A little over a year ago, Nepal UWC National Committee’s selected Iju for the only full UWC scholarship (to attend UWC Maastricht). Since her family could not afford her travel and personal expenses, I set out to raise the ncessary funds.
Iju has already completed a year in Holland, and after a brief summer in Nepal, is now gearing up to return to the UWC for her second and final year.
(She was able to return to Nepal this summer thanks to a generous donor agreeing to sponsor her return ticket. If you remember, the funds I raised last year didn’t cover this.)
I would have loved to have gotten together with Iju to talk to her, face-to-face, about her experience, her hopes and dreams for her second year at the UWC and beyond etc. But it wasn’t to be; I am still travelling in the US having landed in New York City on March 31. But I’ll catch up to her soon!
Here’s what’s happening with the remaining funds.
Just to recap, Iju will have a little over 900 Euros, including the 30 left over at the school from last year, to help her get through this academic year. The funds will cover her pocket money (at around 50/month), project week expenses and at least some of her university-application related expenses. Trusting her to know considerably more about her needs and budgeting, I have left the schedule of the disbursement up to the school and her.
Once again, thank you all for making this possible! I am confident that as a result of this opportunity, children from Iju’s old government (public) school will have been encouraged to stay in school and to dream of achieving success through education. I know that she will become a role model to and influence–both directly and indirectly–children from her community as well.
It’s for that very reason that I have returned home to invest time and effort into enabling children from low socio-economic backgrounds to get these kinds of educational and life opportunities…opportunities I have had!
