Progress Library #2 - The Children's Library in Saranpur, Nepal

 We visited the library when we first arrived and could see all the hard work that had gone into it thus far. The children from the village are clearly excited and so are WE <3

A few days later and they have really made progress ~ each day they are finishing the final touches. It is almost time for us to fill the shelves with books, games, and puzzles. We will present the library to the community in few days.

♥ Preparing to Go ~ Carrying Dreams ♥

For the Children ~ ♥

The December 2010 trip to Nepal is fast approaching and each day I look for updates on progress on the second Community Children's Library in Nepal.  The first library in Bandipur, Nepal is going strong and we are excited to visit our friends there. The community members are working hard to ensure the completion of the library so we are able to complete our goal of creating a beautiful and wonderful Community Children's Library in the community of Saranpur, in Narayan garh/Bharatpur (Chitwan area). We are very excited to visit and fill the library with books of all genres and levels
~ written in English and Nepali so the children and community members can enjoy.

As I reflect on this entire journey thus far, I am moved by the loving kindness, caring, and tremendous support from many individuals from around the world. People believe in education, literacy, and in helping those who need a hand ~ our friends in Nepal agreed to come together and build the library and our friends from around the world donated funds from their hard days work, participated in a variety of fund-raising activies; two friends ran marathons, a group walked a 5K,  two individuals walked across the UK,  many of us sold used items in garage sales.

People from around the world have given their time, energy, and faith in improving lives through the gifts of education and literacy. I am honored and humbled to have the opportunity to help make this happen. I feel fortunate to have such beautiful people by my side....Youko, Digumber, Joseph, Lourdes, Rachel, Paul, Steve, Andrea & ALL Those who have helped in big and small ways ~

In leadership one idea is to always keep your Values & Goals in mind ~ and then what happens in between those two are how we achieve our goals ~ As I reflected on the Values and Goals of Namaste Nepal ~ Helping Himalayan Children I kept coming back to this powerful verse written by Lourdes ~

 The dreams of the children who will visit the libraries ♥

‎"For each child who visits the library, for each book that is opened and read, we will open doors and windows to different worlds. Through each book that is read and each story that is told, we will give children the opportunity to learn, grow, feel, hope, and imagine. We will help bring smiles, stir ideas, foster learning, improve literacy, and nourish curiosity. We will help open possibilities in ways which only books can. I tried putting this in numbers, but some things are too big and too many to be counted." ♥ Lourdes Coronado ♥ 

 It is through these values that we set the goals that inspire us to continue the work of moving forward and to search for ways to meet and exceed our goals of improving lives through building relationships, improving literacy, supporting education through working with communities from around the world. 

So as I prepare to leave for Nepal this time ~ I am carrying dreams in my bags!  I will update everyone while I am there and post pictures of the children in the libraries.

Namaste ~  ♥     

Heather

~ Laying the Foundation of the Second Children's Library in Saranpur, Nepal ~

Construction is underway way for the library. The frame is built and the roof is on as well. Soon this will be a beautiful library filled with enriching materials for the children to read and utilize. Many of these children do not have access to books or a place to relax and learn about the wonders of the world. Namaste Nepal - Helping Himalayan Children hopes to continue to bring more libraries for many children in Nepal.

President of Namaste Nepal- Helping Himalayan, Digumber Piya and the community members from Saranpur, Nepal in Chitwan lay the cornerstone of the Second Children's Library. The library will be opened in Dec. 2010. We feel very grateful for the collaboration and support from all the community members from Saranpur and friends from around the world.

The villagers and Digumber Piya say a prayer and bless the start of the Second Children's Library, to be opened in Dec. 2010. Namaste Friends ~ we will see you soon! :)

NNHHC Celebration Kick Off and Honoring Amazing Individuals Who are Making a Difference ~

On Sunday, May 30, 2010 a dynamic diverse group of amazing individuals gathered at the Himalayan Grill Restaurant in Huntington Beach, California, for a celebration!  We gathered to celebrate the start of our new organization and to also honor two women who are "running to change the world" ~ Lourdes Coronado and Rachel Ishiguro are two remarkable women who are both running their first marathons to raise funds to build libraries in Nepal!

Heather Guay (co-founder/President in USA)  & Youko Amemiya (co-founder/Secretary)

Rachel Ishiguro (from San Diego), Heather Guay, Lourdes Coronado (from Spain) working together to make a difference!!!

Rachel is running the Edge to Edge Marathon on Vancouver Island, Canada on June 13, 2010 and Lourdes is running the Rock-N-Roll Marathon in San Diego on June 6, 2010. Both amazing women choose to sponsor Namaste Nepal - Helping Himalayan Children for their first marathons. We are  honored by both of these remarkable women and join in supporting them as they raise funds to build our second Children's Library in Nepal. We have the second library site selected, as just reported by Digumber Piya, our President of NNHHC in Nepal ~ he recently had a meeting with local village leaders in the Sarunpur area and they agreed to a building location that is centrally located for the community. The library will be in a central location for all community members to access. The community members are excited and supportive. We will continue our efforts to raise enough funds to build the next library and to provide support at our first library site in Bandipur, Nepal!

It is our goal and intention to continue raising funds to create a library in each village where Empower Nepali Girls sponsors scholarship recipients ~ and then beyond! We endeavor to create a network of libraries and support systems throughout the rural regions that will support, empower, and encourage each person to reach their personal best ~ that includes all of us!  

If you would like to sponsor Lourdes or Rachel and help them reach their goal of donating a library to Nepal ~ please visit the website and donate via Pay Pal or send a check to the mail address.www.namastenepal.org

This is Julius Joseph Guay IV, Director of Media and and Marketing for NNHHC ~ he helped brainstorm and designed the current website, created the logo, and has spent endless hours helping us get everything set up and organized. It was quite fun to present him with a certificate, flowers, a blessed scarf, and a "magic" Nepali Wizard wand to help undo all that yucky coding ~  We are extremely grateful to Joseph for all the hard work and dedication he has shown to NNHHC and to supporting the children in Nepal!

Another special thanks and appreciation was given to those who have been pivotal in the creation of NNHHC some of these individuals could not join us ~ and they were missed terribly ~ 

Digumber Piya - Co-founder/ President NNHHC in Nepal

Andrea Kelley - Director of NNHHC - Australia

Paul Hensman - Director of NNHHC - UK

Sneha Shrestha - Director of Student Affairs - USA

Steve Robinson - Writer/Editor for NNHHC - USA

Ramita Shrethsa -Supporter and Director - Sankhu, Nepal

Nancy Compton - Artist and Media Designer - USA

Each of these individuals have spent endless hours in supporting NNHHC from the start, and we could not have put everything together without their encouragement, love, and expertise in each of their areas of focus. Thank you all ~ and Namaste ~

Together we can make a difference  in the lives of many!!!!

A few of our friends who joined us for the celebration!!! More to come!!!

When People Come Together~Amazing Things Happen!

              Smiling faces ~ the joy of friendship and new opportunities!

This has been an amazing journey so far, indeed!  My last post was in the beginning of March of this year and now at the start of May there is MUCH to report! :)

Namaste Nepal - Helping Himalayan Children (NNHHC) is "official" and has started to actively function with our new dynamic website: www.namastenepal.org  and a Face Book Group Page with currently 164 members: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=119867374691159.  The website is beautiful and unique, thanks to the hard work of Joseph (and the brainstorming and development of our other NNHHC members)! THANK YOU ALL!

We also have amazing friends on 43T Website ~ a 55 member team who are cheering two of our fellow 43T friends who are each running a marathon to raise funds for the Children in Nepal! It is all so very amazingly wonderful.

Namaste Nepal-Helping Himalayan Children (update)

Several weeks have gone by and Namaste Nepal-Helping Himalayan Children is starting to take shape. We are still anxiously awaiting our nonprofit number so we can set up our paypal and bank account so donations can be tax deductible in the USA. The paperwork should be here anytime...

In the mean time Andrea, Paul, Joseph, Youko, and I have been working furiously brainstorming ideas for the website and different aspects of NN and potential ideas and topics related to building and running a successful organization. This collaboration spans Nepal,  Australia, the UK,  the USA, and many other countries as well~ we have also been collaborating with our Nepali friends in different villages to assess needs and explore potential projects and volunteer sites. I have been in touch with Biju, our librarian in The Children's Library in Bandipur and things are running smoothly there. There will be opportunities for Biju to share her experiences of running the library with our prospective new librarians in other villages and schools as we build more libraries. This provides a great learning and growth opportunity for Biju, and will do the same for the new librarians as well.

The support we are receiving thus far has been phenomenal! Many people are interested in taking on projects to raise funds and more than a few have expressed a desire to volunteer in Nepal and help teach English, mentor, open libraries, and or do whatever projects are needed!

It is humbling and exciting to work with and receive support from such positive people.

namaste~

Namaste Nepal-Helping Himalayan Children website is: www.NamasteNepal.org
(by the way the website is under construction~ we are exploring different color combinations, fonts, spacing etc.) Paul and Joseph have been collaborating and working hard with all the computer coding etc. It is very exciting to see NN evolving. We are looking forward to great mutual successes for everyone involved!

If you have any suggestions or would like to begin to help with fundraising, volunteering, or offering services or ideas to helping Namaste Nepal-Helping Himalayan Children, please contact us!

namastenepalheather@gmail.com

Namaste Nepal-Helping Himalayan Children

The journey to start a non-profit is interesting. I have been visiting Nepal now for a little over three years and I have seen and learned many things over that time. I remember my first trip to Nepal and how overwhelmed I was by not only the mind-blowing beauty and richness of culture and connection, but the devastating poverty that so many Nepali people survive in each day.

My heart broke when I saw malnutrition and preventable illness, the lack of material resources,training, and access in the schools, and the threat of girls being sold into the human trafficking sex slave trade as the result of not having enough. I've never experienced those who truly do not have basic needs met, and who can do so much with so little with a smile, and it changed me to my core.

I no longer took for granted the things in life that come so easily to me as the result of where I was born. I realized, that so much could be done to help so many with very little, really, and I knew in my heart I would do whatever I could to help. Until now, I see a clear path and realized that I need to be more "organized" and I need "more help"... I have learned over the years that two heads are better than one, four even more, and 100 or more...OF COURSE! I've been blessed with the mentors and friends I have, with having the heart of a teacher and a counselor, because we believe in the power of goodness and the ability to do seemingly impossible things... like teach a child to read, like help someone learn that life is good, like holding someone's hope until they can take it back.... we know that a little bit of caring can go a long way...and we love to make the world a better place, whether in a small way, like offering a smile at the perfect time, or saving a life by offering the opportunity to go to school, or building a library for a village...or more. There are so many ways to make the world a better place, and when we make the lives of others better, we make our life better...because, we really are all connected~ we really are One.



Namaste Nepal-Helping Himalayan Children is being formed now~ if anyone is interested in joining us on the mission to enrich and empower the lives of children in Nepal, please contact me. I believe we all have gifts and talents to share and my intention is that we all grow and blossom as we help the children in Nepal grow and blossom as well.

NamasteNepalHeather@gmail.com

p.s. the website is currently underconstruction but you can reach me here or via email!
:)

Fun Times~

I keep thinking of all the fun we had in the library and what joy and enrichment the library is bringing to the children and community of Bandipur each day. I think we can see and say that it brings joy and enrichment to those of us who visit as well. I saw the faces on many of the visitors who visited the library and had a place to interact with the children in reading and visiting together. We sang songs, did craft activities, read books, completed puzzles together, did Yoga Kids together...we spent time together...it was so nice!

I am so excited to continue to spread this work to other villages in Nepal as well and have thus been inspired to create a non-profit organization to raise funds to help support literacy and empower Nepalese children through educational enrichment~ building libraries, supporting scholarships, mentoring and teaching, training teachers, and supporting sports and the arts in schools and communities throughout rural Nepal. :)
Does it sound challenging~ well, maybe, but every little bit helps, and step by step I believe we can make a difference. This inspires me each day and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to be a part of helping in Nepal. I am grateful to everyone who has supported and helped in big and small ways the work we've done so far! I am looking forward to sharing the journey with as many who want to join!


Namaste Nepal-Helping Himalayan Children
will be working to accomplish many goals in the future! I will keep you posted!!!
:)

Heather

Kind Generosity!

I have been so blessed to meet kind and generous individuals from around the world who are inspired by the library. Many Nepali visitors who come to and through Bandipur are impressed and inspired to help...it's fun to share the library with them, and then they realize, that...indeed we can make a difference...I am not "special" in this regard...it's a matter of "doing it"...
:)

A lovely couple from Holland made an impromptu donation for the library yesterday...I will purchase puzzles and books with their generous donation...it was so nice!!!

Having fun~
and will be home soon!


Love~
p.s.
Happy Birthday Joseph~
love you!

~Yoga Kids & Other Such Fun In the Library~

The days are going by quickly, and quite frankly as often happens, it's hard to keep track of day or time while in Nepal. It has been quite fun working in the library and seeing the children continue to thrive, grow, and explore books and learning.

Yesterday we had a great time in the library as I brought a lap top with me and played a Yoga Kids dvd for the children. We all did yoga and it was a grand time! Last year the founders of Yoga Kids (a yoga company based in Chicago) traveled with us to deliver scholarships and they donated many of their wonderful items to the schools we sponsor and recently sent a generous donation of books and dvd's to the library! It was FUN!!!! I took a lot of pictures of the kids doing yoga, laughter and stretching were abound! We will definitely continue this practice! Thanks Don & Marsha...I can't wait to share the pictures with you all!

We have been doing "crafts" and reading with the children. I am finding this to be helpful for the kids and the librarian as well...modeling and mentoring, building relationships...all so crucical.

I think we have found three places in Chitwan area for libraries where we currently sponsors girls for their schooling. These places are already "built" meaning we will not have to build them from the ground up...tis is a good thing! Still have much to do, but of course, you all know...I am in HEAVEN!

The people, young and old are so kind to me and so appreciative of the work done here. I've also been meeting many others who do work here and I've learned a great deal of how to continue forward with the work to be done.

very exciting...
and charging, charging, charging those batteries!!!!

:)

THANKS TO ALL OF YOUR WELL WISHES, Comments, and prayers!
(and I would appreciate it if people wouldn't post their long religious speeches on my blog...so NOT COOL! And I can't find how to delete it... )

NAMASTE~

Heather

January 9, 2010 ~ Progress~

This past few days has been really very exciting. I arrived in Nepal on January 4, 2010. I was able to visit with part of our Madhav Ghimire group who had already arrived in Nepal in December...I was sad that part of the group had already left the day before I arrived. I wanted to meet them all!

I visited the bookstore in Kathmandu to fill a few "orders" for the library. The complete Harry Potter series was the big purchase and provided through a donation from Youko (thank you)! I was also able to purchase about a dozen books wtih cd's and a variety of "other" books that looked interesting.

After a night in Kathmandu I left for Bandipur.
I arrived in the evening and after eating a delicious dal bhat slept soundly in my "old bed" in Gaun Gahr, thankfully minus the spider! As I woke in the morning I began to visit my friends around the village. It was great fun to see familiar faces and to be greeted so warmly. Many of the children in the village greeted me with "Hello Heather!" and it surprised me...but made me smile!

I was able to visit the library in the afternoon where, Biju was waiting for me. Of course she had received the news of my arrival and she greeted me warmly with laughter and smiles. The library looks very good and I could see that she has been doing a remarkable job. I feel grateful for her, she is dedicated and caring.
I delivered many "gifts" I had brought to my friends in Nepal...one of the most special gifts was a collection of "Power Rangers" that one young man had been waiting for patiently... When his mother told him I was coming, he said, "Oh good, my Power Rangers are coming." (Thank goodness I had them for him...he was SO very happy to get them and it was fun to see him opening them...truly special!)

After only one day in Bandipur (I was able to visit all the hilltops and favorite places ...."re-charging" sites...LOL...) I headed to Chitwan to meet up with our group and visit schools and villages in the jungle region. It was fantastic to see everyone again and to go through the process of honoring the girls in their homes, villages, and schools. Although it had been a year since seeing them, it still felt as if it was only a day, and everyone was very happy.

Namaste!

I have many stories to share~ and photos...
see you all soon.

Love,
h.