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| Greetings!
Namaste. And thank you for sending your recent letter. It is your student's tangible proof that someone believes in them and their future. Just so you can understand the importance of your letter, let us paint the picture. The ANSWER students are gathered together in a quiet, private room and one by one the ANSWER Staff hands the sponsor letters to the children. Imagine the joy and delight on the faces of the children when they receive a letter from their most respected sponsor and lifeline from the United States. Now think about how heartbreaking it is to be the only one who does not receive a letter.
Letters are being delivered in Western Nepal this week, and in Eastern Nepal next week. We are hoping to get the job completed and letters back to all the sponsors by Christmas. Earle is currently consulting with sponsors about our new entrants to college. Thank you for your continued support!
Remember, if you are not seeing PICTURES in this newsletter, click on the link ABOVE the newsletter.
Bonnie and Dave Cunningham, Editors
Answer Volunteers
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Last Call: ANSWER Concert Benefit this Sunday
Call Today!
This year the 8th Annual ANSWER Benefit will be staged 2 months earlier in Grand Rapids,MI, Sunday, Sept 16, 4-7pm in order to take advantage of the mild weather and outdoor patio as well as the superb acoustics of the Kretschmer Recital Hall at Aquinas College. David
Lockington, music director of the Grand Rapids Symphony (GRS) will share the stage with John Varineau, associate conductor of the GRS, and Sean Ivory, conductor of the GRS Youth Choruses. They will play selections from Brahms, Ravel, Radiohead, and Lockington. Meet and mingle with the artists after the performance at an Hors d'oeuvre Reception. Bid at the Live and Silent auctions, shop for all kinds of Nepali Wear & Wares at The Market Place.
This annual concert is ANSWER's way to responsibly cover its administrative costs instead of passing them on to the sponsors. If you live in SW Michigan, please come and enjoy a wonderful evening with other members of the ANSWER family-- sponsors, friends, and board
members.
Call 616-350-1338 immediately for reservations and information
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 Helping Others
Bal Krishna Khatri,
ANSWER-Nepal Executive Director Namaste, ANSWER friends. I am Bal Krishna Khatri, Executive Director of ANSWER-Nepal. Recently I was asked to share a little of my history with you.
I was lucky to be raised in a happy family in Kusma, a town in the Parbat district of Nepal. My parents had a small Guest House business. My grandparents and mother were uneducated and my father went to school through fifth grade. Even so, my parents were highly motivated towards the education of their children. As a result, I went to a very good private English school in Kusma for my first three years, finishing my publics primary school education at a Government school. Besides my studies, I helped my parents in their Guest House business. I would wake up at 4:00 A.M. to work on my studies and usually finish my homework in the evening. My older sister was very good in math and she was my extra tutor at home. After studying Science in Pokhara at a Government college I came to Kathmandu to receive my Bachelor degree in Health Care Management. At that time I began working for ANSWER - Nepal and working towards my Master in Business.
My first assignment working for ANSWER was very challenging for me. I was supposed to visit and interview the Kapadee (Madeshi) children who live in one of the worst slums in Nepal at the bank of Manohora river in Bhaktapur. Most of them were homeless and their profession was scavenging and begging. They had small tent houses and almost 10-12 children to a family. These children were so dirty and lived in very primitive and unsanitary conditions. I had never been exposed to such a difficult environment. Going there every day was very difficult for me. I have to admit I even thought of quitting my job. But we enrolled a couple of Kapadee children in the local government school to give them a chance. I used to go to their school almost every day to field complaints from the teachers ("They are undisciplined, they are too dirty, they steal pens from their classmates," etc...). So, when we realized the difficulties in working with them, we had to discontinue our relationship. A couple of years later when we were on our regular school visit to Rautahaut, we decided to go visit them again and we found that some of the children had started to go to school on their own. We were very happy and decided to transfer them to the English school in the city. As a result some kids are doing extremely well in school. Through ANSWER they started to know the value of education. Now they are adjusted to the new city life and want to continue their education.
During this same time period I went to the hospital to take care of an ANSWER student (Hypothermia). I started to feel attached with that boy and took care of him. You see, in Nepal, I was not raised with the idea of helping others. So these two events became the turning point of my life and I started enjoying working with ANSWER and understanding the true gift of helping others. Now I personally support a student in Pokhara. He is called Gunjan from grade 6. I have really grown as a person through the challenges of working with ANSWER students.
Today my elder brother has his own business and my other brother is in Gorkha Army in India. (Many men are leaving Nepal to find work.) My sister is in the teaching profession. I got married on 4th Feb, 2012. It was arranged marriage as is the tradition in Nepal. My wife's name is Sharmila. We talked on phone before our first date. She used to work as a DJ in local radio in Baglung part time while she was a full time English teacher for up to grade 8. We are now living in Kathmandu together and I can say it's a perfect match.
The founder of ANSWER, Earle Canfield, is not just my boss but he is very good friend of mine. He allows me to express my feelings to him honestly. Honesty is the one thing he wants from his staff as well as his students. He always says, "Don't tell me what you THINK I want to hear. Tell me the TRUTH!" He is excellent at inspiring the students and tries to understand the root causes of problems students are facing (And believe me, there are many!).
ANSWER is growing every year. It is serving Nepal to produce the future leaders of Nepal. I can say it is one of the few organizations here that is directly connected with the welfare of Nepal by providing a good education to the bright and economically challenged lower caste Nepali children. I am so grateful to the Americans and Nepalis who open their hearts to help support the education of our ANSWER children.
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Sherpas
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According to Wikipedia, "Sherpas are highly regarded as elite mountaineers and experts in their local terrain. They were immeasurably valuable to early explorers of the Himalayan region, serving as guides at the extreme altitudes of the peaks and passes in the region, particularly for expeditions to climb Mt. Everest (Nepali: Sagarmatha). Today, the term is often used casually-and incorrectly-by foreigners to refer to almost any guide or porter hired for mountaineering expeditions in the Himalayas. Sherpas are renowned in the international climbing and mountaineering community for their hardiness, expertise, and experience at high altitudes. It has been speculated that a portion of the Sherpas' climbing ability is the result of a genetic adaptation to living in high altitudes. Some of these adaptations include unique hemoglobin-binding enzymes, doubled nitric oxide production, hearts that can utilize glucose, and lungs with an increased sensitivity to low oxygen."
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Student letters to the sponsors are due to arrive before Christmas.
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 | | Bal, Director of ANSWER-Nepal |
 | Bal as a boy
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In Remembrance of Som Raj Subedi, Instigator of ANSWER
Last month past Director and founding member of ANSWER Nepal died at the age of 38. Som is survived by his wife Nisha, son Nirvan (1˝ y.o.), his mother, 2 brothers Ritu Raj and Chanak. Som served as ANSWER's director for its first ten years, selecting and following hundreds of children in schools.
Som was the middle son of a Brahmin (priest) family in a village in Southern Nepal. His family was poor, and Som grew up with playmates who were low caste, rural poor. He could speak their language Maithali. Som was educated in the government school system and had to learn English on his own. All this served him well years later on as director of ANSWER.
Like many Nepali children, Som wanted to be a doctor, and after high school he trained as a physical therapist at the Hospital and Rehabilitation Center for Disabled Children (HRDC) in Banepa. It is there that Som met Earle and Mary Jane who were volunteering in 1997. When they began supporting Uma in school, Som offered to help her as needed. It was Som who felt they should sponsor more needy children. Each year he would suggest it, and Earle would decline. Finally, when he wanted to borrow money to enroll in a Masters Degree program in Hospital Administration, Earle offered to pay him a salary, in lieu of a loan, to supervise the education of a few children sponsored by friends. This small step launched ANSWER and the rest is history.
The current director Bal (refer to his story in this issue) was hired by and served as Som's protégé for five years. ANSWER staff members Sanoj, Rajesh, Sadikshya and Simran were all ANSWER students selected by Som. His legacy lives on in our staff and in our students. A memorial service was held at the ANSWER office in Kathmandu and 60 students attended and paid their respects.
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ANSWER is a non-religious, non-partisan organization dedicated to helping the people of Nepal address problems of poverty through education, primarily by providing educational sponsorships for low-caste and impoverished students. ANSWER is a 501c(3) tax-deductible, non-profit charity. Click HERE to visit our web site.
Earle Canfield 616-516-0955
Brought to you by Answer Nepal Volunteers, Dave and Bonnie Cunningham
All rights reserved. Copyright 2012.
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