Back in Nepal

My whirlwind month trip back to Nepal was indescribably amazing. Without sufficient vocabulary to express my gratitude and good fortune, I resort here to pictures.

In Phalewas:

Rural students my friends and I are sponsoring for their science education for the next 2 years. Thanks Will, Jamie, Patrice, and Winnie!

My FM radio interview broadcasted across several communities. We didn't have enough material, so I sang the US national anthem!

In Nurbuling school:

The students I taught 8 months ago! During the morning assembly they gave me a warm welcome 🙂

Village hospitality. Nima on the left welcomed me to her home and 7 more over the course of a day! What a wonderful way to get to know the Hyolmo culture. I can't thank them enough. Thanks for 5 types of local wine and endless tea!

Love the village life

Oh and I carried this 3 week old bugger up and down many hills to his new home. You don't want to know what happened to my tshirt.

In Tinpiple:

The only dump site that collects the trash from Kathmandu and neighboring cities. Many families live and work here to earn about $1-2 a day. It was absolutely humbling to experience a few hours with them.

On a dump truck back to town. Here is one of the single mothers that works at the site. She was so gracious and friendly! I met her children who were thankfully taken away from working at the site and are now receiving good education and housing, thanks to a great organization that I'll describe later. Again, a humbling experience.

So much more! But alas, photos don’t even do it justice.

Thank you, Nepal! Coming twice this year wasn’t enough. You’ve been a great teacher to me, and I’ll come back to learn and contribute as best I can.

Girl sponsorship

Dear friends,

I’m happy to report that the girl sponsorship program is on! We will start funding these girls in July for their new school year.

We want to see creative and intelligent young women take the lead in Nepal. We’ve created a scholarship for deserving girls in the 10th grade interested in furthering their education in math and science but are unable to due to financial and social reasons. Our goal is to enable them to complete their higher secondary schooling (11th and 12th grade) and break out of their typical path to domestic life, which usually occurs at this age (15 years old).

The girls are from the Phalewas district, a beautiful rural community located west of Pokhara. The girls are performing well at school – their marks compare well with girls from major cities. We hope to continue giving them a quality education to enable them to compete nationally and even internationally.

Your scholarship will go directly to the school to provide for their education ($300 per year for 2 years) and you will be in touch with your student via email or Skype to help cheer them on.

Our team is spearheaded by the tireless and no nonsense Mr. Bhola Sharma who after 43 years of governmental service has returned to his birthplace to help develop schools in his district. He has worked with Room to Read and others to establish 170 libraries in the district. Rajeev was one of the early members of Room to Read and is a book publisher. We also have film director Hari who inspired the project. And finally, yours truly, who hasn’t felt more strongly about a project than this one. Together we have established the criteria for selection and will soon pair you up with one of the deserving girls.

If you’re interested in sponsoring a girl, please contact me at chenronald at gmail dot com or leave a comment. I will provide more details.

You’ll make a big difference in their lives.

Thanks for reading!
Ron

Pay for a girl’s schooling

“If you teach a girl you teach a family.” – Nepali saying

I’m asking for a show of hands.

Picture an unassuming, rural girl entering college, training to become a teacher, engineer, doctor, or researcher.

Now imagine you were the one who gave her the boost.

Do you want to help fund a girl through 2 years of high school?

I was fortunate to meet an energetic school headmaster who envisions supporting qualified but economically disadvantaged girls through science and math schooling. Education in the sciences costs more than the humanities due to laboratory and specialized teaching costs.

Girls in Nepal face enormous disadvantages due to expectations of getting married young and taking care of the household. Paying directly for their funding may ameliorate their situation.

It costs $600 to put a girl through 2 years of schooling.

All that we’ll ask from you is to be in 1-on-1 correspondence to your sponsored girl. And that you be an infinite source of inspiration. (The latter optional.)

Now this isn’t through an established non-profit organization (it’s not through any organization at all), and your donation won’t be tax-deductible, but what’s appealing to me, at least, is it’s directness.

As a bonus, I’m going to speak in person to the scholarship candidates and will also announce it on the local radio station!

Winnie, the headmaster, another organizer, and I have committed to sponsor a girl each. We just need a few more. If this is at all appealing to you, or if you need more information, please let me know by email or comment directly to me.