The End of a Season

Dear friends,

The construction of the school is complete! Halfway around the world today 120 students are in class because you provided the funds for a new school building! The Shree Tribhuwan Primary School is situated in Dhaubadi, a village where the majority of residents derive their income from labor-intensive agriculture.

The Exterior of the New School Building

A Young Student Working on Her Homework at the New School

These students have the ability to escape from the cycle of poverty, where their families have been trapped for generations, as a result of your generosity. Once again, thank you for your contribution to this effort and for making this dream come true.

Shree Tribhuwan Primary School

Dear friends,

today we get to share with you some exciting news about the school in Nepal. We now know that the funds raised will be used to build the Shree Tribhuwan Primary School in Nawalparasi, Nepal. As you can see by the picture below, Nawalparasi is a district located in the middle of Nepal in the South.

The current structure that the students of this area study in (as seen in the picture below) was built in 1977, and is overcrowded, in need of repair, and generally unsuitable for learning. The new building will provide the students with space for classes and their own library. The local community is contributing sand, stone, gravel, wood, and labor to help complete the project.

What an exciting time for us all and the community who will be blessed with this new school. Stay tuned for more updates concerning the construction of the school.

An Unlikely Ending

That’s it! Just as quickly and inconspicuously as it started, it is done!

Let me explain-

One week ago I got an email from Kim, our partner at Room to Read. She knows that this summer many of us will be going our separate ways, and it was our hope to finish by the time we all left. She did some research and mentioned that there was a small, rural school that needed to be funded. The kicker is that this school costs $22,000 rather than $35,000 to fund.

At the time we received the email, we were sitting just above $20,000, and we knew that this was an opportunity we could not pass up. We went around to all of our friends and told them how close we were to building this school. Dozens of people rallied, donating whatever they had, and by the end of last week we had the rest of the $22,000!

One of the most incredible things about this entire process is that the school was funded almost entirely by students. If anyone were to pick a demographic that would raise enough money to build a school in Nepal, it would probably not be “poor” college students. However, our friends through their generosity have proven otherwise.

While this might be the end of fundraising, it is the just the beginning of something much larger. We will continue to post updates on this blog about the village where the school is being built and how construction is going.

Until then, thank you all! Thousands of children in Nepal will be given an opportunity in life that their parents never did because of YOU.

Highlights of the 2011-2012 School Year

As the quarter is coming to a close here at the University of Washington, we wanted to reflect on the highlights the Vision Nepal School Project over this last year.

In early November of 2011 we partnered with The Newman center, a local Catholic church to put on “Cafe Newman”. Once a quarter, the church selects a cause that it partners with to raise money for. They heard about the work we were doing, and asked if we would be interested in putting on the event with them. We responded with an emphatic yes, and began scheming. The event was primarily a talent show in a cafe-style environment, and a time for the community to bond and share a night together. They were an absolute blessing to work with, and helped raise over $1000 in one night through their generosity! 

Our set up at Cafe Newman

The Event in Action

 

Shortly thereafter we began partnering with Caffe Lusso, a coffee roaster east of Seattle in Redmond, WA. They roast some of the best coffee here in the “coffee capital” of the northwest. Not only is their coffee delicious, but their premier coffee beans are sourced by Agros International, an organization that provides land and opportunities to landless families in Central America, breaking the cycle of poverty in many communities. With all of this in mind, we bought nearly 100 lbs of coffee in November and December. Each pound was quickly claimed, and we raised several hundred dollars as a result of the effort.

The Christmas Themed Coffee Bags

 

Our last big event of the year was Beers for Books. In late April 2012, we held Beers for Books event at the Rat and The Raven, a bar in the University District of Seattle. The bar donated a keg so that the money from every beer sold would go towards the school. Through the sale of beer, some generous donations, and income from raffle tickets, the night was smashing success, raising over $1000. We were also graced with the presence of Room to Read CEO Erin Ganju who shared a word of encouragement with all in attendance and the importance of prioritizing education in underprivileged countries like Nepal. 

Packing out the bar

 

Overall, the year has been fantastic. We are excited about all of the events that occurred this year, the great people we met, and the continuation of many great relationships as a result of our common purpose in caring for the underprivileged. There is still a long way to go, but we are confident that if we are faithful in continuing our work, this school will be built.

Fundraising Through Our First Spring

An overview of our first Winter/Spring of fundraising:

Almost immediately after the Vision Nepal School Project kicked off, money began to fly in. From the donations of a few generous college students, we were sitting at around $8000 raised within the first two weeks. At that point, we thought the money would be raised in a matter of months. We were wrong, but in a strange way, we were glad that the money did not fall straight into our laps.

It made us step up, it made us persevere and take ownership of what we were doing. It forced us to be innovative and get some skin in the game. We began by doing work-days for people in our community. We did other’s dirty work in exchange for donations towards the school, and to be honest, it was a lot of fun.

Our next fundraising project was ordering 300 Nepal themed t-shirts. They were generously sponsored by The Hat Shop, and we began to “sell” them to our families and friends. Below is a picture of us “modeling” (a term I use loosely) the shirts:

Our last fundraising push that spring was a concert. I would be lying if I didn’t tell you that none of us had any idea what we were doing. None of us had put on a major concert before, but we decided we were going to go for it regardless. We rented out Kane 130 (one of the biggest lecture halls at the UW) and invited everyone we could think of. It was an absolute scramble and we didn’t have a sound system until the day of the concert.

Thanks to the generous outpouring of energy and time by many people, the concert happened. One of the musicians told me that he thinks there were 300 people in attendance. I think he was blowing sunshine our way, and a more realistic estimate would be around 150. Nevertheless, the concert was a great time to connect with others, share what we were doing, and listen to some great music.

Natalie Closner playing at the concert:

Mark Wagner and his band:

All things considered, we entered the Summer of 2011 with around $14,000 towards our goal raised. We learned a lot those first few months about the difficulties of fundraising and the joy of working together to turn a dream into reality, lessons we continue to learn today.

What Does $35,000 Actually Do?

Many people ask us, what does $35,000 actually do?

For starters, the total cost of the school is more than $35,000. The community provides a sizable percentage of the total cost by providing land, labor, and/or materials. Room to Read also contributes through technical assistance and oversight of construction quality. Asking the community to invest gives provides them a sense of ownership in the school. After the construction is complete, the communities and local governments are solely responsible for the upkeep and administration of the school. This is a historical event for these communities, and is unique in that they are an integral part of the construction process rather than mere recipients of charitable giving.

The school itself will have 3-4 classrooms, and educate roughly 100-200 children per year. Additionally, the $35,000 raised pays the salaries of the school’s teachers for three years. The school will be built with brick walls, a concrete floor, and reinforced concrete roofs to ensure that it is structurally sound. Additionally, the school will provide equal education opportunities to both boys and girls, in a country where gender equality is an issue. Not to mention, each school site is equipped with a library stocked with books and literacy learning materials.

I don’t know about you, but it amazes me that for $10,000 less than the average, yearly household income in the United States, you can build a school, educate hundreds of children, and pay teachers for 3 years. I think that is why we are so excited about this opportunity.   We figured if people knew just how far their money could go, they would join us in changing the lives of hundreds, and ultimately thousands of children.

For more information check out school building program page on Room to Read’s website!

The Planting of a Seed

In September 2010, I (Eric Parker) had just returned from a trip to South Africa to visit my aunt and uncle who have done incredible work with the underprivileged in the city of Paarl. With this in mind I moved into the 17th Ave House at the University of Washington where I had three roommates . One of my three roommates that year was Andrew Knutzen. The first thing I noticed about the guy is that he was a schemer and a dreamer. He was always talking about his next big business venture, or something along those lines.

On one late night in early October we were talking about doing big things, daring things, bold things that would challenge us and our faith in God. I mentioned that I’d seen a video of a guy named Francis Chan who spoke about how relatively cheap it was to build an orphanage in a poor country (which you can see here): 

We kicked the idea around for a while, and eventually began asking what it would look like to raise enough money to build a school. Knutzen did some research and sent me a list of several organizations that build schools in underprivileged regions. I am sad to say that I did nothing with that email until late December. Like many dreams, I almost let this one die, but I like to think that God had other plans for it. I was reading The Hole In Our Gospel by Richard Stearns, when I was convicted by the words “if you cared, you’d do something”. Those words just about broke me, and the next day I was on the phone with several organizations that build schools.

I spoke with someone from Room to Read for nearly an hour that day, collecting all of the details about the specifications of their primary schools, how much money we would need to raise, and how we could go about it. I was absolutely blown away by the organization’s helpfulness and love for educating children. Within a few days, we were signed up to raise $35,000, and in early January 2011, our great adventure began.