Update from Nepal

I'm writing to share an update about Yubaraj, who recently left school after completing 4 1/2 years' education. He had nearly finished 10th grade, and while we were hoping he would see the year through we can understand his decision. At the end of 10th grade, Nepalese students take an exam which if they pass earns them a School Leaving Certificate that serves like our high school diploma. Yubaraj didn't expect to pass (about 45% of students pass the exam) and it made more sense to him to look for work than to finish out the school year.

We hope the education we were able to provide Yubaraj will serve him well. We all gathered together to support Yubaraj's education because we believed it would be worthwhile for so many reasons. Even stopping where he did, there are bound to be numerous benefits from the education he likely wouldn't otherwise have received.

Basu is keeping in touch with Yubaraj, and we hope to hear that he and his family continue to do well. We have about $70 remaining in his funds, and they'll remain available to him for at least the next year to cover any educational expenses for him, should he return to school, or for his younger brother and sisters.

Continued gratitude, and our very best wishes to Yubaraj,

Christine

News from Nepal: an update

Hi everyone,

It's been a terribly long time since I posted an update here, and there are MANY updates to share. Yubaraj is now in grade 8, attending classes and receiving tutoring regularly. I need to write a long post to catch you up on how all of that has come to pass -- been a bit of a challenge at times -- and to update everyone on the budget -- been challenging to keep costs to what we anticipated years ago.

For the moment I'll just share my deep gratitude to Basu Gnawali for taking on the significant daily responsibilities for this sponsorship, and share an email I just received from Yubaraj's tutor. I almost also posted the email Yubaraj sent, too -- his first one! -- but it didn't seem right. I feel differently than I did when we started this about posting photos and information about someone on the Internet without their permission. Yubaraj has always known his studies are made possible through the support of 100+ people who learned about his story online, and he knows about this blog, but that's different than sharing a message he wrote to me here. So know that he and his family are fine, that he's very grateful for his studies and is working hard in school, and we hope that before long he'll be posting his own blog entries.

And please join us in wishing Yubaraj a very Happy 20th Birthday!

Christine

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Dear Uncle,

In my observation, Yubaraj requires very less guidance in all the subjects except English. He is good in Maths and Science. He is okey in other subjects taught in Nepali language. However, he is very poor in English. He hardly can read and understand English. So, under my father’s guidance I’m teaching and assisting him in his English courses. I am basically focusing on his reading and understanding skills.

Math seems to be is favorite subject. He usually have questions on this subject and enjoys learning it.

Everyday he comes to my place at around 6:15 in the morning and I teach him at least one and half hours. On Saturday, he comes in the morning and evening as well.

He has been coming here since June 1^st, i.e. 18^th of Jestha. So altogether, he came for 14 days (until Jestha 31^st).

He has tried to write separate emails to Basu uncle and Christine. I’d send those separately.

Regards,

Rajiv

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Our purpose

In May 2006, Yahoo! Hot Zone journalist Kevin Sites wrote about Yubaraj Khadka, a Nepalese boy who had been supporting his family by parking motorcycles on the streets of Kathmandu. Many people who read about Yubaraj wanted to find a way to enroll him in school, to reward him for working so hard and to give him the means to build a better life.

A small group has committed to making that happen, and this blog charts our progress.

Our sincere thanks to everyone who responded to the Hot Zone article! It has been overwhelming, and so wonderfully heartwarming, to see such an outpouring of support!!

As you can see below, the response from all of our donors brought our funds above $7,700 ~ in other words, we reached our goal! Donations received after April 4, 2007, are being used to support educational costs for Yubaraj's siblings and other students in the community of Bethan. It is fantastic to see the impact of this support for Yubaraj expand to include other students, too! :)

Budget for Yubaraj and his family: $7,900
$6,100 School and living expenses for Yubaraj from Grade 6 through Grade 12
$1,800 Assistance to his family

Donations received as of October 25, 2007: $9,405.50
$7,563.50 in online credit card donations via GiveMeaning
$1,842.00 in cash and checks

Assistance given to Yubaraj and his family as of October 25, 2007: $1,551
These expenses include tutoring to prepare for the school entrance exam, school fees and uniforms for Grade 6, living expenses for Yubaraj 8/06-6/07, one year's rent paid in advance (6/07 - 6/08), and assistance to Yubaraj's family. A detailed accounting is available at any time upon request.

Our continued gratitude for every single donation and toward every single person who has supported this work.

Our team

These are the people dedicated to making this project a success for Yubaraj. All are doing this voluntarily ~ no donations are used to compensate them for their time or expenses.

Christine Egger ~ In 1998, after several years in the corporate sector, Christine took a year's sabbatical to backpack through Central America, Southeast and Central Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. That traveling included a month in Nepal, where she developed a strong appreciation for its culture and people. She earned a Master's degree in International Development from Michigan State University ('05), where she studied Nepali as a Foreign Language Advanced Study Fellow, and currently provides grantwriting and program support to several nonprofit organizations (including, as of 11/06, Scott MacLennan's Mountain Fund listed below). christine.egger@hotmail.com. June 2009 update: Christine is a Founding Team Member of Social Actions, a nonprofit that helps people find and share opportunities to take action on issues that they care about.

Basu Gnawali ~ Basu is an independent financial auditor for several non-profit and for-profit companies in Kathmandu, Nepal. He also serves the Nepalese Children’s Education Fund (NCEF) as a member of the selection committee and as an advisor to their Board of Directors. Basu assists with distributing funds, school selection, and other issues to support Yubaraj. basu@gnawali.org. June 2009 update: Basu oversees the day-to-day aspects of this sponsorship for Yubaraj (school, tutoring and living arrangements, etc.). He now lives in Massachusetts. Yubaraj is sharing an apartment in Kathmandu with Basu's son (and Om's brother) Shyam, who helps with arrangements locally.

Omprakash Gnawali ~ Om serves as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Nepalese Children's Education Fund (NCEF), an NGO dedicated to developing the potential of Nepalese children through education. He grew up in Kathmandu and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Southern California. He has Masters and Bachelor degrees in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MSc 2002, BS 2001). Om provides key advisory support on all aspects of our project for Yubaraj. om_p@nepalchildren.org. June 2009 update: Om continues to provide valuable ongoing mentorship for this project.

Puskar Gurung ~ Puskar assists several Nepalese NGOs including Karing For Kids and the International Mountain Explorers Connection, and the Indigenous Cultural Society. He is Director of the Dabail Theatre Group in Kathmandu and is an accomplished actor in Nepal. Puskar was one of our earliest liaisons to Yubaraj. dabili@mail.com.np. June 2009 update: Puskar is not actively involved in Yubaraj's sponsorship. His assistance early on was critical and continues to be greatly appreciated.

Scott MacLennan ~ Scott is Executive Director of the Mountain Fund, Premier Partner Trekking Program Coordinator for the International Mountain Explorers Connection, International Director of Karing for Kids Nepal, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Alpine Fund. Scott plays a key role as financial agent for all of the donations collected for Yubaraj, passing 100% through the Mountain Fund to Basu Gnawali and/or Yubaraj's school directly. He brings a wealth of experience to our project as well as valuable personal resources in Nepal such as his relationship with Puskar and others who are helping us there. mtnfund@mountainfund.org. June 2009 update: Scott and the Mountain Fund are no longer actively involved in Yubaraj's sponsorship. Their assistance early on was critical and continues to be greatly appreciated.

Phurbu G. Thokra ~ Phurbu works closely with the Mountain Fund staff as well as Karing for Kids Nepal, a Mountain Fund member organization that supports a health clinic in the district of Rasuwa. In addition to these projects he is a full-time student pursuing a bachelor of science degree in Kathmandu. June 2009 update: Phurbu is no longer actively involved in Yubaraj's sponsorship. His assistance early on was critical and continues to be greatly appreciated.

News from Nepal: An update

School year transition for Yubaraj: Following Yubaraj's poor performance on his first report card, we re-instituted tutoring support and saw better grades on the second set of exams in early 2008. Final exams came soon after (the school year was shortened by a month or so pending April 10 elections), Yubaraj passed all subjects, and he's just started the new school year in level 7.


Changes in Kathmandu: Sudhir Lama, who had been our key liaison with Yubaraj as the office manager for Mountain Fund's Kathmandu volunteer center, moved to England in early February. Phurbu Thokar moved into that role, and in March he accepted a three-month position with the United Nations to assist with monitoring the election process.

In the meantime, and perhaps for the long term, we have logistical support from Shyam Gnawali (Om's brother, Basu's son, and Yubaraj's apartment-mate) to forward funds to Yubarj and his family on schedule. He's been doing a fantastic job of helping with the school enrollment and arranging tutoring support for the next several months.

Basu had a long conversation with Yubaraj last week, and passed along his news that his family is doing well and that he feels ready to tackle the new schoolwork. This weekend, I'll have my first conversation with Yubaraj since last fall and look forward to posting more news soon!

News from Nepal: An update

More news to share regarding Yubaraj's performance at school... Last week, Yubaraj showed us his report card (the first available since he started school). It showed that he failed 7 of his 11 classes, not 2 as he'd told us. He apologized for trying to falsify the report, saying he was worried we would stop our sponsorship if we knew that he'd failed so many classes. Also of concern was that the report showed that he has attended only half of his classes since starting school. With 20/20 hindsight, we should have been checking that over the past several months, but I didn't know the school kept track of attendance (it's a recent development) and in any case I wouldn't have thought in a million years that Yubaraj would be missing school.


Sudhir met with all of his teachers and they all suggest that he's struggling with the transition and should continue to get our support through at least the end of the year. They don't have any financial incentive to argue for that, so we're taking their suggestion at face value. We've already arranged for a tutor to work with Yubaraj. We're also requiring that each month through the end of the school year (in April) Yubaraj submit a report showing he's attending all classes before he'll receive the next month's allowance. And we've clarified our expectations that his grades should earn him a promotion to the next grade at the end of the year.


We're explicitly telling Yubaraj that any future dishonesty will result in a suspension of our sponsorship, and we're asking him to be upfront with us and explain the reason for the absences. Understanding why Yubaraj has missed so much school, and being able to trust what Yubaraj tells us, are important to all of us working to deliver this support.

We hope he'll share that information, and in the meantime we'll be tracking his school attendance closely and hope to have better news to share soon.

Other news: Heartwarming support

Incredible support coming to Yubaraj in two unique and wonderful ways...

Seeta Alqasem: Seeta has two teenage sons and knows how much it means to them to have some spending money all their own. She wants Yubaraj to have that experience during his teenage years, too. Seeta sent $20 to Yubaraj for his birthday in June, another $25 "just for fun" in August, and $50 in October so that Yubaraj could bring presents to his family for the Dasain holiday. It's been a joy for all of us to see Yubaraj receive each of these gifts, and to know they bring the comfort and empowerment that comes with having money of his own to spend or save as he chooses. We're truly grateful to Seeta for the strong connection and commitment she's made to Yubaraj and for her continued generosity.

Amanda Martin: As a young adult, Mandie spent several years taking care of her younger brother, and she feels a strong connection to the responsibility Yubaraj bears for his family. She has generously provided $1,000 to be used primarily towards Yubaraj's education and also to assist his family and village. The amount will be available to Yubaraj in stages as he completes sixth and seventh grade. Possibilities for how the money will be used to benefit Yubaraj's family and the village include medical expenses including the one mentioned below; for Yubaraj’s mother to purchase items for her and her neighbor’s families; for improvements to their homes; for for a project that will benefit everyone the community of Bethan. Such a tremendous amount of good will be realized with Mandie’s gift. We are so grateful to her, and thrilled to know that Yubaraj, his family, and his village will benefit in so many ways from her generosity.

News from Nepal: An update

Yubaraj has been in school for nearly six months, now, and is truly enjoying this new life. He's been stopping in to the Mountain Fund office on most Fridays, to check in and just catch up with Sudhir, Kul, and other other staff there. Yubaraj was working with a tutor for the first month of classes, and we stopped the tutoring when it looked like he was ready to handle the schoolwork on his own. But just a couple of weeks ago Yubaraj got the results of his first set of exams, which are administered semi-annually at all public schools in Nepal. We found out that he didn't pass Science or Math (not what we were hoping for!) and Yubaraj immediately asked for tutoring help in those subjects. School has been closed for the past two weeks, and Yubaraj has been with his family in Bethan, for the Dashain holiday and as soon as he returns we'll start up tutoring sessions in those subjects. Our goal is to prepare Yubaraj to successfully transition in the spring a non-public school, one that would provide a better educational foundation for him and that ideally will include a shared living arrangement with other students. So we'll re-start tutoring in November and continue that as needed, and look for his exam results to improve through the second half of the school year so we're ready for the process of applying to other schools.

Over the past several months we've settled into a good system for passing monthly funds to Yubaraj and his family. We were initially reimbursing Yubaraj for actual expenses and now give him a monthly allowance to cover all expenses other than rent and school fees. This gives him more control and responsibility for his finances, and gives him the ability to save up special purchases, too. He receives funds to pass along to his mother as well (to replace the income lost when he stopped working) and we've confirmed that the money is reaching her as planned. As always, if you'd like to see a detailed accounting of the financial side of this project please don't hesitate to ask!

News from Nepal: A special request

Yubaraj has told us that his younger brother Sukdev recently fell from a tree and broke his arm in three places. Yubaraj's mother borrowed money -- 5,000 Rs. or $77 -- to have his arm set and placed in a cast. The person who loaned her the the money wants to be repaid, now. Yubaraj asked whether we could help with this.

We explained that we weren't prepared to do that, that we have to be really careful about managing the money we've collected so it's enough to support Yubaraj's education like we've promised everyone who contributed.

We told Yubaraj that what we could do was forward his request to all of you, in hopes that one or several of you would like to help his mother with this debt. If that's something you can do, please add a note to your GiveMeaning donation to let us know it's for this purpose and we'll post updates here about what we've been able to do to help his family with this.

Thank you!

News from Nepal: Conversation with Yubaraj

Om and I had the chance to talk with Yubaraj over the weekend, our first conversation since I was in Kathmandu in March.



It was *fantastic* to hear the confidence in Yubaraj's voice as he talked about school. He sincerely thanked us for making it possible for him to be in school again and seems to really thrive in the classroom. He said he's doing well in math and science, and is getting good support from the teachers when he asks questions in class. English seems to be the most difficult subject and he asked whether he could attend extra English language classes during a 2-week vacation that begins towards the end of June. That sounds like a good idea to us and with Sudhir's help we're looking for those options for him. Yubaraj told us that according to his teachers, if his English improves he'll be doing well enough in all of his classes to be a "First Division" student. This is similar to being considered an "A" student in the U.S., and we could hear in Yubaraj's voice that he wanted this distinction very badly.



We also talked about whether we had set an appropriate amount (1,000 rupees) for Yubaraj to send home to his family each month, and he admitted that he wished it were slightly higher. When we asked what kinds of expenses this would cover he described the need to purchase two bags of fertilizer within the next month (at 600-700 rupees each) to guarantee a good harvest later in the year. He noted school expenses, too, for his younger brother and sisters. When we asked what would take the worry away he asked for 1,500. This is in line with what he was sending home when he was working last year, and with some budget-crunching we can make it work, so we said that would be OK.

We imagine that at his age, it's difficult for Yubaraj to see too far into the future, but we wanted to know whether his goals had changed now that he was back in school. Settled into a good apartment and knowing his family was OK, did he picture staying there through the "10+2" level (in which case he graduates 7 years from now) or was he taking this arrangement six months or one year at a time? He answered that in that situation he would very much like to stay through graduation, and he repeated that even as we encouraged him to be completely truthful if his feelings had changed.

Those of you who have children -- especially teenage children away at school -- know how difficult it is to truly gauge how they're doing. It was clear Yubaraj was on his "best behavior," but Om and I both got the sense that he's settling into this life very well, and that he'll continue to work hard at school and that he really appreciates what everyone has done for him.

We're looking forward to talking with him again regularly -- he mentioned that he's stopping into the Mountain Fund office on most Fridays, and we'll be able to arrange a phone call there from time to time -- and to sharing more news as it arrives!

Christine

News from Nepal: School & a new bicycle for Yubaraj

Some wonderful news to share from Nepal :)

School begins

Yubaraj passed his entrance exam and has enrolled in sixth grade in Nepaltar school in Balaju! We'll share photos of his new life as a student as soon as they arrive, and in the meantime are just thrilled that Yubaraj is a full-time student as we all wished for him nearly a year ago. Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A new bicycle

Basu Gnawali, who carefully monitors all of the expenses for this project, suggested that finding a bicycle for Yubaraj might be a better transportation option than using a bus to get to and from school. We agreed that although a bicycle would save money in the long run, and would give Yubaraj more freedom in getting around Kathmandu, it would be better still if we could find someone who would be willing to donate a bicycle to our new student.

Chhimi U. Gurung of Dawn Till Dusk, replied to our request immediately and generously and Yubaraj now has this fantastic bike!!

If you're in Nepal and want to spend time on a bike while you're there, please look them up. They're the only mountain biking company in Nepal run by professional Nepali mountain bikers, and they organize mountain bike tours to Tibet, Nepal, Ladakh, Sikkim and Bhutan. Thank you Chhimi and Dawn Till Dusk!!!

News from Nepal: School exam scheduled

We just received confirmation that Yubaraj's school entrance exam is scheduled for April 20. He'll need to show he's ready to enter the 6th grade in order to enroll in school. In late February he tested at the 4th grade level, so this represents a pretty big jump. But we're told he likes his tutor and is studying diligently, and he knows how many people are rooting for him and that has to help! We'll post the results as soon as they're available...

Other news: Fundraising complete & more updating

Fundraising for Yubaraj complete!!

It's absolutely wonderful to have reached our fundraising goal of $7,700! On Thursday, April 4, 2007, we capped the donations for Yubaraj at $7,960. We've created a budget that breaks this amount down over 7 years of Yubaraj's schooling (the GiveMeaning Budget tab shows some details, and a very detailed accounting is available upon request). It's a challenge to anticipate costs too precisely over that length of time, with inflation and currency fluctuations to consider, too, but I think we've done a good job of anticipating costs and I'm comfortable that with the careful use of funds we'll be successful in supporting Yubaraj through the end of high school. Would anyone like to join me at his graduation, in the spring of 2014?!

Fingers crossed for next week's exam

First things first, though: he'll need to show he's ready to being 6th grade on next week's entrance exam. He's taking tutoring classes 6 days a week, and will have received 4-5 weeks' of tutoring support since late-February's evaluation showing 4th grade level skills. That's alot of ground to cover so our fingers are crossed for him. We'll keep everyone posted as the results come in.

Helping more children

On Thursday I added a note to our GiveMeaning site and blog that additional donations would be applied towards educational costs for more students in Bethan, and already we've received $200 towards that "new project." We'll be working out a plan for distributing funds to the school teacher in Bethan (Mr. Karki). The logistics of that will be very straightforward, but some careful decisions will be needed to ensure that we're distributing those funds fairly. We're interested in helping Yubaraj's sisters and brother and it would be appropriate at this stage to make sure the entire community feels good about our contributions and that will mean using some of those funds to offset monthly fees for more than just those four children. The monthly cost per child is about $15, so already we have enough funds to help several children. We'll keep everyone posted as a plan comes together.

That's all for now. I hope each of you tracking our progress with this project feels a sense of accomplishment that our efforts to invest in Yubaraj's future are well-funded. There's alot of work to be done -- both for Yubaraj and for all of us who will be guiding him through the next years of his education -- and all of us involved are excited that it's underway!

Update from Nepal: Kantipur newspaper article & translation

Yubaraj and I had the pleasure of being interviewed(!) for Kantipur, Nepal's largest Nepali-language newspaper. Knowing I'd be in Nepal, Kevin Sites suggested we get in touch with Dinesh Wagle, the Nepali journalist who had been with Kevin last may when he met Yubaraj. Dinesh made room in his schedule to talk with us for over an hour on March 5 and his article appeared in Kantipur on March 21.

Here's a translation of the article followed by some thoughts and comments:

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Yahoo! Study after quitting Parking!

Kathmandu- The story of a 14 year old teenager boy was published in Yahoo ‘hot zone’ serial after an International Journalist Kevin, who was riding a taxi, saw Yubaraj Khadka managing taxi parking in a busy street crossing in Thamel. The news printed in a well-read page on the world’s popular website talked about how Yubaraj had to quit his study and get a job to look after his family (parent and others) in a village of Ramechhap. The readers immediately wanted to help. One was Christine Egger, American woman living in Michigan. Over the past few months she contacted donors through a Canadian website and met Yubaraj in Kathmandu last week. She came to Nepal as a backpacker eight years ago and was always thinking about helping people in Nepal, saying those thoughts are “natural and humanity.”

After reading the article about the young Nepali boy, Christine opened a page in Canadian Give Meaning.com to collect donations from people who are interested helping the teenager. In the meantime she researched about Yubaraj through her contacts, and staff from a volunteer coordination office established by a foreigner reached Bethan of Ramechhap [district].

Some people did not want to donate after knowing the actual age of Yubaraj as 16 instead of 14, Christine mentioned; however, he was still eligible to get help. After collecting all the information, Christine sent a letter to Yahoo! Hot Zone giving them information about helping the teenager.

After the letter was circulated on Hot Zone, donations increased. “Now,” she says, “we hope the amount needed will be collected in a few days. The goal is to collect $ 7,700 of which $6,300 has been collected so far. If excess funds are collected, we want to establish a welfare fund for the welfare of children of Bethan.”

Christine’s effort to help Yubaraj, who had dropped out of school and left for Kathmandu after sixth grade in order to earn money for his family, and to send him back to school is an example of how the internet has made this world a small place.

“This is not charity to this individual but an investment in him. The main goal of this effort is that Yubaraj be a capable person after finishing his study and be able to contribute to the society.”

It is thanks to computer networking that Christine came to know about the “Parking Boy,” motivated people from one part of the world to help someone in another part, and collected funds through a website.

“This has been a wonderful medium,” Christine said referring to the Internet. “It plays an important role in connecting one part of the world to another.”

Popular website Yahoo! had appointed Kevin [Sites] as a journalist for their news service and sent him to conflict hit areas. While in Nepal, Kevin published reports in video, pictures, and words – jounalism as a “one man band.”

The young boy, who will start school in the next session, does know what the Internet is however, for him, this opportunity to study has been of inexpressible joy. Yubaraj has his mother and sister at home and his father has been missing for years. He had told Kevin that he used to send money saved from his work to his family.

Christine stressed that their effort through the Internet was not charity or mercy for the Nepali teenager, but that it was an investment. “This is not a help to an individual, but it is an investment on him. For me, this is also a test on whether other children could be helped effectively this way. The objective of effort is to make Yubaraj a person capable to help the society.”

– March 2007. “Kantipur.” Nepal, Kathmandu.

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Some thoughts:

I am mostly extremely grateful that he took an interest in our story and chose to use the Kantipur newspaper to tell people about what we’re doing! I enjoyed spending time with him and it was clear that he was glad for Yubaraj and wanted the very best for him.

A few things we talked about didn’t come through in the article as I’d hoped, though. We talked at length about how our goal with this effort was to fit into Yubaraj’s life and to help him achieve his goals, and I don’t remember ever saying (or thinking!) that our objective was to “make Yubaraj capable of contributing to society.”

I also stressed how collaborative this effort was – that so many people were involved in creating this project, collecting donations, and making it all work. I wish he had stressed that, too, and that he had mentioned the Mountain Fund Volunteer Center by name. They’re doing so much for Yubaraj and it would have been great to bring them some publicity, too.

But my biggest response is gratitude for Dinesh’s time and attention, and an optimism that people in Nepal will read about this project and be inspired to find other ways to use the Internet to bring resources to more children like Yubaraj.

Update from Nepal: Meeting Yubaraj, and a new school plan

On Monday March 5 and again on Saturday March 10, I had the incredible pleasure of meeting Yubaraj, Basu, Scott, Puskar, and many others involved in this project. It's taking longer than expected to recover from that whirlwind, week-long trip to Nepal, and also longer than expected to write the detailed report that will be posted here, but for now it is a pleasure to post a few photographs from those meetings and write briefly about what a joy it was to finally meet everyone! (Visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/christineegger/sets/ to see these photographs with captions as well as more pictures from our visit as well as the week in Nepal.)

An revision to the school plan: During our conversations, Yubaraj voiced an interest in owning a shop one day and we talked about the best way to prepare him for that. With Yubaraj's participation, we revised our short-term plan to include a government school (public school) education rather than a boarding school. This will provide a good, well-rounded education for Yubaraj that will help him towards his goal of owning a business one day, and it resolves the issue surrounding his age difference with other children in his grade level. Children in government school whose families live outside Kathmandu typically live in hostels (boarding houses) and Yubaraj asked to live in one of these rather than staying in the room he currently shares with two young men from his village. So we're looking for a government school and nearby hostel for Yubaraj to begin with when he passes the academic evaluation at the sixth grade level. We'll consider boarding school on a regular (probably annual) basis, and will base a decision to change on Yubaraj's academic performance and interests.

I'll write more soon and look forward to sharing more updates as these plans take shape!

News from Nepal: Tutoring to begin

Basu arranged for the evaluation exam mentioned earlier, and Yubaraj tested at the fourth grade level. This was as expected, considering that Yubaraj left the sixth grade many years ago. Because he'll need to test at the sixth grade level in order to be accepted into a boarding school at his age, Basu has arranged for a tutor to meet with Yubaraj several times a week for the next four months. The tutor is being selected by Mr. Anup Shrestha, Bhanubhakta Memorial School, who also arranged for the evaluation exam. In June or so Yubaraj will take a follow-up exam and we'll find the right school for him then.

The professional tutoring will cost about $36/month. Transportation for Yubaraj to go to the tutor's house will cost about $17/month. So the total cost for this arrangement will be $53/month or about $210 for four months. I feel very good about the benefits that will come from making this investment. With the first evaluation exam we have a good documentation of Yubaraj's academic status before this tutoring will begin, and by paying a reasonable price for a professional tutor we're taking the right steps to ensure Yubaraj will be ready to enroll in school in the shortest amount of time.

Other news: Visiting Yubaraj

I've hoped for the chance to meet Yubaraj since first launching this project, so you can imagine I'm pretty nervous and excited about having just made plans to travel to Nepal. I'll be there for just a week, from March 4-10, but it should be long enough to spend some time with Yubaraj, Basu, Puskar, and Phurbu. I really can't wait to get to know them all better and look forward to sharing details here about all that I learn during those days in Kathmandu!

News from Nepal: An update

An update to my last message, when we were hopeful that Yubaraj would have a job or volunteer opportunity at the Mountain Fund office. That couldn't be arranged, unfortunately, so we've been focusing our efforts on finding a good tutor for Yubaraj to help him prepare for returning to school. In order to measure the tutor's impact on his studies, and to give us and the schools we're considering a better idea of where Yubaraj stands academically, Basu is arranging for him to take an evaluation exam. I can't imagine that's something Yubaraj is looking forward to, but he's being a trooper and doing whatever's necessary to be back in school soon.

Budget details

I thought it would be informative to post two budget-related documents. The first is an image of the signed receipt sent by Basu yesterday. It shows that Yubaraj has received some funds for us to cover his expenses for the next month as well as for bus fare to return to Kathmandu for the exam (we know it's not ideal to give Yubaraj this kind of "open" financial support but it continues to be the only option while he's not working and we're raising the funds we need to get him back to school).

The second is an image of the budget spreadsheet showing detail to support the totals reported above. Please let me know at any time if you'd like a copy.

Other news: How this project came together

While preparing materials for Hot Zone, we wrote the following summary of how each of the people and organizations included in the Team roster above came to be involved in this work for Yubaraj. In addition to serving as an aid for those who want to check our credentials, it also provides a behind-the-scenes look at how an initiative like this might come together.

The summary takes the story from my reading of "Street Dance" right up to the point where we're ready to meet Yubaraj. The posts on this blog take the story from there...

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Team-building

After reading "Street Dance" and volunteering to coordinate this effort, I emailed the 70 Yahoo! members who had voiced an interest in helping Yubaraj. Of the twelve who responded, six also asked to be a part of putting the project in motion. They played a critical role, early on, in guiding the process and keeping me on task as we’ve moved towards our goal of helping Yubaraj.

Within a few day I started emailing people I knew and respected who had some familiarity with nonprofit work in Nepal. Scott Dimetrosky of the International Mountain Explorers Club (IMEC) put me in touch with Scott MacLennan, an IMEC board member who has been active in a number of community-level nonprofits in Nepal and elsewhere. I emailed Scott to tell him about our intent, and he responded with cautious enthusiasm. He knew the potential for good that we wanted to accomplish, but he also knew that supporting one family or individual can cause some strong resentment within a community. We talked at length about the steps we could take to minimize that risk, and Scott ultimately agreed to help us. His support has been fundamental to what we’ve been able to do. First, he put us in touch with both Puskar Gurung (a close friend from Kathmandu who helps with Scott’s nonprofit activities there and who played a key role in finding Yubaraj and developing a relationship with him on our behalf) and Phurbu Tamang (another friend who took the important role of visiting with Yubaraj and his family in their village). Scott has also allowed us to direct funds through his nonprofit organization, the Mountain Fund, something that’s critical to our being able to accept online credit card donations (more about that below). He’s providing that service at no charge so we’re able to pass 100% of those donations to Yubaraj.

I also got in touch with Heather O’Neal, whom I’d heard of but had never met. She runs Of Global Interest, an adventure travel company and Nepal-themed B&B in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She has also become an important source of support, both financially (by passing along 100% of donations made by check) and logistically (as described below she was able to meet with Yubaraj and all of our Nepal partners in September).

I also looked for nonprofits in Nepal that could help us place Yubaraj in school. That led to a conversation with Omprakash Gnawali, CEO of the Nepalese Children’s Education Fund, who brought the same management approach (voluntary, transparent, ethical) to his organization that I hoped to bring to this project. Lucky for us, he took a strong interest in what we were doing and we’ve benefited tremendously from his familiarity with family interviews, education options in Kathmandu, and every other aspect of this work.

All of us wanted to be very specific about what we would expect from the volunteer team in Nepal. Together we created a partner document that listed those responsibilities (distribute funds as directed and report all expenses; enroll Yubaraj in school). We also emphasized that, most importantly, this was a voluntary long-term investment to Yubaraj’s future and well-being. Once we were clear about what, we started looking for people to play that role. One of the most qualified prospective partners turned out to be Basu Gnawali, Om’s father, and after several online and telephone conversations he agreed to take on these responsibilities. Basu is an independent financial auditor for nonprofit and for-profit corporations in Kathmandu, so he has the experience with managing funds that we were looking for. As an advisor to the Board of the Nepalese Children’s Education Fund he also has substantial experience in supporting the process of placing children like Yubaraj in boarding schools.

By the end of July 2006, all of the necessary partnerships were in place: In the US, Heather O’Neal, Scott MacLennan, Om Gnawali, and the six Yahoo! members; in Nepal, Basu Gnawali and Puskar Gurung; and GiveMeaning.com to direct donations to the Mountain Fund. We had all established a collective level of trust and respect, strengthened in previous months, that continues to carry the project forward. This took more time than I had expected but the pace was understandable given that we were a diverse group of volunteers who, for the most part, had other full-time commitments and didn’t know each other before coming together for this cause. Through dozens of phone calls and emails (by August my computer’s “Yubaraj” folder held 150+ messages), it became clear that we could consistently count on each other to move this project forward in a way that would honor Yubaraj and our goal to assist with his education.

Developing a budget and a way to collect donations

Over the summer we established a plan and a budget for what we wanted to do. In keeping with the wishes expressed in those first Hot Zone posts, we wanted to help Yubaraj return to school. Basu researched a number of boarding schools in Kathmandu including Banubhakta Memorial Higher Secondary School, Sunrise Boarding School, and Insight Vision School. Each has proven successful for NCEF-sponsored students and has a reputation for providing a good education at a reasonable cost. Of these we selected Insight Vision School as a good option for Yubaraj and based our budget on their costs for tuition, room, and board ($1-2,000 per year depending on the grade). Our total school budget of $6,500, which will support Yubaraj through graduation, includes tutoring, a clothing allowance, and all incidentals. We are also planning for the possibility that Yubaraj’s family might require some assistance while he is in school and no longer earning an income in Kathmandu. We’ve included $1,200 in our fundraising goal to provide this support if it becomes necessary.

These two amounts put our goal at $7,700. After much discussion, we decided it would be unwise to enroll Yubaraj in school before collecting that entire amount, imagining that it would be hard on him to have to leave his life at school if the funding were to fall short. We committed to that plan and set a goal of raising those funds as quickly as possible.

At the same time I was researching methods for collecting donations, checking out internet-based organizations that had a good reputation for little or no cost. Ultimately, the service offered by GiveMeaning.com seemed best suited for what we wanted to do. GiveMeaning.com gives nonprofit projects the capacity to accept online credit card donations and passes along 100% of each donation to our project (they don’t even deduct processing fees). As a bonus, they’re great to work with. Since my first conversation with Tom Williams, their CEO, the support we’ve received from the entire GiveMeaning.com staff has been phenomenal.

Projects on GiveMeaning.com must receive 100 “votes of support” before they’re able to collect online donations. On August 17 we launched a petition drive for these votes. The 100th vote was cast only two weeks later on August 31. With our GiveMeaning.com profile up and running and a newly-created blog ready to keep people informed of our progress, we were ready to collect donations.

We initially wanted to contact Yubaraj only after collecting $7,700 (so we wouldn’t raise any false hopes about what we could do for him), but it became clear that this wasn’t a practical goal. So far we’d received donations totaling $500 – a great start but far from our goal – and we guessed that we needed to confirm Yubaraj’s story before more people would contribute to his education. That became our next priority....

Other news: A busy two months

It's been a full two months since our last post. Progress has been made in several directions:

Conversation with Kevin Sites

Kevin Sites and I were finally able to talk about what we hoped to accomplish for Yubaraj, and he repeated his support for this effort and their offer to tell the HotZone audience about us. We're writing a summary of what we've done since reading "Street Dance" last May, and hope to have our story shared on the Yahoo! HotZone website within a few weeks. Many thanks to Kevin and his producers for taking an interest in this project!

Matching funds from GiveMeaning.com

During the past month GiveMeaning.com offered a $.50 match for every $1.00 donation for a maximum matching contribution of $200. It didn't take long, after telling friends and family about this offer, for that maximum to be reached. Many thanks to all who responded to our request for donations and to GiveMeaning for contributing their dollars and momentum-building match to our project!

Donations update

As you can read in the first post above, we've received over $1,100 for Yubaraj. I'm thrilled with this amount -- already, we'll be able to accomplish so much for him! -- and am confident that we're well on our way to collecting the $7,700 we'll need to support his high school education. The next school year in Nepal will begin in April, and we only need $6,600 by then to enroll Yubaraj at the Insight Vision School at the start of the school year.

Supporting Yubaraj between now and April

Like so many others in Kathmandu, Yubaraj has been unable to find work since losing his job with the parking operators in August. He has spent much of the past month in Bethan, but has been in touch with Basu on a pretty regular basis. When they met last week, Basu gave him 2,000 rupees (about $25 dollars) to take care of himself and his family for the next month. All of us recognize that giving Yubaraj cash isn't a good solution even for the short term (i.e. the next few months before he enrolls in school). He has alot of time on his hands, and even with some hours dedicating to tutoring (which we'll set up as soon as our donation totals indicate that school enrollment is very likely), it would be best for many reasons for him to be earning whatever financial support we're giving him. With Scott MacLennan's permission, we've asked Sudhir Lama, the director of Mountain Fund's Nepal office, to consider hiring Yubaraj in exchange for supporting Yubaraj's salary with our donations. Sudhir, Basu, Puskar, and Yubaraj have tentatively scheduled a meeting for December 21. He'll interview Yubaraj at that time (they haven't met before) and discuss what Yubaraj's job might be and to work out the payment arrangement. My fingers are crossed that they'll be able to work something out and will post an update here as those decisions are made.

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An additional note to say thank you to all of the people who continue to support this project. I spent yesterday at Heather O'Neal's place in Ann Arbor. As described elsewhere on this blog, she met Yubaraj and our Kathmandu partners in September and has been a huge supporter of what we're doing for Yubaraj. Yesterday her Himalayan Bazaar was open to holiday shoppers and she encouraged me to set up a table there to raise funds for Yubaraj. In exchange for mostly $3-4 items donated by a children's group here in Milford, we received $73 in donations. It was a pretty labor-intensive way to collect those dollars (outdoors on a sunny but cold Michigan December day!) but an absolute joy to talk to so many people about what we were doing, and to be able to tell them that we're well on our way to making such a meaningful difference in the lives of Yubaraj and his family. A surprising number of people had been to Nepal (Ann Arbor is a well-traveled town, apparently) and they could easily picture Yubaraj's life in Bethan and all of the dynamics that led to his leaving school and looking for work in Kathmandu. It was a very rewarding experience to receive such a positive response to what we were doing.

Other news: Some reflection on the report from Bethan

Those of you who are paying attention to the dates of these posts will notice a significant lapse over the past month. An explanation:

My initial response after reading Phurbu’s report was to stay the course, but as the news sunk in I realized that my enthusiasm for helping Yubaraj had taken a hit. It was really hard to let go of the picture I'd created in my mind of Yubaraj as a 14-year old who’d suffered the death of his father and who, with just a little bit of effort, could catch up on the missing two years of school.

Over the past few weeks, as I've let go of that picture, a new and just-as-compelling picture has emerged. Yubaraj is a young man who shoulders tremendous responsibility for a large family. He has always been as deserving of our support – no more, no less – than any other child in his situation, and I believe this is as true as ever. We have an opportunity to make a tremendous difference in his life and – by extension – in the lives of his mother, wife, sisters and brothers, and, some day, his children. Those of us engaged in the project translate that opportunity into a responsibility, and I only have to look at the photographs that Phurbu took in Bethan (posted below) to feel that sense of responsibility crystallize, strengthen, and motivate me to continue my role in moving this project forward.

While Yubaraj has been enthusiastic about returning to school, learning that he’s 17 (nearly an adult) has broadened the range of educational and vocational options available to him. His age also gives him more of a decision-making role than we initially considered: at 17, he can and should take an active role in determining what should be done with our support. We’ve asked Basu to talk to Yubaraj about this, and with his guidance we’ll be considering vocational training programs, small business training, and similar ideas to supplement his schooling or to create opportunities for him after he graduates.

Of course, this all depends on the funds we’re able to collect for Yubaraj. I continue to believe that the Yahoo members who initially read Kevin Sites’ article will support what we’re doing. And although Kevin Sites and I have so far only become good at exchanging emails and playing phone tag, he’s asked me to be patient while he meets some pressing deadlines and has repeated his support for what we’re doing. So I’m still optimistic that he and his producers will take the opportunity to feature our work for Yubaraj on their website and draw attention to our need for funds to make this work.

In the meantime, a group of us are doing what we can to raise awareness and funds. If you haven’t already done so, please join us by clicking here to donate through GiveMeaning.com and we’ll continue to keep everyone posted as we move forward. Thank you!

Update from Nepal: Heather meets with Yubaraj and our “Kathmandu team”

Heather O’Neal from Of Global Interest had a chance to meet with Yubaraj, Basu, Puskar, and Phurbu in Kathmandu on Thursday, September 21. She wrote a description of that meeting and the additional hours she spent with, but asked that I not publish it here because she’d feel she had spied on them if they were to read what she’d written. She had only good things to say, but I want to respect her feelings about that and have written a summary of her email here.

Heather made several positive comments about each of our Kathmandu-based partners – that Puskar was nice and outgoing; that Phurbu was kind and gentle, and that Basu was nice and kind and good with money – and I got the same positive feedback from each of them about Heather. I have the overall impression that we’ve really assembled a great group of people who have Yubaraj’s best interests at heart, and who enjoy coming together for this project we’ve created. Heather and Puskar both enjoyed learning that they had a little project in common: it turns out that a few years ago Heather submitted a film to a festival that Puskar had organized.

After talking over coffee, Heather and Yubaraj spent some time together exploring Kathmandu. They went to Pashupati Nath temple before going bazaar-shopping, where Heather bought Yubaraj a sweatshirt-jacket and pants. She wrote that Yubaraj is “cute as pie” and that they had a nice time together. Leaving him, she said, she felt badly, not knowing whether he had any money or what he would do with his time (it felt good to let her know, when I wrote back, that some of the money we sent along to Basu was spending money for Yubaraj). She also wrote about Yubaraj’s father: “I learned (and maybe you already knew) his father is a porter in Kathmandu but seemingly not in touch with the family – a common circumstance here - leaving the village and not earning enough money to return or to send money back regularly, etc. Hard one.”

I’m very grateful to Heather for making the time to get to know Yubaraj, Basu, Puskar, and Phurbu. It’s invaluable, to have this kind of feedback, and it’s truly the next best thing to being there in person! I’m relieved, too, that she had such a favorable impression of each of the people involved in this work. It’s a wonderful confirmation that the right people for this kind of work can be found, and that we’re on the right track with what we hope to accomplish for Yubaraj and his family!

Update from Nepal: Photographs from Bethan, Part 1

Phurbu had the foresight to bring a camera to Bethan, and he sent the following pictures to supplement the report he submitted from his visit with Yubaraj's family and community. Every image he sent, as received, is included here. Click on each image to see a larger version.

1. The first is his expense report, which is shown here not only to be complete in my reporting but also to show the care with which Phurbu tracked and reported his expenses. It's also insightful to see what things cost in Nepal. The exchange rate is about 75 Rs. (rupees) to $1 US, so the bus fare from Kathmandu to Nepalthok cost about $2, and the cost for a guide to walk the 6 1/2 hours from Nepalthok to Bethan was about $4.







2. The top photo is of Apsara, Yubaraj's wife. The second photo is of Kalpana Khadka, a girl in the village who suffers from a physical disability and who (through the efforts of the school teacher) is seeking financial support to continue her education (much like what we're pulling together for Yubaraj).










3. This is a summary of Kalpana's situation. Reading this, I hope that we can (someday soon) expand what we're doing in Bethan to benefit Kalpana and others like her.













4. This top photo shows Yubaraj's sisters and brother. Left to right (with details from Phurbu's report):
* Swastani, 10. She's currently in class 1 (1st grade) in the village school.
* Shital, 5.
* Meena, 12. She completed class 3 (3rd grade) but Phurbu's report explains that she no longer goes to school because of the family's inability to pay for it.
* Sukdev, 8. He's currently in class 1 in the village school.

In the lower photo, Yubaraj, Meena, Sukdev, Swastani, and Meena stand with their mother (on the far right) in front of their house.

Update from Nepal: Photographs from Bethan, Part 2

Photos 5-10 from Bethan, taken by Phurbu, September 15-16, 2006

5. In the top photo, Yubaraj's family's house viewed from the side. In the second photo, Yubaraj's sisters and brother, wife, and mother standing in front of their house.

















6. In the top photo, Yubaraj's mother sitting in her kitchen. The contrast between her kitchen and my own is hard to accept.

In the bottom photo, Phurbu is standing among Yubaraj's sisters and brother and other children from Bethan.
















7. In the top photo, Yubaraj's sisters and brother, wife, and mother standing in front of their house.


In the second photo, Yubaraj's family is standing on the balcony of their neighbor's house, where they're now living.















8. In the top photo, Phurbu stands on the far right with Yubaraj's family and other children from Bethan.

In the second photo, the school teacher stands on the far left with Yubaraj's family and other children from Bethan.
















9. In the top photo, the front of Yubarj's house.

In the second photo, Yubaraj stands with his sisters, brother, and mother.

















10. In the top photo, Yubaraj's mother, wife, and sisters and brother stand in front of their house

In the second photo, Yubarj's mother stands with her three daughters and youngest son.

Update from Nepal: The report from Bethan

Phurbu visited Bethan (Yubaraj's village) in Ramechhap District from September 15-16. During his stay he collected alot of information about Yubaraj from his family, the local teacher, and others in the village, and he sent a report this morning that summarized what he learned. After Phurbu and Yubaraj returned to Kathmandu, they met with Basu and Puskar. This post summarizes the information gathered by Phurbu with some additional details reported by Basu after their meeting.

There’s a great deal of information here – including some surprises – and we’ll continue to gather even more information over the next week or so. Heather O’Neal will be meeting Yubaraj, Basu, Puskar, and Phurbu on Thursday and I’ll post a report from her as soon as possible. We’ll also post photos that Phurbu took in Bethan as soon as they’ve been sent.

About Yubaraj and his family

We discovered that Yubaraj was born in June 1989, which means he was 16 when Kevin Sites interviewed him and he’s 17 now. Yubaraj did leave his village to come to Kathmandu when he was 13, and he has been working to support his family for four years. It’s possible that this discrepancy with Kevin Sites’ article is based on a misunderstanding (Basu has confirmed that Yubaraj looks young for his age). Still, it’s disconcerting to learn that Yubaraj is older than we thought and that he’s been out of school longer of two. Yubaraj told Basu and the others that he has been in Kathmandu for almost five years working at shops and, for the past nine months, at the car parking area in Thamel.

Yubaraj is the eldest son in his family, and we learned that he is responsible for six people (in addition to himself). Yubaraj’s family consists of his mother (43), three sisters (12, 10, and 5), and a brother (8). His two middle siblings are in grade 1 at school. His youngest sister is not in school, and his oldest sister studied to grade 3 but is now at home. According to his mother and his teacher, Yubaraj’s father left his village four years ago and works as a porter in Kathmandu. He “doesn’t take any care to his family and he never go[es] back to the village.” Basu talked with Yubaraj again after he returned to Kathmandu yesterday, and wrote that “people used to say dead as he did not show at home since almost five or six years ago, no news where he lives/what he does, some people even say he is away with second wife (Yubaraj says it is not true) and so on. Yubaraj also says he did also search very hard but could not get in touch for so long.” It’s very understandable that Yubaraj would tell Kevin Sites that his father had died, although again it’s disconcerting to see this discrepancy with Kevin Sites’ interview.

There is one other member of Yubaraj’s family – his wife, Apsara. Phurbu writes that according to local people and the teacher, Yubaraj was married six months ago. Apsara is 16-18 years old and from the nearly district of Kavre. She left her studies four years ago after completing grade 5. Basu adds that this marriage was “due to the suggestions by his elders/relatives to help his mother in household jobs, too; as his mother is not too well for whole life – fallen from a tree long time ago [and] might not have got proper treatment due to lack of money at that time and not [cared for] her by his father (by her husband). So Yubaraj has the responsibility/a big financial burden on him… to care a number of six (three [sisters], one brother, mother and his wife) people plus one. Yubaraj is the eldest child in the family so is compelled to take all of these good and bad things!!!”

We wanted to confirm the family’s financial situation, and Phurbu made the following notes about their property and income. Yubaraj’s mother owns a grass-roofed house that is “in ruin;” the family is living in a neighbor’s house (according to the teacher and Yubaraj’s mother, it would cost about $1,000 to build a normal house in the village). Yubaraj’s family owns one buffalo, one goat, and about ¾ of an acre. According to his family “their agricultural product only help them for about 6 months and rest of months his mother does other people’s work in village and feeds her children and Yubaraj also help his family.” According to the local teacher, Yubaraj’s family, and others in the village, it would cost about $800 for a family of six to live for a year if they had to buy all the food in the Market.

Schooling

According to Yubaraj’s teacher and mother (and Yubaraj himself), he left school four years ago because of the financial problems when his father left them. At that time, he completed grade 5 and was studying at grade 6 (Basu added that Yubaraj completed nine months of grade 6). Yubaraj’s teacher said he was a “simple and disciplined student but was poor in his study because of his own housework.” It’s often the case that children have a difficult time keeping up with schoolwork when they also have alot of work to do at home, and this isn’t necessarily an indication of how well Yubaraj will do in school if he is able to return. We confirmed that Yubaraj has not received and is not receiving any financial assistance from any organization for his schooling.

The school that Yubaraj was attending (Shree Kusheshwar Higher Secondary School) is about a 25 minutes’ walk from Yubaraj's house. The cost of attending this non-boarding school (about $20/month) is of course considerably less than the cost of a boarding school in Kathmandu. While the quality of education would be higher in Kathmandu (qualifications of the teachers, availability of materials, etc.), attending this secondary school might be a viable option for Yubaraj if the donated funds would not support a boarding school. Phurbu wasn’t able to obtain Yubaraj’s report card or attendance record because the head school teacher was away (at district headquarters), but Yubaraj’s teacher has promised to send it to Kathmandu as soon as possible.

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That’s all for now – we’ll post more information as soon as it becomes available!

Update from Nepal: The trip to Bethan is underway!

One of the key elements of this project has just begun: As I write this, Phurbu Tamang is leaving Kathmandu to travel to Yubaraj's village of Bethan. Phurbu is a colleague of both Puskar Gurung and Scott MacLennan's, and he's active with Karing for Kids, one of the organizations supported by the Mountain Fund. Scott has spoken very highly of Phurbu, and I'm very glad he'll be representing us in Bethan. While Puskar had been planning to make this trip, his schedule over the past week filled with other commitments. Yubaraj called Puskar yesterday from a village near his home, so Puskar was able to tell him to expect Phurbu to visit in his place.

Basu, Puskar, and Phurbu met yesterday to discuss the details of the trip. Our goal is to have the clearest understanding of his family's needs and of their support for his schooling. While in Bethan, Phurbu will complete a questionnaire that asks a number of questions of Yubaraj's family, teachers, and village elders (it's a customized version of the one used by Nepal Children's Education Fund for their site interviews).

Phurbu will return to Kathmandu with Yubaraj early next week, I'll write then to share the what we've learned. In the meantime, it's a thrill to see this trip begin. Many, many thanks to Phurbu, Basu, and Puskar for putting it in motion!

Other news: Hot Zone, GiveMeaning, and donations

It's been a busy week :)

Yahoo! Hot Zone: The Yahoo! Hot Zone team concluded their background check on our project, and we got a "thumbs up" on their doing a feature about this project on the Hot Zone website. I should be talking with Erin Green in the next day or so, and will update this post with details as a date for the article is set. 9/14/06: we expect a feature will be published within the next few days.

GiveMeaning: In the meantime, we achieved the 100 votes we needed to establish a project page at http://Yubaraj.GiveMeaning.com. This gives us the valuable capacity to accept online donations for Yubaraj ~ just go to the page and click on "Donate Now." 100% of every donation is forwarded to the Mountain Fund (GiveMeaning doesn't even deduct credit card processing fees) and the Mountain Fund forwards 100% of every donation to Basu to allocate to Yubaraj, his family, or his school.

Donation update: We've collected $300 so far on the GiveMeaning site, and a check for $120 is on its way (from a donor in Switzerland!) to Of Global Interest. Each donation will mean so much to Yubaraj, and we sincerely thank each and every person who makes this financial commitment. 9/14/06: Donation updates are now included in the "Our Purpose" post (above).

Other news: An email from Kevin Sites!

Now this is exciting! Last week I called Yahoo Hot Zone Associate Producer Erin Green to let her and the Hot Zone team know that we'd started this project for Yubaraj. The first response I received was an enthusiastic email from Kevin Sites, the journalist who brought Yubaraj to our attention last May. In addition to sending a donation, he offered to help in any way possible --including a feature on Hot Zone's website. This would be a great way to get back in touch with the 70+ Yahoo members who originally voiced an interest in helping Yubaraj... and it just might catch the attention of a few thousand more!

I've talked with Erin Green, and she has started the requisite background check to make sure our project is one they would want to endorse. If she finds a reason to hold off on that endorsement, we certainly want to know what it is and I'll share that feedback here. But I anticipate that we'll get a green light from her and will keep you posted as the potential Hot Zone feature comes together.

Other news: Votes needed on GiveMeaning.com

We need your help to establish this project on GiveMeaning.com so that we can collect online credit card donations for Yubaraj. GiveMeaning has a new voting feature on their site so that people can indicate that they think the project is viable and worthwhile. New projects have to receive at least 100 votes before they can receive online credit card donations through the GiveMeaning website. This capacity will be very important to this project -- it will make it easier for people to donate for Yubaraj. And we definitely want to use GiveMeaning for this. They won't take a single penny from these donations, not even credit card fees. So far, our project for Yubaraj has received 59 votes. We're more than half way there, but we need 41 more before September 15...

Update: We received our 100th vote on September 1, 2006, and have an active project profile at http://yubaraj.givemeaning.com. Thanks to everyone who voted!

Update from Nepal: Hearing Yubaraj's goals for the first time

It took a few days to arrange, but Puskar was able to have a lengthy conversation with Yubaraj yesterday (he took this photo -- proof that we're talking with the same boy that talked with Kevin Sites!). Yubaraj told Puskar that he wanted to return to his studies, and that he also wanted to keep working part-time to support his mother if he could manage that at the same time. We certainly wanted to hear that Yubaraj was looking forward to returning to school, and it's not surprising that he wants to continue to support his family, too.

Yubaraj also said that he was leaving today for Bethan, to visit his mother because she's ill. He told Puskar that Bethan is a 2-day walk from the closest road, and that he'll be back in 5 days (distances in Nepal are measured in hours or days because there are so few roads and most traveling is done on foot).

Puskar wasn't able to go with him on such short notice, but he's working on arranging his schedule so he can make the trip soon. Hearing Puskar's willingness to take such a long journey on our behalf (like everyone else involved in this project, he's volunteering his time) I feel an even stronger conviction to collect the donations needed to enroll Yubaraj in school. I can tell from Puskar's emails that he has made a strong and personal conviction to help Yubaraj. We have to come through with the funds we need to enroll Yubaraj in school, and to help his family as deemed appropriate by his village elders.

I look forward to reporting in a week or so that Yubaraj has returned to Kathmandu and that his mother is doing well. In the meantime, please make a donation if you haven't already -- any amount is greatly appreciated -- and thank you for supporting this project.

Update from Nepal: A great day for Yubaraj

Just as we hoped, Puskar wrote this afternoon to tell us that Yubaraj has been released from police custody and is back at work. They'll have a chance to talk in the next day or so and we'll keep you posted as we learn more.

Our first Yahoo! donation!

As you probably know, we first read about Yubaraj in an article posted on Yahoo!'s Hot Zone website (see Link to Kevin Sites' article). The original purpose of this project was to provide Yahoo! members the opportunity to help Yubaraj. Within 5 days of that article appearing online, over 70 Yahoo members posted a comment stating that if someone could find Yubaraj, and they knew for sure their money would get to him, they'd be glad to contribute towards his education.

Giving them the means to follow through on that impulse seemed like the right thing to do: here was a boy in Kathmandu who wanted to go to school, and 70 people who wanted to help him get there!

This week we received a strong indication that we're on the right track: we received our very first donation for Yubaraj from one of those original Yahoo! readers! I'm so very thankful for this -- for what it will mean to Yubaraj, and for the vote of confidence it represents in what we're putting together on his behalf.

Speaking of donations...

... We'll soon have the ability to collect donations online through the www.GiveMeaning.com site. GiveMeaning is unique in that they pass 100% of the donations through to the beneficiary -- they don't even take a small credit card processing fee. They want to help this project succeed and are helping us create a "project page" on their website. I'll let you know in a future post when this is ready.

Update from Nepal: Some (unexpected) news

We received some unexpected news from Puskar and Basu. It seems there have been a number of motorcycle thefts in the area where Yubaraj works. The police have apparently brought all of the boys that work with motorcycles in that area into the station for questioning, in hopes of finding the thief.

We're all expecting that Yubaraj will be released soon, and in the meantime Puskar and Basu will see Yubaraj tomorrow to see how he's doing and we'll keep everyone posted!

Update from Nepal: We've found Yubaraj!

Puskar wrote this morning that he's been in contact with Yubaraj!! He met him in front of the Himalayan Bank as he was getting ready to clean a motorcycle. They made plans to talk tomorrow, and in the meantime, Puskar and Basu will get together to coordinate the next steps.

What this is all about and how it will work

A few months ago, you may have read an article by Kevin Sites about a 14-year old boy – Yubaraj Khadka – who had been supporting his family for two years, parking motorcycles on the streets of Kathmandu. If you did, you most likely had an impulse to help him return to school. I volunteered at the time to coordinate the effort it would take to make that a possibility.
I am so thrilled to tell you that we have contacted Yubaraj and that the resources are in place to collect donations for him to return to school! Please re-read Kevin Site’s article and read this post carefully. Our goal is to help you follow through on your impulse to help Yubaraj, to reward him for working so hard for his family, and to give him the means to build a better life for himself and his family.

Click here to read about the people involved, and click here to learn more about how our donations will be used.

A note about the relationship we intend to build with Yubaraj: it’s important to recognize that we’ll get to know Yubaraj well over the next few years, and he’ll get to know us, too. Yubaraj will know that we’re interested in fitting into his life in the most positive way possible. We want to know what his hopes and dreams are, and we want him to know that we believe in his ability to create the kind of future he wants to have. It’s exciting – and a privilege – to think we have an opportunity to participate in Yubaraj’s life in this way.

We feel very good about what we’ve put together and hope you do, too. If you have questions or concerns, please let us know. This plan will continue to evolve as suggestions and requests come in.

Even though we’re being careful not to raise Yubaraj’s expectations, it would be hard for him not to become hopeful now that he knows we’re working to support his return to school. I don’t want to disappoint him and I know you don’t, either.

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Many thanks to Omprakash, David, Kelly, Greg, Amit, and Rich for their time and support as this project has taken shape!

Contact information

Christine Egger
435 Heritage Drive
Milford, MI 48381
248/685-7099
christine.egger @ hotmail.com

How to donate and where your money will go

100% of your donation will help Yubaraj ~ neither GiveMeaning nor Mountain Fund retain any portion of your donation, and the project coordinators are covering expenses such as bank fees, travel expenses to visit Yubaraj's family, etc. Some references to consider:

... $100 takes care of one month at a boarding school
... $25 takes care of Yubaraj's family for one month
... any amount is greatly appreciated!

To donate by credit card visit our profile at http://Yubaraj.GiveMeaning.com and click on Donate Now. It's that easy! GiveMeaning will email a tax receipt to you.

To donate by check, make your check payable to Mountain Fund and write "for Yubaraj" in the memo section. Mail to Mountain Fund, 139 Madison NE, Albuquerque NM 87108. Mountain Fund will mail a tax receipt to you.

Where your money will go

For school: Yubaraj has about 3 ½ years to go before he graduates from high school. We think it’s important, before we enroll him in boarding school, that we’ve secured all of the funding needed to support that education. It would be terrible to have to remove him from school – to take him away from his friends and his life there – before his high school education is complete. The cost of for Yubaraj to attend a boarding school in Kathmandu for 3 ½ years will be about $6,500. This includes all school fees, room, board, supplies, and uniforms. In addition, we will arrange for a tutor to help Yubaraj catch up on his schoolwork at the cost of about $50/month.

For assistance to Yubaraj’s family and village: The decision for Yubaraj to go to Kathmandu to work was made by the elders in his village, and they will play an important role in deciding whether Yubaraj will have permission to return to school. It is very possible that Yubaraj’s income (about $20/month) is truly needed by his family and if that’s the case we’ll want to have money designated for that. It is also possible, however, that the village can gather other resources for the family and we will only be asked for a small allowance that will allow Yubaraj to visit his family from time to time. We are tentatively budgeting $25/month, or $1,200 over 3 ½ years, for these expenses. We’ll know more as soon as we meet with Yubaraj’s family and will adjust this as a clearer picture emerges about what is best for them.

Assistance spending as of February 21, 2007 ($121): Busfare for Yubaraj to visit his family in August ($16), money for gifts and to travel home for the Dashain holiday ($42), some pocket money for him in Kathmandu ($7), $2.74 given to Yubaraj’s mother during Phurbu's visit in September, and $27 on December 11 and $24 on January 31 to support support Yubaraj and his family.

A note about overhead: There are a few unavoidable administrative costs such as bank fees and travel expenses for visiting with Yubaraj’s family and meeting with the school. These are being taken care of voluntarily by the project's team members. They will NOT impact donations collected for Yubaraj’s school or for the assistance described above. For our own purposes we're expecting about $6/month or $240 over 3 ½ years for these kinds of expenses.

Again, all revenue and expenses will be reported in this blog. You’ll always know how much we’ve collected and where the money is going.

Each and every donation will mean a great deal to Yubaraj. Thank you!!!