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Greetings!
Namaste, Answer friend, and Happy New Year!!
We are so blessed to have people like you in our Answer family.
"If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one." - Mother Teresa 
You already know what it takes to make the world a better place. Making a difference to the world may seem like an enormous task, but it is in fact the collective effort of everyone to make small contributions with a lot of heart. Thank you for helping one student at a time, to raise the lower-caste children of Nepal out of poverty through education.
Please remember that letters to your students and payments (if you received an invoice) are needed by the end of January, please! It is always difficult for ANSWER'S limited staff to contact late sponsors so please help us by being prompt. 2012 tax statements will be e-mailed out by the end of January. If by Feb. 1 a statement has not been received they should contact Lisa at lisa.durham@ymail.com.
Wishing you peace and joy in the new year!
Bonnie and Dave Cunningham, Editors
Answer Volunteers
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What "College" Means for Students and Sponsors Lisa Durham In Nepal, students go onto "college" after their 10th grade year. The Nepali people also call this "higher secondary school" or simply "Grades 11 and 12." Depending on the course of study, the college programs are for two or three years. These colleges are similar to going to a community college in the United States. Some students will then go onto "university" after college. A high school diploma after 10th grade is enough to enter students into the temporary job market, but the additional two to three years of "college" will launch them into careers with job security and opportunities for advancement.  | | Tribhuvan College, Kathmandu |
ANSWER tries to support students through "college." This does not mean sponsors should feel obligated to cover the entire cost. Even though college expenses in Nepal are only a small fraction of what they are in the United States, it is still higher than the cost of tuition in the younger grades. We first work with the students on scholarships or discounts at the colleges and with their families to determine how much they are able to contribute. We then turn to sponsors to see how much they are able to contribute. If a balance still remains we access the College Fund. The students may borrow from this fund to pay the balance of their expenses and are asked to repay 25% of what they borrowed once they graduate and have a job. In some circumstances the balance for the student to borrow is still very high and with the original sponsor's agreement we find a co-sponsor to help make up the cost difference. We want every sponsor to be able to continue their relationship with their student. Whatever amount a sponsor is able to contribute toward college expenses is a gift very much appreciated!  | | Pentagon University, Kathmandu |
ANSWER has 56 college graduates with 139 more currently enrolled in college. This fall we will have nearly 100 students entering college and will maintain 100 new college students each year going forward. Of the current "college" graduates, some students have continued on in medical, dental, optometry, veterinary and engineering programs and others have established themselves in jobs in business and technology. Every ANSWER graduate has benefited from their education and most have been able to bring not only themselves as individuals out of poverty, but their entire extended families as
well.
 | Kathmandu University
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Stranger Things have happened, but add this to the List!
Earle Canfield
In Sept, I received an email out of the blue from a woman named Valeria. She was in Nepal and wrote me:
Dear Earl,
I am a tourist in Katmandu, and have found today in a shop a lot of postcards you wrote to people, with stamp but have never been sent by the post office I guess!!!
I am not sure if you decided not to send them or if these should have been sent? These are from 2007!!! Incredible. Shall I send these to you? Where are you located? Hope near Kathmandu and so we can meet! :)
I really admire your work and hope I can also support :)
Best regards,
Valeria
Valeria is from Switzerland, and we never met as I had since returned to the US and was recovering from my surgery. However, Jailina did rendezvous with Valeria and picked up the postcards and we have mailed
them out.....somewhere another 80 or more may still be lying around. Five years ago I had dropped them off in a small mailbox in a corner grocery store and none were ever received....I figured some dishonest person
simply soaked off the uncancelled stamps, so I stopped doing this. The next year I had my laptop and relied exclusively on email. If you are one of the original 19 and wondering why you received a 5 year old post card
from me....now you know: you are the lucky ones!
This is just another illustration of how primitive and unreliable things are in a LDC, a Least Developed Country. Seldom do things run on time, are maintained so they don't break down, or do people take their jobs seriously. Things are getting better; but it is a sad testament when after 5 years it is another foreigner who finally discovers them, extricates them and goes online to locate me to fix the wrong. I am so grateful to
Valeria for your random act of kindness.
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 | | Darling Nepali Girls Singing and Dancing |
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Sponsor letters due NOW!!! January 31st deadline.!
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Nepal Students attend Princeton, Cambridge, Pentagon, White House, IBM and Nasa!
| Read a Curious Article About College Names in Nepal
 | Brooklyn College
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Miss Nepal 2012, Shristi Shrestha
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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.
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Visit our Web Site!
ANSWERnepal.org
ANSWER
PO Box 68401
Grand Rapids, MI 49516
616-516-0955
email Earle Canfield
email Lisa Durham
All rights reserved.
Copyright 2013.
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