For 25 years our mission has been to send disadvantaged children to school. Education is the single most powerful tool to improve their lives.
We work with a number of schools in Nepal. Our trademark is personal oversight, frequent visits and a grass roots connection with the children and their world. Our relationship with both the schools and kids is a close one. We monitor the kids’ progress and academic performance and assess that every penny is being well spent. We are a very small, hands-on organization. Pam Whitworth our founder and Director has worked with the children from the very beginning when she sponsored our first child.
EDUCATIONAL SPONSORSHIPS
You can change a life. Education has been shown to be the most powerful agent of change in poor communities.
Sponsorship is the cornerstone of Shanti. The relationship between you and your sponsored child can be deeply fulfilling.
Since most of our students are from remote areas they board at school. For only $1,000 a year you can give education, room and board, uniform and books. We also have some day students who live at home. Their costs are about $450 a year. If you want to support a student, we can work with you, at whatever level you can manage. Co-sponsorships are available. Please join us and experience the joy of getting to know a child and changing a life.
HIGHER EDUCATION
Higher education sponsorships are a relatively recent addition to our programs. As Nepal has been modernizing, the need for higher education has become a necessity. Higher education gives our students the skills to create a self sufficient life. Many graduates contribute financially to their extended families as well as building a better life for themselves and their own children. Globally it’s been found that an educated adult will place a high value on education and is far more likely to have the means to educate their own children.
EARLY LEARNING SUPPORT
In a tiny, rough building in the slums of Kathmandu there is an amazing early learning center started by two visionary Nepalis. Serving the poorest families, they offer free Montessori early learning to the slum children, giving them a quality start in their development. These children learn hygiene, discipline and basic life skills as well as early reading, writing and math education. Shanti is proud to contribute to special projects to help this extraordinary grassroots program.
ADDRESSING MEDICAL NEEDS
With one hundred sponsored students, Shanti often has medical funding needs because for the average poor family, those costs are simply out of reach. We have funded eye surgery, ear surgery, lung and head surgeries. We’ve funded optical exams and glasses. Hearing testing and hearing aids. Dental emergencies and major illness. We are fortunate that our donors have generously supported these needs for children whose families could not afford the necessary vital treatments. These treatments are very often life changing, even life saving.
CRITICAL SOCIAL SERVICES
Inevitably life can bring extraordinary challenges. In a country as impoverished as Nepal and with virtually no governmental social services, sudden crisis can create great hardship and suffering. Shanti has been on the ground to help during civil war, the 2015 earthquake tragedy, political upheaval and now, the Covid pandemic and it’s attendant hunger and unemployment. We have furnished hot meals and food supplies, warm clothing and bedding, fulfilled medical and health needs as well as shelter materials during challenging times.
LIBRARY PROJECT
Nepali children, especially those from poor families, do not grow up with books. They are an unavailable luxury. Poor, illiterate parents do not read to their children. Libraries are almost nonexistent. Shanti is working to remedy this for our kids. We have slowly been building up small libraries in the schools we work with, supplying titles in both English and Nepali for children from preschool through college. We hope to educate and inspire and create a lifelong love of reading in our students. This project has been enthusiastically embraced by our kids as they open to new worlds through literature.
SUPPORT TO SCHOOLS
Shanti Children’s Foundation partners with existing school to house and educate our sponsored students. We are fortunate to have close, long standing relationships with those schools. At times, the schools may have special needs that they cannot manage: property damage from the earthquake and subsequent lack of clean drinking water, cramped or dangerous buildings, lack of teaching materials or basic first aid, to name a few. When possible, we may fund exceptional infrastructure needs, making day to day education safer and more effective for our students.
KIDS AT SCHOOL
A little video to show you the sweet faces of some of our sponsored boys as they do their school work.