Since its founding in 1999, IASF has been primarily focused on projects in Odisha and locally in the Bay Area. However, we have also funded projects in a few other places during major calamities such as the Tsunami of 2004, Katrina (2005), Haiti earthquake (2010) and some others.
Our involvement in Nepal began when a few IASF members went on a hike to the Everest Base Camp in Oct 2022. In addition to hiking and enjoying the towering Himalayan peaks and crossing tumultuous rivers, the hikers saw first hand the poverty affecting children in Nepal. Nepal is still an under-developed country, lacking resources to uplift these children. The team felt compelled to help these children. They got involved with two local NGOs that are working on empowering children and women and pooled together some money to help these causes. The team, in collaboration with IASF, is working on supporting two projects being implemented by these NGOs.
Winter Clothing Drive – Jackets for Kids
KarmaFlights is an NGO based in Pokhara, Nepal. The hiking team donated 1 lakh Nepalese Rupees for the winter coat drive for school children in remote areas to keep the kids warm and healthy this winter. We were able to fund winter jackets for one school with 60 students. The coat distribution was completed on Christmas eve, Dec 24th 2022.
Links
Karma Flights: https://www.karmaflights.org/)
Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HmwV_bAYAM
In 2023, IASF is raising funds to keep 400 – 500 students warm in Nepal. Each jacket costs $12. The entire process starting from the acquiring materials to stitching, packing and distribution is done in Nepal to sustain the Nepalese economy. Your generous contribution will provide the little angels with warm clothing and warm hearts and tons of happy smiles and blessings in return!
Fundraising Goal: $5000
After School program (ASP)
Society of Urban Poor (SOUP) based in Kathmandu, creates the conditions for women, men and children of the urban and suburban poor communities to improve their quality of life, by organizing them through their empowerment and the awareness of individual and community issues. One of the programs they provide is an after school program for poor school-going children studying in public schools while their parents are away working, trying to make ends meet. The overall goal of the program is to improve academic performance and prevent school dropout. It focuses on 30 kids between 6 to 12 years of age. Two hours of after school program, 6 days a week supports children who are from marginalized backgrounds and parents are not literate enough to support their children’s homework. To learn more about SOUP, please visit https://soup.org.np/.
SOUP had launched six ASP classes in Kathmandu and Lalitpur districts but COVID lockdown affected the ASP program and only two ASP program started in 2021.
The hiking team donated 2.78 lakh Nepalese Rupees to support one additional After School Program at Shramjit Kisor higher secondary school in Lalitpur district. This ASP will start from Feb 1st 2023 increasing the ASP schools to 3. Total cost of sponsoring an ASP is about 3.2 lakh rupees.
In 2023, IASF is raising money to support one more ASP school.
Fundraising Goal: $5000
