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TO APPLY FOR A SCHOLARSHIP click here.
JUNE/JULY 2009
This month we have very important news to share with all of you.
The selection process has been completed and thanks to the generous support of friends and family we are able to award five more scholarships this year. Details and photos of the 2009 Bo M. Karlsson Scholarship recipients will soon be posted on our Recipients page.
As our efforts to raise money continue, we are pleased to announce that Seattle-based Himalayan Odyssey Tours will donate $500.00 for each person referred by us who takes their Nepal and/or Bhutan tour. The tours are led by David Samuel Robbins, a professional photojournalist, Himalayan expert and past guide for National Geographic Expeditions. David has been a friend and supporter of our organization for many years, and we are very thankful to him for coming up with yet another way to help us raise much needed funds.
Save the date for Mahilaa Night! On August 1st our second annual Dinner and Silent Auction will take place at the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in West Seattle. It is our biggest fundraising event of the year, and you are cordially invited to experience a beautiful evening featuring authentic Nepalese dinner, music and dance from Nepal and Tibet. Ayda Ramadan will also be there again this year, beautifying hands with her henna artistry. Suggested donation for the evening includes one drink of your choice.
Learn all the details about Mahilaa Night and our exciting partnership with Himalayan Odyssey Tours at our News & Events page.
If you haven’t checked it out yet, please take a moment to read our April Newsletter.
Sonnia J. Karlsson
Founder
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If we take a moment to spin a globe, pausing our fingers on some of the poorest countries in the world, we will touch mostly in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The names of the countries appear on the same lists of "growing concerns" or "rises in" the following social conditions: poverty, child slavery, child prostitution, child marriage, AIDS, lack of education, poor health, etc. The list is a mile long, and the list is not gender neutral, but disproportionately affecting females the world over. In most developing countries, we know that women are responsible for more physical work on a daily basis than men, but that work is often not reflected in any economic or social advancement for women as it is either unpaid agricultural work for the family, or, factory work that puts rice on the table with nothing leftover for her own development.
In poor countries, such as Nepal where I have spent time living, studying and working with orphans over the years, I have seen first-hand that educating girls is often a family's lowest priority. Education, whether public or private, costs money. The mere cost of a uniform and a pair of shoes, or paper and pencil can simply get in the way of even more basic needs. Besides, why would you lose another hand around the family farm by sending your daughter off to school if you didn't have to?
As there are few role models of successful Nepali women, especially in rural Nepal, the question to educate them is often not even considered--it is just an assumed tradition not to. I believe one of the reasons for this is that people in rural villages seldom see female teachers, still one of the most respected professions in South Asia. As an educator in the U.S., I can tell you that if our population had the reverence for teachers and the appreciation for receiving an education that the few who are so privileged in Nepal do, test scores would not be the current topic of conversation here! Nepal needs a hardcore investment in educating young girls, not just on an individual basis to balance the scales, but to put female teachers in schools as role models across one of the most geographically disjointed countries on the planet. Only then will there be large-scale change.
With the aftermath of the Maoist impact upon society which brought fatigues, weapons, and autonomy to young girls and women as they left their homes, traditional values, and stereotypes to fight for communist ideals, however misunderstood or misdirected, those females tasted something unique in the country's history: temporary moments of equality with males. Nepali girls are very eager for change, and the change they are eager for, equality, could come about in a peaceful manner through education reform and support from feminists all over the world.
Education is personal, not just on the level of a single teacher interacting and encouraging one student, but in the choices the student makes about her future from the realm of what's possible.
I believe Nepal is a place on the verge of a civil rights movement. Just like in our country's past, with individuals of different economic or racial backgrounds supporting other disenfranchised individuals, we can make a difference.
There are a number of ways to support girl's education in Nepal ranging from tuition support to organizations that rescue women from the slave or sex trade and offer them a new life. Make sure the one you select fits your non-profit criteria and matches your philosophy.
Jennifer Bennett
President
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