Technology Wishes for the New Year
Before Prashana* started coming to Sunsar Maya computers–and school– were the last things on her mind.
Now 8 months in, she loves learning and is interested in computer programming (check our her video!). Her curiosity has been sparked and her conversations with SuMa teachers are peppered with “how” and “why.”
With your support Sunsar Maya is able to provide the building blocks Prashana needs to build her pathway out of poverty.
Click here to make an investment in her future and help make her wishes come true!
*Names of students are changed for their privacy.
Musical wishes for the holidays
Music brings joy and it promotes motor skills, language development, and literacy skills too! It's an important part of Sunsar Maya's SuMa After-school program and one of the things our students have added to their wish list this holiday season.
A tour of our new space
We launched our second SuMa ASP location late last year with 65 children in the community of Lalitpur.
The kids were ready to learn and our teachers were ready teach–but our new Sunsar Maya Center was, until recently, under construction.
Today, we're proud to share this video tour of our new Sunsar Maya Center. There's still some unpacking to be done, but we're in our new home!
Enjoy this tour given by a few of our newest SuMa ASP students.
Hike with the world's first vegan to summit Mt. Everest
Kuntal Joisher is the first vegan to have ever summited Mt. Everest. Devastating natural disasters struck his expeditions in 2014 (an avalanche at Everest Basecamp) and 2015 (the Gorka earthquake), but in 2016 Kuntal returned to Nepal, determined to make it to the top.
Last Saturday, Nov. 5, over 60 people joined Kuntal for a hike up Mission Peak in the San Francisco Bay Area to hear his story on scaling with world's highest mountain all while on a vegan diet.
We hope the hike is the first of an annual event in support of our kids and our programs in Nepal. Many thanks to Kuntal, our event organizers, edcast.com who generously provided a matching donation, and all the participants. We hope to see you all next year!
Dashain
Late September or early October marks the beginning of Dashain, the longest and most auspicious festival in Nepal. This fifteen day festival begins on the bright lunar fortnight and ends on the full moon. The celebration represents the triumph of good over evil. During these festivities, all government offices and educational institutions are closed.
It is Dashain tradition to give and receive 'tika', 'jamara' and blessings. 'Tika' is the mixture of red vermillion powder and curd that is put on the forehead as a sign of victory and good luck.
"Jamara" are maize or barley shoots that are germinated especially for the Dashain festival. Below is an example of Jamara grown by the kids, and above is the 'Tika' blessing.
This #GivingTuesday, we want to thank you
Giving Tuesday is dedicated to global giving, where people around the world celebrate generosity and give back. This year, the board, staff, and the kids of Sunsar Maya are celebrating you. Thank you for all you do to support the work we do.
Meet Lily
We'd like to introduce you to the newest member of the Sunsar Maya family and our new SuMa After-School Supervisor, Lily McGowan. Lily's job is to make the after-school program (ASP) the best it can be. She's creating fun, interactive, and educational lessons, providing weekly trainings for our teachers to give them a more solid foundation in child development, and she's working to launch our second after-school program early next year.
Lily's background in psychology and her experience teaching at-risk youth, both in the United States and in Vietnam, make her a perfect fit for our ASP. She spent August and September training with our partners at the Golestan Colab and Center for Language Immersion and Cultural Education, the same educators that traveled to Nepal to help launch our ASP last year.
Second 7.3 Quake Strikes Nepal
Another major earthquake hit Nepal today. 7.3 magnitude with an epicenter in Namche Bazaar, Everest region, 50 miles outside Kathmandu.
We heard from our team a while ago. They were at the after-school building preparing for our medical clinic with the earthquake hit. Miraculously, our team and our children are safe.
You can see from the image, large aftershocks keep coming. Most of Nepal will be sleeping outside again tonight.
UNICEF: Education for One Million Children in Jeapordy
Unicef is estimating one million children will not be able to return to school unless urgent action is taken. This is devastating news and exactly why we have already reopened our after-school program to full-session days and are looking into options to get more kids into a caring and structured educational environment.
Read more here.
Nepal Earthquake Relief fund - you can help
Nepal suffered a 6.8 aftershock just a few hours ago that brought more destruction, and the death toll is at 2,500 and rising. Our kids, like most of the country, will be sleeping outside again tonight, and have no electricity or water, but they are safe.
If you would like to help, please consider giving to our Earthquake Emergency Relief Fund. 100% of donations will be used by our team on the ground to provide immediate relief of food, water, and shelter, and long-term reconstruction in our local community.
7.9 Earthquake Devastates Nepal
On April 25th, a 7.9 earthquake struck 50 miles outside of Kathmandu. We are so relieved to report that all of our children and staff our safe. Our after-school building is also still standing with no known damage.
Most of Nepal has been sleeping outside as strong aftershocks continue. There is no water or electricity, internet and cell service is sparse, but we are grateful that our family and friends are okay when we know so many other are not.
We are coordinating efforts on relief support and will be sharing how to help soon.
Walk the Walk
There's a 1200-year-old, 500-mile pilgrimage in Spain called the Camino de Santiago...and two friends of Sunsar Maya just completed it. Kevin and Serena McClain are, self-admittedly, not the most 'outdoorsy' type, so when they announced their intentions to walk 30 days through Spain, their group of friends got together and decided to have a little fun with it.
Lindsey Chambers, an active and involved supporter of Sunsar Maya, organized the 'McClains vs. The Camino' wager. $10 in to guess how far the McClains would actually get, with 20% of all bets going to Sunsar Maya.
Kevin and Serena walked 346 miles and $70 was raised for Sunsar Maya. You can read all about their journey on Serena's blog, Spillerena. Congrats to Kevin and Serena and huge thank you's to them for letting us be a part of their trip, to Lindsey for her generous spirit and organzing it all, and everyone who participated!
We love this fun and creative way of fundraising for our kids. The options are endless. If you have an idea and would like to support Sunsar Maya, please email us at info@sunsarmaya.org or you can create your own campaign easily at CommitChange.
A visit to Nepal
Our great friend and Sunsar Maya supporter, Alice McGowan, her sister Emma, and grandmother Jackie decided to go on a different kind of trip this summer. They laid out the possibilities and, among many different countries, they (well, grandma really) chose the last one on the list, Nepal! They had all heard a great deal about the children of Sunsar Maya, and now it was time to see it for themselves. Here is her account of their experience
"Since my grandfather passed away last year, my 78-year-old grandmother has caught the travel bug. I suggested that we do a trip, knowing that this probably meant we would end up in some European city for a brief, budget-friendly week of museum trips and sightseeing. I sent her a list of places I would be interested in going that I thought she would also enjoy except for, at the end of the list, I slyly added Nepal. To my surprise grandma’s reply was, without hesitation, we are going to Nepal! My younger sister Emma jumped on board too. It was decided that we would spend a few weeks on a multigenerational family trip volunteering and sightseeing in Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world.
After over 48 hours of standby travel, we arrived in Kathmandu with all our luggage accounted for. During the next few weeks we spent time in several different orphanages, including Sahayogi Samaj Nepal and the Nepal Orphans Home houses, and also the government-run Bal Mandir orphanage.
At Sahayogi Samaj Nepal we spent time with the 14 children living there, whose education is now fully supported by Sunsar Maya. We had a great time playing and spending time with the children. One Saturday, we brought the children new crayons and paper and watched them draw contentedly for hours. Although appalling, it was also very interesting to learn about their past and the terrible conditions in which some of them were found as babies. Many were left abandoned by rivers, some of them wounded, starving and freezing to death. It is impossible to imagine that these confident, energetic children with grins that stretch from ear to ear were once abandoned to die."
Let me pause Alice's story for a second. Sunar Maya core belief is that providing a good quality education for all children (let alone orphans) is fundamental to make this a better world. We know most of you would agree. Alice, Emma and Jackie visited Emile Academy in Khathmandu, the new school that Sahayogi Samaj Nepal children are attending. Our country manager, Raja, and all of us are certain that the change of school has greatly benefited all of the children and that the education and care provided at Emile Academy is far superior than their old school. This is Alice’s experience after visiting the Emile Academy.
"We were quite impressed by Emile Academy, the new school that the children are attending. The principal gave us a warm welcome and a tour of the classrooms and the entire school grounds. We were shown an elaborate student-run green house and garden, which supplies much of the produce used for the hot lunch program. The thing that made this school so appealing was the engagement of the children and the care and skill of the teachers. As the principal Shree Krishna Thapa explained, EmileAcademy prides itself on being a warm and friendly community where the children can strive to reach their full potential. Their staff is trained to use the methods of Montessori and focus on the different talents and strengths of each individual child. The principal also boasted about the schools placement in the first division for the Nepal Excellence Examination last year. Before leaving, we were each given a gift of a beautiful notebook handcrafted by the children in one of their various extra-curricular programs.
Unlike so many less fortunate children in Nepal and around the world, these orphans are getting a gift that can never be taken from them, something that has the power to change their lives and the world around them for generations, the only hope for a better life: EDUCATION. It is sad to think such a powerful tool of change is so unobtainable for so many. Less than half of Nepali children complete school through grade 10 simply due to the fact that their families don’t have the money to pay tuition or buy uniforms. But the children of Nepal Orphans Home and Sahayogi Samaj Nepal are able to finish school with the required uniforms and school tuition as a result of the generosity of supporters around the world.
In this way, Sunsar Maya and its warm-hearted supporters are making the world a better place, as they all work to help enable the underprivileged future generations reach their potential and obtain the skills and background necessary to strive in life. This will empower each generation to grow stronger, becoming more self-reliant and capable of independence. In any case, my multigenerational family is very grateful that we got a chance to see and contribute to something much bigger than ourselves."
We, at Sunsar Maya, are grateful too. Alice, Emma and Jackie, you rock!
Our Kids Shine at their New School
In early 2013, the children of Aruna's Orphanage transferred schools and started at the Emile Academy. We are so happy to see how the children are improving in this amazing environment. The Emile Academy uses the Montessori method of teaching, and focuses on different talents and strengths of each child. There is also an wonderful student-run greenhouse and garden that provides much of the produce used for the hot lunch program. The strong academics helped the school place in the first division of the Nepal Excellence Examination last year. After the first-term results, many of our children are showing great improvements in their grades and we expect that trend to continue.
Students Supporting Sunsar Maya
Since January, Sunsar Maya has been working with a small group of middle school students at The Grove School (a public charter school) in Redlands, California. Through the school’s community service program, a group of young students learned about Sunsar Maya’s mission and projects in Nepal and immediately created a support group to help send the children of Nepal to school.
The group came up with great ideas on how to raise money to support the children of Aruna’s Orphanage in Kathmandu. They prepared countless and delicious brownies, cookies and cupcakes that they sold to their fellow classmates and staff. The last week of school, co-founder and Development Director, Santiago Diab, met with the students, who presented him with a check to cover partial sponsorship of one of our children for the entire school year! But their will to do good does not seem to be stopping there. The Grove kids are planning to continue their efforts to sponsor more children during the upcoming school year, and already have a list of other fundraising ideas, including talent shows and hand-made jewelry.
We are so grateful to the students of the Grove School Students for their generous support!
Art Show and Auction for Sunsar Maya
Creative love for Sunsar Maya! Earlier this month, Christine White decided to use her talents to raise money for the children of Sunsar Maya. Christine is an incredible artist and had her first solo art show at Wave Lengths Salon and Gallery in Redlands, CA. The evening included an art show, silent auction, and presentation about Sunsar Maya. Christine graciously offered her piece, “Swords into Ploughshares,” up for silent auction, and donated the proceeds to Sunsar Maya. The auction was a great success and raised $200 for our organization.
We want to personally thank Christine for supporting Sunsar Maya through her art and for providing an opportunity to educate others about our mission.
Thank you Christine!
Have a creative way you would like to support Sunsar Maya? Please email us at info@sunsarmaya.org.
The Newest Member of the SuMa family
We'd like to introduce you to the newest member of the Sunsar Maya family. Meet Aabashek. Two-years-old, soft-spoken, but always loves to be in the mix. You'll usually find him tumbling, flipping, rolling, and asking to be tossed higher and higher again. In the words of Eileen, a volunteer that spent five months at Sahayogi Samaj, he's just a "rad little dude." Aabashek isn't quite ready for school, but we are starting to fundraise for his education and beginning a fund for his future college or trade school of choice. Next year, he'll join his brothers and sisters at Play Group, where he'll supplement his gymnastics with a little reading and math.
adventures in new carpet
When Jehan and Jamesn(two of Sunsar Maya's co-founders) first arrived at Sahayogi Samaj Nepal orphanage in early 2011, two things immediately caught their attention, the amazing little people that so willingly walked into their arms for greetings and hugs, and the old, worn blue carpet throughout the house. Since the children spend most of their time on that carpet (playing reading, or resting) it was obvious that it needed to be replaced.
With the help of fellow volunteers Santiago (another Sunsar Maya co-founder) and India, Jehan and James went shopping for new carpet. No easy task in Nepal! After a minor taxi accident and a day of bargaining in their very limited Nepali (“Namaste” was about all they had learned to say back then), they brought home the new red carpet, upon which the children now play in a safe and clean environment.
New Paint, New Look
The dedication of volunteers to the happiness and well-being of the children of Sahayogi Samaj Nepal always amazes us. Linda, a volunteer from Scotland, had spent many weeks with the children, showering them with love and many many hugs. Hours spent in the babies’ room brought a resolve to help in other ways.
Several of Linda’s friends back home had sent along donations, hoping to give from afar. Using those donations and her own, Linda got to work updating the paint in the children’s rooms. Carrying several buckets of paint, brushes and paint rolls, Linda and fellow volunteers Santiago (Sunsar Maya co-founder), Trevor, Minyoung, Alicia, and our Nepali friend Sangeeta, made their way through the crowded streets of Dhapasi Heights, eventually jumping on the always-crowded public bus to the orphanage.
It took almost three full days of hard work to get both rooms painted (one yellow, the other one pink), but it was worth every brush stroke. The children now sleep in rooms as bright as the volunteers who painted them. Thank you Linda for taking the initiative and funding this project; and thanks to Santiago, Trevor, Minyoung, Alicia, and Sangeeta for your help!
