.

Mrs. Lifshitz raised the possibility that the mother might be experiencing postpartum depression, a condition that requires professional assessment and support. She said she realized that, alongside concern for the baby, it was also necessary to find a way to help the mother, who had been left alone to face her difficulties.

In the days following their encounter, Mrs. Lifshitz began caring for the baby, feeding her and changing her diapers, while searching for someone who could look after her on a regular basis.

She said she found an older neighbor who agreed to care for the baby in exchange for payment. The mother has the option of having the infant stay in an additional room in the neighbor’s home, but it remains necessary to ensure that the arrangement is suitable and safe.

Even after finding an initial solution, Mrs. Lifshitz made clear that her concern did not end with arranging care for the baby. In her post, she asked how the mother would be able to cope with her difficulties and find the strength she needed to move forward.

“Who will help her get up in the morning? Who will tell her that she is not a bad mother just because she cannot, at this moment, be the mother she wanted to be?” Mrs. Lifshitz wrote.

At the end of the post, Mrs. Lifshitz admitted that at first she had been angry with the mother for leaving such a tiny baby in danger. But as she came to understand the situation, she realized that the mother herself needed help as well.

“I was angry with the mother for putting her in danger like that,” she wrote. “I didn’t understand that the woman sitting beside her was also desperately in need of just one person in this world who would see her.”

The story offers a glimpse into the unexpected challenges the Rebbe’s Shluchim and Shluchos encounter in their daily work. A seemingly ordinary day can suddenly become a life-changing moment, bringing them face-to-face with situations that demand compassion, resourcefulness, and tremendous mesirus nefesh. Whether offering a listening ear, helping a family through a difficult time, or stepping in to protect a child in need, the Shlichus often means being there for another Yid in ways no one could have anticipated.

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