News

Youth for Nepal (YFN) Fundraising Event in Edmond, Oklahoma

Sep 6, 2008: The Tea House hosted "To a T!" a fundraising concert for Youth For Nepal on 6 September. The concert, which started off the House's fall semester schedule also introduced the new Nepali band, which will perform at the venue on the first Saturday of every month. Around 40 people from the Edmond, Oklahoma, community were in attendance. The concert also held a participatory session for those who wanted to perform. Around $50 was raised from the voluntary donations. The Tea House Saturday concert every month will continue to keep the donation box for YFN.

Enjoying the music

Musicians

- Report prepared by Abha Eli

YFN Completes Its First Project: Health Fete

July 26, 2008: The Health Fete was organized by Youth for Nepal (YFN) at Child protection Home – Sifal (CPH). The organizers and volunteers reached the venue at 9:15 and finished the setup as scheduled and the program started formally at 11. First, a brief presentation was made by the medical team on good habits to be followed by the children for their personal health and hygiene. Then, the general health check up was started by the medical team. Simultaneously, games were also going on to engage other children who were 80 in number (30 more than what we were informed earlier). After the health check up, we performed the painting competition, which was in fact a surprise to the children as not only the winner, but all of them were awarded with gifts later on. The children came up with lovely drawings. Some in fact, dedicated the paintings to the volunteers: a boy, who made a house for one of our volunteers, Salim. That was very very sweet and other volunteers also had a nice time with the children.
Lastly, we distributed the gifts to the children and the additional 30 gifts were prepared in 45 minutes at the very moment which was quite a rush. But thanks, to Anita's friends around the place who proved to be of GREAT help.
Then we gave away letter of appreciation to the medical team and finally handed the gift-first aid kit to the principal. Finally we had a little photograph session and ended the day.
To reflect, it was a great day, both for the volunteers and the children. Volunteers got along really well with the children; especially Salim and Smriti were the stars of the day. Salim, who was looking after the music of the place, was like the master of the orchestra with whom all the children sang. The medical team was really really great and were very helpful and co-operative; in fact more than that. The principal of the home was also very sweet and willing to help at all times with whatever he had in the place.
As a whole, it was day of great moments. I believe each one participating in the program had his/her share of experience that must have been unique and especial in its own way. It was a successful program for YFN and for the fact that it was our first piece of work made it special, it was cherished and full of experience, learning and feeling.

Many thanks to our volunteers:
Doctors:
1. Dipesh Man Singh (Bir Hospital)
2. Prithuja Poudyal (Nepal Medical College Teaching Hospital)


Nurses:
1. Neha Aryal (Police Hospital)
2. Sneha Aryal (Police Hospital)


Youth For Nepal crew:
1. Deepesh Shrestha
2. Sanjit Shrestha
3. Sarita Sapkota
4. Utsav Bhattarai
5. Akash Shrestha
6. Sanjeeb Rajbhandari

Additional notes:
The entire cost of the program was approximately NRs. 14,559 (US$ 225). A breakdown of expenses will be disclosed soon.

-Report prepared by Sarita Sapkota

Full report (by Akash)

Akash measuring a scholar's height

The medical team in action

The volunteer group with scholars

The volunteer group with the staff and Principal

Youth for Nepal (YFN) Fundraising Event in New York City

June 28, 2008: YFN organized its first fundraising event in New York on Sunday, June 29, 2008 at Eammon’s Irish Bar and Restaurant in lower Manhattan. The event was planned around the finale of the Euro 2008 Soccer Championship.
We organized a raffle competition to predict the winner and the score of the final match between Spain and Germany. Participants paid $15 each to enter the raffle competition. We had a total of 46 participants for the raffle competition, while a few people just donated the money to the organization without participating in the raffle. A total of $755 was raised through the event.
The game ended as a 1-0 win for Spain and only two participants – Zoe Fleer, a Grinnell College alum 2006, and Naresh Bhatta, a St. Peter’s College alum of 2007 – predicted the winner and the score correctly. Both of them received $130 each as the winning prize, which they both generously gave back to the organization.
Overall, the event was a grand success and we express our gratitude for the participation and support of everyone involved.
Full list of donors

- Report prepared by Abishkar Shrestha

Everyone having fun

The winners

The winners and the organizers

Youth for Nepal (YFN) Fundraising Event in Ames, Iowa

June 28, 2008: A fund raising potluck dinner was organized by the Nepali Students Association of Iowa State University at the University Village
Community Center on June 21, 2008. This event was organized keeping in
view the health camps to be organized in the following July in Nepal.
At the beginning of the dinner, a member of YFN, Suyog Shrestha, gave
a brief overview of Youth for Nepal and the health camps to be
organized in July by YFN Nepal. Adding that YFN is not limited to
working on its self-initiated projects, he also invited the
participants to have the youth from their respective communities to
initiate their own local projects.
After a brief exchange of questions
and answers, dinner was served. Each household that participated had
brought in a dish, and each adult was charged a minimum of 7 dollars
for the dinner and the movie afterward. A total of 135 dollars was
raised from the 14 adults (five children) who were present. After the
dinner the participants watched a Hindi movie, Om Shanti Om.

Many thanks to our participants and donors:

Mrs. and Mr. Durga Paudyal and children
Mrs. and Mr. Som Sagar Shrestha and children
Mrs. and Mr. Naresh Acharya and children
Mrs. and Mr. Manoj Karkee
Bishnu Karki
Bikash KC
Ananta Upadhyaya
Ravi Lohani
Mahesh Jung Karki
Suyog Shrestha
Jeshica Baral

- Report prepared by Suyog Shrestha