Nepal is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. With breathtaking landscape all around and having diverse flora and fauna, no wonder she is the tourism paradise of the world. And over 60 different ethnic groups, castes and communities living in this small country of one of the steepest landscape in the world - starting from snowy mountains(8848ft above sea-level) in the far north to hot plainlands in the south (50mt above sea-level). But sadly, we are also one of the poorest nation in the world, with unimaginably huge population living under extreme poverty line. Although our per-capita income is $1200, most people in Nepal live under a dollar a day, owing to the huge rich-poor divide.
Traditionally, Nepal is a feudalistic Hindu society, wrongly built on ever discriminating caste and class system, with huge population (over 31%) living in extreme poverty. Our progress as a country has always been marred by illiteracy and poverty of the masses. Even the modern governance procedures have had little effect towards the correction of this discrimination. Owing to this huge under-privileged population, disproportionate distribution of power, wealth and privilege all around the country, moral, cultural and ethical values of the masses have been ever deteriorating: corruption, abuse of power and even blatant cheating in day-to-day dealing has become a phenomena people are accustomed to live with.
As one of the lucky few who is blessed with good education, skill and having born to a hardworking and ethically strong family, I always wanted to contribute my bit for poverty alleviation in my country. As my personal capabilities grew, so grew my desire for social welfare. Thanks to few good people in my friends and families circle sharing the very similar passion for social welfare, we finally established this great-to-be organization - HelpMyStudy.
Fundamentally, HelpMyStudy is an initiative to “school” the most underprivileged children of our community to a “decent” school. Family of those children cannot even afford them 2 meals a day everyday, let alone send them to a decent school. Although government schools are cheap and even provide free education till Grade 5, the quality and reliability of government schools is pathetic - as can be seen by their miserable performance in any state-level exams. Unfortunately, children from those communities are forced to study in those schools, many not even completing their primary education -thereby trapped in the vicious cycle of poverty forever. Understandably, they have no clue whatsoever on how their destitution can end. Current disharmony in the country and among the communities are mostly due to discontent among the huge mass about the state of their welfare, many wrongly accusing their non-education, poverty for all this. HelpMyStudy aims to end this cycle from many such communities and families. We believe that by positively stimulating the education of underprivileged class will herald a new era of equal opportunity and brighter future for overall Nepal.
The modus-operandi is quite simple too: deploy ground level social worker, collect profiles matching our criteria and then help them find suitable donor to sponsor his/her schooling. However, we understand there will be many challenges as we proceed, which we are ready to mete.
Our social worker will not only collect profiles but also monitors the progress of each child and facilitates communication with the sponsor. Along with this, there will be many short-term vocational and skill trainings that we plan to impart to many. A central team will also facilitates this same process all over Nepal, supporting educational and social programs all around to build capabilities of the poor and also raise awareness in the general population on the need to help the poor.
Although a huge ask, our hope is strong, and determination unflinching. Anyone who believe in the cause and share similar vision, please join hand with us and lets start doing our bit for the future of our country.
Mr Bikash Shah
