Report From Nepal

Nia Sherar reports from Nepal where she has just been checking on projects and people that OFDC (Opportunity Fund for Developing Countries) has been investing in.  She reports that due to the Maoist insurgency in Nepal, transportation is erratic and much infrastructure has been destroyed by bombs. 

Nia visited Surkhe, a small Sherpa village situated at 10,000 feet in the northeast section of the Himalayas.  The seventy-five families that live there have no electricity, no toilets and grow corn and potatoes.  They also raise buffalo, pigs and chickens, but all farming is on a subsistence level.

OFDC provides assistance to the small school in Surkhe, which has grades one through three.  In addition, OFDC has helped the villagers build a Sherpa center where a lama, or teacher, teaches Sherpa culture, songs, dancing, language, reading and writing.  OFDC also sponsors a few children to attend a better school in Bhojpur, a six-hour trek down the mountain

Most of the Surkhe women are illiterate.  OFDC has been paying a literate woman in the village to teach them basic letters and numbers.

Nia reports that since 2001 each year she has gone to Nepal she has found conditions worse than the year before.  In addition to the fighting and bombing of communication towers, airports and electrical facilities, the Maoists frequently declare  a ‘bandh’.  This is when shops are closed and no taxis or busses are allowed to run.  A bandh can be called at any time, and travelers are often stranded for days, as Nia was when she had to hire a rickshaw to get to the airport and ended up pushing it up the hills

Sponsors Needed

Teen-age Mina, her sister LakpaDeke and cousin Phurkima, both seven, from Surkhe share a rented room during the week in Bhojpur, cooking over a wood fire in a communal space in the attic.  Mina has lost her sponsor and won’t be able to continue unless a sponsor  can be found for her.  The cost to sponsor a Nepalese student is $250.

Donations Go Straight to Need

SWAN foundation and OFDC are managed through volunteers who pay expenses incurred in operating  humanitarian projects.  This ensures that your donation goes in its entirety to where it is needed.

Spotlight on Nia

Outreach is her life.

The close of the school year will find Utah native Nia Sherar leaving Changshu, China (where she teaches school) with her back pack for a twenty five day “vacation” to the rural villages of Kenya.

SWAN Foundation is pleased to introduce Nia Sherar as the vehicle through which your donations reach good people in great need.  Nia began OFDC (to which SWAN contributes) to help women and children in rural areas.  For the past six years, Nia has been administering women-to-women loans and providing health and educational aids in Nepal, Kenya and Bolivia.  Funding all of her own expenses, funds raised go directly to the individuals in need. Nia has administered over 400 loans to women and helped 1300 children attend school

“That is what is nice about it,” says Nia in a letter to Swan Foundation. She says that  there is no feeling of entitlement in the people she gives to. “Your dollar goes far and is greatly appreciated.” 

Monthly Donations an Option

Many supporters appreciate the simplicity of monthly donations to be charged to their credit cards.   To have SWAN Foundation bill your Visa or Mastercard monthly, please call (360)854-9405 to request forms be mailed to you. 

Next Stop, Kenya