GlobalGiving.org: Provide Education to 20 Disabled Nepali Children

Blind Girl Studies to Serve

Teresa Parker — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 01:20:10 GMT

Rama

Rama Bhattarai

Eighteen-year-old Rama Bhattarai has been blind since birth. The fourth child of Mr. Kashinath Bhattrai and Ms. Kamala Bhattrai, Rama is their second daughter to be born blind.

In the Morang district of eastern Nepal where Rama's family lives, there are no schools for blind or disabled children. With an historic prejudice in Nepal toward blind children as evidence of familial wrongs, Rama's future looked bleak. Many children afflicted with blindness and other disabilities suffer ostracism and isolation all of their lives; lives which, very often, are much shorter than normal Nepali children.

However, the door to Rama's opportunity opened when she was selected for a Nepal Youth Foundation Disabled Student Scholarship and brought to their special school in Dharan. Now Rama lives in the school's hostel with many of the other children in Gayan Chakchhu School for the Blind. Last year, Rama passed the final term examination for 7^th grade in the first division, with the second highest marks in her class. Now, studying in the 8^th grade, she is doing well in her exams, securing first division marks.

Rama is a bright young woman who hopes to work for the blind community in the Morang district in another two years, after she completes here studies. Knowing what it's like to function without sight will be an incomparable asset for understanding how best to improve conditions for other blind people in the region. As Rama learns how to master computer skills and finishes her education through NYF's Disabled Student Scholarship Program, she will, indeed, bring light where, for many others, there was only darkness.

Disabled Scholarship Program-Removing Barriers

In Nepali society children born with disabilities are believed to be cursed and are considered the result of past wrongs committed by the family. Not only are they are a source of shame for their families, who often try to keep them hidden out of sight, they are often viewed as worthless by the entire community. These beliefs in addition to widespread poverty and high unemployment make these children extreme burdens to their families.

The Nepal Youth Foundation’s Disabled Scholarship Program provides children with disabilities opportunities to be educated or receive vocational training so that they may live their lives in dignity and become productive members of society. NYF has emphasized education for the disabled since our inception in 1990.

The program, which covers all educational, medical, and living expenses, primarily supports children with impaired vision and hearing, because they are particularly likely to become self-sufficient adults who can give back to others in need. NYF’s social workers visit the students and meet with their parents and teachers at least every three months. The purpose of these visits is to monitor the students’ academic progress, ensure that their living conditions are suitable for studying, and determine if their disabilities are being properly accommodated. All students in the program also receive frequent medical examinations.

NYF’s scholarship program has positive impacts that extend beyond the students’ academic performance. The social workers have found that once students are enrolled in the program, they become much more motivated to be independent and their social behavior improves noticeably.

Thanks in large part to financial support from donors like you, the Nepal Youth Foundation gave scholarships to 57 disabled children in fiscal year 2010-2011. Seven of these children graduated from 10^th grade and took the school leaving exam (SLC). This year, 37 or 76% of students in grades 1^st through 9^th successfully passed to the next grade. Seven or 88% passed the qualifying test to go on to 10^th grade.

For more about our work, please visit us at www.nepalyouthfoundation.org. Follow this link to watch our new 4 minute video:http://bit.ly/uv6is2.

Thank you for your support!

Links:

NYF Website

Education Support Programs Update

Teresa Parker — Thu, 26 May 2011 00:53:25 GMT

Blind Girl

NYF knows that an education is the only way to break the cycle of poverty. We have been providing scholarships since our inception in 1990. To offset the inequities against females in Nepal, NYF has been providing more scholarships to girls than to boys. We know that when you educate a girl, you change society. Educated girls will marry later in life, have smaller families, and make sure that their children receive an education.

NYF currently runs 8 different categories of scholarship programs depending on the needs of the children and youth. During 2010, 807 children ranging from kindergarten through college, received scholarships. In many cases, the programs also support physical school infrastructure and providing educational materials.

Out of 807, 68% are female. Grade-wise, the highest number of students is in the Secondary level with 283 students and the lowest number of students is in the Pre-primary level with 6 students. Among the 8 programs, Girls’ School Scholarship is the largest with 187 students.

Under NYF’s disabled program, the children are provided with the special education in child friendly schools.

Success Story of a blind girl

Neera Adhikari, blind by birth, was born into a poor family in a remote village of Lalitpur. Luckily, she received a scholarship from the Special Education Section of the Ministry for her school education. But since she did not have any financial support for further studies she had to struggle to complete her Intermediate level but there was no way she could continue her study after she completed her Intermediate level. The only way she could ‘become somebody’ was by proving herself educationally. But now, even that door was closed for her.

When everything was looking hopeless, she came to know about NYF from her teacher and applied for the Scholarship. When she heard she was selected for the scholarship her joy knew no boundaries: the hope was still alive.

NYF then supported her from 1998 to 2001 for her Bachelor’s degree majoring in English and Sociology. This support raised her confidence. She was intelligent as well as hard working and was thus able to pass BA in 1^st division. After graduation, NYF encouraged her to work and earn so that she could pay for her Master’s degree. She worked as Assistant Instructor at Nepal Association of the Blind for 3 years and at the same time passed Masters Degree in 1^st division.

As she worked, she started to prepare for the examination of Public Commission for the position of Section Officer. She passed the examination and was appointed as a Section Officer under Ministry of Women and Children. Now, she is the Social Protection Head of Ministry of Women and Children.

We thank you for supporting this worthwhile project.

Teresa Parker

Links:

Nepal Youth Foundation

NYF now rescues children with HIV/AIDS!

Olga Murray — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 18:44:43 GMT

Your $75 donation can send them to school

Dear Friends,

The Nepal Youth Foundation has started to rescue children with HIV/AIDS!
The New Life Center in Kathmandu, Nepal provides excellent treatment to children with HIV/AIDS while teaching their parents to live hygienically and cook nutritious meals. This training dramatically reduces the risk of acquiring the illnesses that make HIV develop into AIDS, and lets HIV-infected people lead fulfilling lives. Find out more about this pioneering project!
http://www.nepalyouthfoundation.org/programs/health/newlife.html

NYF's founder Olga Murray describes falling in love with Nepal
She also discusses NYF’s diverse programs for children and the organization's plans for the future, in an interview in the Napa Valley Register.
http://bit.ly/8XzPn6

Read an interview about NYF's life-changing projects!
Read an interview with the Nepal Youth Foundation's Development Director, Gregg Tully, about NYF's work to end child slavery in Nepal, scholarships, and children's homes. Also watch a video in which a blind Nepali girl describes the happiest moment in her life.
http://bit.ly/9Fihbt

NYF earns its fourth consecutive four-star rating
Because of our exceptional fiscal management, the Nepal Youth Foundation received its fourth four-star rating – the highest possible – from Charity Navigator, America's largest evaluator of charities. Only 8% of the charities evaluated receive four consecutive four-star ratings. This indicates our extremely efficient and effective implementation of the funds that you, our donors, contribute.

A hair salon held a fundraiser to rescue enslaved Nepali girls!
Salon Amour in Walnut Creek, California donated 100% of their proceeds for a day to NYF, and raised $5,000 – enough to rescue 50 girls! Find out more about how they did it at http://www.callandresponse.com/blog/?p=753. Can you hold a fundraiser, too? Read about many creative and fun ways you can help NYF rescue needy children:
http://www.nepalyouthfoundation.org/howtohelp/supporters.html

Please donate today to enable the Nepal Youth Foundation to give unimagined opportunities to some of the most destitute children on earth. It only costs $100 to rescue a girl from bonded servitude and let her get an education.

Rescued from malnutrition for just $340

Disabled children are happy to get an education!

Links:

Celebrating 20 Years of Transforming Children’s Lives in Nepal!

Olga Murray — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 22:49:20 GMT

A girl NYOF rescued from a childhood of servitude

Dear Friends,

The Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation (NYOF) uses an integrated approach to address the multitude of challenges facing Nepali children and empowers them to fulfill their dreams. To learn more about how NYOF’s diverse programs provide education for disabled children, nutrition, loving homes, and much more, visit http://www.NYOF.org .

Olga Murray, who founded the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation (NYOF) 20 years ago, just turned 85. We celebrated this combined anniversary and birthday in San Francisco with around 200 of Olga and NYOF’s friends and supporters.

Watch ABC TV's VIDEO about NYOF’s work in Nepal and Olga's party! The video shows the results of the decades NYOF and Olga have spent helping Nepali Children, including rescuing girls who have been enslaved as bonded servants. http://nyof.org/newsroom/video.html#abc2

NYOF has rescued close to 10,000 girls from slave-like servitude, and more than 3,500 have been saved in the current year alone. NYOF will soon eliminate the tradition of selling Nepali girls into bondage. Read this news article about our accomplishments: http://nyof.org/newsroom/newsmedia.html#irin

"Happy Birthday Olga Mummy!" Watch this adorable VIDEO of the children of J and K House, the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation's excellent homes for children, sending Olga Murray birthday greetings. http://nyof.org/newsroom/video.html#birthday

These children can go to school because of NYOF

Now she is free from slavery and goes to school

Links:

NYOF Plans to Eliminate Child Slavery from Nepal

Olga Murray — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:18:57 GMT

These girls are free from slavery and in school, thanks to NYOF

Dear Friends,

This is going to be an exciting year for the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation. Next month, our staff will fan out over the five districts in west Nepal where girls are enslaved as bonded laborers to carry out our dynamic awareness program against the bonding custom. We will have a new weapon in our arsenal this year in addition to the piglet or goat we give the parents as incentives – the new government program to pay for the education or vocational training of all the girls we rescue. This is the culmination of a decade of lobbying the government by NYOF! We will emphasize to reluctant parents that their daughters will be eligible for a fully funded education by the government if they will consent to bring them home from their labors. Our plan is to rescue thousands of girls who have been or are about to be sold. Within a few years, we plan to completely eliminate the horrible tradition of selling Nepali girls into bondage. Those of you who have contributed to this cause have our eternal gratitude.

We still need your generous support to liberate the bonded girls and conduct our awareness campaign, because the government funding will not be used for these purposes.

We are deeply grateful for the contributions you have made. Please give as generously as you can, so that we can continue to help kids in Nepal to uncover and develop their full potential. We have a proven track record in making the most of your donations – you can do more good with a dollar in Nepal than almost anywhere else, and we spend a very small percentage of donations on administration (as evidenced by our four-star rating from Charity Navigator). We hope you will help us in our efforts to make a difference in these children’s lives.

Please let us know your thoughts by providing feedback in our comments section! Also, please tell your friends, family and colleagues about NYOF’s accomplishments!

Warm regards, Olga

Olga with one of the girls at K House, NYOF’s home for the needy

Links:

Learn more about the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation

A new VIDEO about an inspirational blind student!

Olga Murray — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:31:31 GMT

Learning how to sew as well as how to support herself

Watch a video about Ramchandra at http://www.nyof.org/newsroom/video.html#ram !

Because of a scholarship from the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation (NYOF), Ramchandra has been able to overcome the limitations of his blindness and an extremely disadvantaged childhood. He did not even attend school until age nine, when NYOF began to support him. Ramchandra has an inspirational outlook on life, and when he completes his education, he wants to promote education for the disabled in Nepal.

The Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation (NYOF) is a U.S. based nonprofit organization devoted to bringing hope to the most destitute children in the beautiful but impoverished Himalayan country of Nepal. With a personal touch, NYOF provides them with education, housing, medical care, and loving support.

You can learn more about NYOF's programs to help disabled children at http://nyof.org/programs/schoolsScholarships/disabled.html .

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We are deeply proud of the successes and accomplishments of the many students in our programs. Take, for example, the girls in rural Nepal who we have liberated from bonded labor at the age of 16 or 17 and who have never been to school. It would be too uncomfortable for them to be in a class with first and second graders, so we place them in an intensive literacy course for nine months and then train them for a job – preferably one which will allow them to start a business of their own.

Early on, we created a sewing program for these older girls. The success of this program is guaranteed because they make school uniforms for the thousands of girls we have liberated and now support in school. (The Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation (NYOF) pays the education expenses of former bonded girls, including two sets of school uniforms a year.) So there is no shortage of work for them. Better still, many of the girls we have trained have left the program and started their own sewing businesses in nearby villages.

We have also trained formerly indentured girls to run small shops, repair bicycles, etc. Many of the girls are remarkably entrepreneurial and have started their own businesses to generate income.

Higher education is not the same stepping stone to job opportunities in Nepal that it is in most Western countries; even people with advanced university degrees have difficulty finding work. Our limited funding is sometimes better spent on providing more children with elementary and high school educations and on efforts targeted at eventual employment and self-sufficiency.

The unemployment rate in Nepal hovers around 50%. Thus, for many youngsters, guidance and training in a specific career path is far more helpful than years of higher education. We offer counseling to explore their strengths and interests, and then support them in training for 20 different careers, such as electrician, lab technician, cook, or midwife. These jobs often pay better than the office jobs many college graduates hold out for.

Our vocational programs actively encourage women to pursue careers that in Nepal are traditionally restricted to men. At a technical training school in Kathmandu, NYOF sponsors the only female in the plumbing course. Once she’s employed as a plumber, she hopes to serve as an example to others that women should not feel that certain careers are off-limits.

A number of our vocational trainees who have found decent paying jobs are attending college on their own nickel. One of these is Bashudev Basnet. His father died when he was very young, and his mother earned a living by operating a small tea stall at the bus park in Kathmandu. We supported the education of Bashudev and his brother. After he finished high school and passed his college entrance exams, he enrolled in our vocational program as a cook and he found employment at a fairly snazzy restaurant on the fanciest street in Kathmandu. He was such a good worker that after only a month on the job he got a raise. He has enrolled in college in the morning and then goes to work on the day and evening shift. Not only that, he is now able to support his mother.

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We are deeply grateful to you for standing with us. Please give as generously as you can, so that we can continue to help kids in Nepal to uncover and develop their full potential. We have a proven track record in making the most of your donations – you can do more good with a dollar in Nepal than almost anywhere else, and we spend a very small percentage of donations on administration (as evidenced by our four-star rating from Charity Navigator). We hope you will help us in our efforts to make a difference in these children’s lives.

Please let us know your thoughts by providing feedback in our comments section! Also, please tell your friends, family and colleagues about NYOF’s accomplishments!

Warm regards, Olga

Did you ever see a better looking plumber?

Bashudev and his friends in action

Links:

NYOF's scholarships for disabled students are providing unimagined opportunities

Olga Murray — Sat, 30 May 2009 17:41:56 GMT

Laxmi in her wheelchair can go to school because of NYOF

Although the government of Nepal is undergoing more tumultuous changes, including a new Prime Minister, NYOF’s programs in Nepal are continuing to transform the lives of impoverished children, and provide them with unimagined opportunities.

In Nepal, disabled children are often seen as cast-offs, as pariahs or as punishment for "sins" of the family. They seldom have an opportunity to prove themselves as productive members of society (Only 30% of disabled people are educated). From its inception, NYOF has paid special attention to these children, whether they are blind or deaf, suffering from conditions such as cerebral palsy, or have other challenges.

NYOF supports many blind and deaf students in Nepal, and some with physical disabilities. The youth enrolled in this program are generally very capable and motivated students. 96% of them successfully passed their most recent end-of-term examinations; five of them obtained the best grades in their class, four ranked second, and three were third.

NYOF’s social workers maintain personal relationships with all of the students who receive scholarships and carefully monitor their academic progress and personal lives. They bring the students for health check ups when needed, and purchase any needed items for the children such as warm clothes, shoes, and books. The social workers also meet with the students’ principals and teachers every three months. For students who have parents, social workers visit the parents and determine if the living conditions are appropriate for the children and conducive to studying. ----------------------------------------- One student’s story: Laxmi Kunwar

My name is Laxmi Kunwar. I am seventeen years old and I am studying in grade nine in Kathmandu. I was not born disabled. Two years ago, in my village, I fell from a tree when I was collecting fodder for the cattle. My spinal cord was badly injured, and even after surgery, I am still paralyzed below the waist. I came to Kathmandu to undergo a lot of physiotherapy, and now I can move around in a wheelchair, but I can’t stand on my feet. I was the best student in my class, and I had a lot of dreams for my future career. Because of the accident, my dreams were ruined. My father sold almost all of our family’s property to pay for my treatment, and now we only have a few cattle, a small house, and a small piece of land.

I was searching for an opportunity to continue my studies, and fortunately, I got a scholarship from NYOF. My happiness crossed all boundaries when I learned that NYOF would support my education. I will utilize this support for my study as well as I possibly can. I want to thank NYOF for this support. ------------------------------------------ Thank you for helping NYOF transform the lives of some of the most disadvantaged children in Nepal.

Please let us know your thoughts about this project by providing feedback in our comments section!

One of the best students at the Kathmandu School for the Deaf

Links:

More information about NYOF's scholarships for the disabled