Race Across the Sky – Education scholarships for Nepali students
- Aug 3, 2016
- 5 min read
The Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run is just 2 weeks away! 4:00 am, August 20th has been circled on my calendar since January 7th, when I got the email congratulating me on my successful lottery draw to toe the start line at Leadville 2016! I naively thought 9 months would be plenty of time to get back into competitive endurance running condition and that 100 miles would be a natural progression to the two 100 km runs I had previously completed. Taking the better part of the 6 months off to recover from a navicular stress fracture in my foot at the end of 2014 resulted in a far more challenging effort to rebuild my stamina than I ever anticipated.
While in Nepal working with local partners on earthquake relief last July, I joined a 30 km trail run in Sindhupalchowk – the area most devastated by the second of Nepal’s two major earthquakes in 2015. It was a tough challenge to complete, but well worth the run. It highlighted the beauty of Nepal’s steep terrain and gave me an unfiltered close up view of village life as we passed through terraced fields, deep ravines, villages, graveyards, fresh water springs, schools, and Buddhist shrines. It gave me a chance to interact with the gracious and hospitable people of Nepal – even as they were recovering from the devastating 7.8 and 7.3 earthquakes which crumbled houses and shattered villages.
While in Kathmandu for earthquake response work, I became well acquainted with the Brazilian ministry, Apple of God’s Eyes, whose primary mission is to protect kids from the vices and destructive forces of human trafficking. While Nepal’s terrain and snow-capped Himalayan peaks are spectacular, they are juxtaposed by poor governance, extreme poverty, and harsh living conditions for the majority of the rural and urban population. Nepal’s greatest income is from the wage remittances of Nepali migrant workers who go abroad to work and send money home to support their families. Malaysia alone, where we live, has over a million Nepalese migrant workers. A quarter of Nepal’s children are engaged in family or wage labor.[i]
Human traffickers find ample prey in these harsh living conditions and impoverished communities. Promises of jobs and sending money home lure families to release children and adolescents away on an unprecedented scale. Apple of God’s Eyes reports that in many villages, they find no girls over the age of 9 or 10. Apple of God’s Eyes seeks to combat the scourge of human trafficking by providing over 1,200 village scholarships to keep children in school – a mere $10.00 a month pays school fees and supplements food expenses. In Kathmandu, Apple of God’s Eyes runs five Children’s Homes where they house over 150 children who have been rescued from sex trafficking in India or abuse, poverty, and neglect at home in Nepal. After graduation from high school, the children who age out of the care facilities enter programs to reintegrate them with their family or a relative. In 2015, there were 12 students who had finished their high school studies and dreamed of continuing on to university or graduate degrees – ranging from nursing school, accounting, social work, IT, and dental surgery.
They all want to give back and work in some capacity with Apple of God’s Eyes programs so they can help children and families in Nepal – just as they were taken in, cared for, treated as family, and found the love of God is greater than the evil of human debauchery. There is no greater testament to a program’s success than those you help wanting to dedicate their life to the same cause and Pay-It-Forward. Apple of God’s Eyes (led by Silvio and Rose Silva along with a host of Nepali and Brazilian staff, volunteers, and donors from across the globe) does incredible work in very challenging circumstances.
I am setting out to run the Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run to raise $50,000 for scholarship funds for our partnering organization, Ruble International Education Initiative, to secure the university education of these 12 students in Kathmandu and more like them in the years to come. The challenge is daunting – but I believe in the cause!
I have met the students, read their heartbreaking life stories, and heard their dreams and tearful dedication to continuing their education so they can give back and contribute toward more hope and opportunity for future generations of Nepalese. I know nothing about fundraising at this level, but I know a good cause when I “run” into it. I trust that if I can help tell their story, others will join in making this dream for an education a reality. I trust that if I take on a daunting challenge of running a hundred miles through the Rockies, I can find the courage, strength, and fortitude to complete the task – just as these students have overcome the odds and abuse thrown at them in tender ages to now be ready to earn a university degree and make their mark in the world.
I know I cannot do this alone – I need your help! I need each of you to take on this fundraising challenge with me; to give generously and to promote this cause with your friends, family, and social networks. It may take a village to raise a child, but it will take a global community to eliminate human trafficking and the devastation it wreaks on individual lives and on societies. Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” I ask you to join me as agents for change by giving generously and widely sharing this cause with others.
This blog is on the newly designed WIX website for Ruble International Education Initiative. There is still work to be done on the site, but it opens a portal to begin to tell the story of these Nepali students along with other students RIEI supports. You can read a brief synopsis and listen to a short video introductions from the students from the main page, under the "Our Work" --> "Our Nepal Scholars" tab.
Jan Williams, RIEI’s President, and Cole Abbott, RIEI Board Member and university student, spent 2 weeks in Kathmandu in May following up with this scholarship program, meeting the students and their families. I will be posting additional blogs and will ask Jan and Cole to speak from their time in Kathmandu as well.
You can make a donation directly through this website by going to the “How You Can Help” tab and then click on the DONATION button. Or you can send a check to “Leadville 100 Challenge”:
Ruble International Education Initiative
P.O. Box 1036
Rome, GA, USA 30162
Much thanks. I'll be blogging more before and after this event. Stay tuned . . .
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