I still have a vivid picture in my mind. I used to walk 25 minutes to school with worn out, damaged shoes. When ANSWER selected me, I got a  sponsor to which I will always be grateful, (Kathleen Kleaveland from Muskigon, Michigan), and a new pair of shoes. My name is Rajesh Sigdel and I was born and raised in the Eastern Terai region of Nepal in a peasant family. Life was hard.  My father died when I was seven so my mother raised three boys alone. When my oldest brother was 16 he went to work to support our family. As a result he was not able to further his education and is able to speak only a little English.  Many families are like mine and struggle every day to feed their children. We lived in a two room apartment with only a few hours of electricity a day which made studying at night a challenge children as mine did. We lived in a small home, consisting of a rustic kitchen and one bedroom, with only a few hours of electricity a day. (Sometimes studying at night was a challenge!) I did not fully understand how this opportunity for education would change my life forever. When I graduate and get a good job I will be able to help support my family and also plan to help other Answer students. 

Today I am an ANSWER graduate attending Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan as a scholarship recipient of the Near East and South Asia Exchange Program sponsored by the United States Department of Education.  My major is Urban Planning.   I see myself as a young Nepalese youth who has a mission to lead Nepal towards development and responsibility.

Instead of a destiny of factory work or hard physical labor, my education will provide me with to a bright future in Nepal. Instead of working in the fields, I am visiting the USA and discussing  with other NESA students the problems in the Middle East and news about the Pakistan and Afghanistan border. Nepal is a country whose infrastructure was almost destroyed by the ten year long civil war, but is changing rapidly.  Through the opportunity of education, ANSWER is helping Nepal to break down the caste system and open job opportunity to people from the lower caste. We can see the impact of ANSWER from Kathmandu to Jumla, an area which is completely isolated from the rest of the world.  Students in Jomsom still don't have pens to write with so they show their hunger for education by writing in the earth with a stick or marble. ANSWER tries to reach every part of Nepal and selects bright students who do well in class, have a thirst for reading, and a desire to excel.  ANSWER and their sponsors sparks the light of education to those hopeless students whose parents are so poor they can barely feed their children. My sponsor, Kathleen,  gave me an opportunity to go to school and get my education. While studying in the United States, I have been lucky to be invited for Thanksgiving and Christmas to spend the holiday with Kathleen and her daughter, Debra.  It was a wonderful opportunity to know one another and I am so grateful. 

As the proverb goes, ANSWER did not give me fish, but taught me how to fish. My sponsor, Kathleen, and ANSWER have made all the difference in my life.