Fundraising successes this Summer

This has been a successful summer with fundraising events. First the garage sale which was huge and raised nearly $3000. The Lakeside Bash fundraiser was very successful and raised $2400. Also the fundraiser listed below which raised 1200 for dentistry for the children.
Approx $800 has been raised by our Qatar donors for a library for the Government school in Simpani. Many thanks to them. We still have my marathon to go and I am still taking sponsors for that. Training is going well and I completed 20 miles last Saturday. So we have enough money to pay our admin costs for the next year. It is always a relief to know we have enough money to cover that.

Our two volunteers have just returned from Nepal and worked at the High Mount School in Pokhara for a month. I met with them today and they are two bright young people who obviously enjoyed their time there very much and have lots of great photos. They are going to send me those and I will post some here and send some out to sponsors whose children are in the pictures.

We have 15 students all going to college now and 11 are girls. This is very encouraging for NEF. We can be proud that we have achieved in helping these children to a higher education.

New Dentistry Program

We have started a gift giving program involving children's dental visits. For $38 Canadian dollars you can send a child to the dentist for a check up, cleaning and other treatment if necessary. Nepali children rarely, if ever, visit a dentist. They are just too poor and usually cannot even afford medical treatment. There was not even a dental college in Nepal until 1996 so dentistry is in its infancy in Nepal. Children reach adulthood with many cavities and these teeth end up being extracted. Most older Nepalis have no teeth. So this is an opportunity to get children to the dentist early and hopefully save their teeth. Rotting teeth cause many health problems.
You can buy a dentist visit for friends and family for Christmas or birthdays. They will receive a card telling them about their gift. Cheques can be made out to NEF and please include the receipent's name and address.
Over $1.200 has already been raised for this program at a fundraiser put on by a Rotarian and his wife who accompanied me to Nepal this last spring. Many thanks to them.

Marathon Fundraiser

On October 10th I am running the Victoria Good Life Marathon and I am looking for sponsors for it. The money will go to NEF to help with administration costs for the next year. As you know sponsor and donor money does not cover administration costs. All money goes directly to supporting our women and children. Admin money has to be covered somehow. I have run marathons in the past but not for three years and it seems a good fundraising venture and I am looking forward to it. So if you can help even in a small way it will be very much appreciated.

If you would like to help by sponsoring me please email to www.nepeducation@yahoo.ca

Literacy Ladies

These photos were taken last week by our volunteers of the Literacy Ladies at High Mount School.

Pokhara Children and Literacy Ladies

We have two Canadian volunteers working at High Mount School for one month. They are post graduate students. They are really enjoying their time there and sent these photos today. They have been working with the children and conducted their oral English exam. While the children are doing exams they are going to be working with the teachers showing them some science experiments that they can do with the children. They love our literacy ladies and said what an inspiration they are and how committed they are to their studies.

The photo of the children is all of our sponsored children at this school. I think there is one missing. Please note our one full time lady student, Kiersma standing on the end in her school uniform.

Successful SLC Results

We have 9 students who have passed their School Leaving Certificate examination. One who failed one subject but he can retake it in two weeks time. 6 of these are girls. All are wanting to go onto college. This will make 15 students that NEF has in college. The majority being girls. I am very happy with this. It proves that we are making a difference.

I was at a street sale in Chemainus last Saturday and had a very good day. I was selling Nepali Handicrafts and some left over garage sale items. We made $700 less the cost of the goods but that was a profitable day.

There are two Canadian volunteers at High Mount School in Simpani. They emailed me and asked if I knew of a school where they could volunteer for one month. The principal at High Mount has been asking me for volunteers for a long time so he was delighted to be able to have them at his school. Here they can also help with the women's literacy. They are both post graduate students.

School Leaving Certificates Results

These will be out in about 2 weeks. We have ten students who sat this exam and are eagerly awaiting their results. If they pass they will be wanting to start college in August. It is a tough Government set exam so the fail rate can be quite high. I will let you know how they do. Six girls and four boys wrote the exam. Two for the second time.
Mann is in Pokhara at the moment checking on the Literacy and Sewing Programs. The sewing shop and training centre is really busy and training five women at the present time so he is looking for another shop next door or very close to the main one. This will give us more room to add two more machines for women trainees. We did not expect such success immediately or we would have rented a bigger space to start with. The women are extemely happy with this project.
Bijaya who I wrote about earlier on this blog is now attending computer classes thanks to a donor who read about him here.