2011 Christmas Programs Are Almost Here!




Kids from the Tikapur Children's Home help prepare materials for the 2011 school Christmas programs

It is not too late to donate to this important effort! Madan has assembled a team of local pastors in Nepal for the 2011 school based Christmas outreaches.  Together, they have organized programs in 30 schools, and plan to reach over 11,000 children and staff with the good news of Jesus' birth. The local churches in Nepal have committed to raising 40% of the funds needed for this outreach. Additional funds are still needed to cover the remaining 60%.  Please consider how you might bless the people of Nepal this Christmas. Email bridgetonepal@gmail.com for more information. Thank you in advance for your generosity.

New Benches for Karnaleshwar School



An outdoor classroom at Karnaleshwar School



New benches for outdoor classrooms

In August and October 2009, massive floods struck the Tikapur area. Just south, a border town called Simrahine was seriously damaged. Houses and the school were destroyed. Many from that town now live on government land near Tikapur. In 2009, Madan started the Karnaleshwar School , named after the river Karnali which washed away much of their town. Karnaleshwar school currently serves about 200 children from grades one through five.  There are three indoor classrooms and two outdoor classrooms. A donor recently gave money to purchase benches so students do not have to sit on the ground during school. This will make for better learning conditions for the kids and will also help with sickness in the colder months.

The community helps assemble new benches for the school

Students doing schoolwork on their new benches

Children's Home Fundraiser A Big Hit! By Jason Corbin

Yes, Oui, Si Art Gallery, Vancouver St, Boston MA

On Sept 16th, friends, family, co-workers and even some folks we didn’t know, came from far and wide to attend the first Bridge to Nepal Jazz, Wine and Cheese night held at the Yes Oui Si art gallery in Boston. About 40 people attended and socialized over some smooth jazz performed by the Ezra Platt Jazz Trio while sipping wine, nibbling on a variety of cheeses and enjoying the dynamic art work on display at the gallery. All through the evening we had a running slide show on one of the walls showing images of Nepal.

The fundraiser benefited the orphanage in Tikapur Nepal where we are planning on putting an addition for a study/dining area for the children, as well as a better kitchen that is further away from the children’s living quarters because of smoke from the kitchen fires. The cost of the addition is estimated at $5000 and through this fundraiser we have raised $3300 so far and money is still coming in from folks that wanted to attend and couldn’t make it!

The other purpose for the fundraiser was to raise awareness of the soft slavery and orphaned children issues that plague Nepal and what Bridge to Nepal, by God’s grace, is doing to help. A twenty minute talk was given that focused on telling the stories of six of the orphaned children that are currently living at the Tikapur orphanage.

Jason Corbin shares the stories of kids who live at the Children's Home

The night was a great success and we have had many people requesting dates for when we are going to do the next one! Who knows, perhaps we’ll make this an annual event.

Putting together a fundraiser like this can be a lot of work, but it’s worth every minute preparing and planning. We would encourage folks who have been involved with Bridge to Nepal to have your own fundraiser. It does not need to be as fancy as a Jazz, Wine and Cheese night at an art gallery (We were simply blessed with friends with connections), but you can do a simple desert night at your house, or you can have a party and charge $5.00 for your friends to come. Be creative.

At my office there were many folks who could not make it to the fundraiser and still wanted to give. I had learned that the Orphanage was going to require about 10,000 bricks. To make it interesting for my coworkers to give I called their giving “bucks for bricks”. In Nepal a brick is about 10 cents (rounded up). So every 5 bucks buys 50 bricks. When I put it in that perspective for folks we received a lot of 5 dollar bills! Feel free to steal the “bucks for bricks” idea and run with it! This could apply to building schools as well.

The event also provided an opportunity for us to talk to local businesses and get them involved. Our local wine store donated a case of wine and a Trader Joes in our area donated some of the cheese and crackers.

Thanks to everyone who made this night a great success!

Building Literacy With Dr. Seuss Books

"The more that you read, the more things you will know.

The more that you learn, the more places you'll go."

Dr. Seuss

How many of you learned to read with Dr. Seuss books? Dr. Seuss books provide repetition with sounds and vocabulary.  They are also entertaining and fun to read.  We would like to have a library of Dr. Seuss books at Grace School, PremNagar School and Kichahi School. Each book will have a recorded CD to help with correct pronunciation. We have selected ten titles for the level one certificate program. Upon completion of all ten titles, students will receive a certificate of achievement.  Teachers will be encouraged to go through this program first. We hope to increase English literacy in the schools in a fun way that motivate the students. Our goal is to have 150 books to send to Nepal with the next team.  Books need to be collected by October 15th.  Please contact us if you would like to participate in our Dr. Seuss book drive! This is a great project for schools, church groups, scouting troops or local businesses.

Marian reads a Dr. Seuss book to students at Grace School

A Container School for Shiv Nagar

Cargo of Dreams container school at Stoneybrooke Christian School in Southern CA

 Cargo of Dreams has partnered with Stoneybrooke Christian School to bring a new container school to ShivNagar. This community of 400-500 former slave families is on the outskirts of Tikapur. Stoneybrooke Christian School is located in Southern CA. They have made this a school wide mission project. Click here to read about the wonderful community support the Stoneybrooke students, faculty, staff and parents have given to this project.

The container is slated to ship sometime this fall. Once it reaches Nepal, it will have to clear customs and be transported to its final destination. This is no small task. Please pray for all of the details of this effort to bless the families of ShivNagar.

"Water4" Nepal

Water4 Foundation of Oklahoma City, OK, USA is developing solutions to bring water to at-risk communities around the world. This year, we have partnered with Water4 to bring water to many communities in Nepal.

In April, five volunteers in India and two in Nepal were trained to dig wells and install pumps. The Water4 pumps will be made by CrossProducts in Goa, India, and made available for the wells that will be dug in Nepal and India. We now have one kit for drilling wells, and are ready to start drilling for water in Kichahi.

Lal Bahadur (photo above) and Narayan Singh from Nepal are excited and ready to practice their newly learned skills.

Update: Bunk Beds & A New Roof For The Orphanage by Jason Corbin (Team Member January 2011)



Dan and a local carpenter prepare wood for building the bunk beds

In January 2011, Dan Romaine (my brother-in-law) and I traveled to Nepal to build bunk beds for the children living with Parsu and Bhawani in Tikapur. Prior to the trip, I had worked with my close friend Michael Keyes, a Boston architect. We set out to design a bunk bed that we could easily build, using locally available materials in and around the town of Tikapur. Our goal for the bunk bed project was to provide more space for the children: they needed more floor space for general activities and to do their school work. We estimated that we needed about $4000 US dollars to build roughly 12 bunk beds. With lots of prayer and support from friends, family and coworkers, the funds rolled in slowly. It wasn’t until two weeks before the trip that the majority of the funds were donated. We raised almost $5000, which was an amazing answer to prayer.

We boarded the plane in Boston and embarked on our mission with cash and plans in our pockets. Little did we know that the God had very different plans for us and the money that was raised.

Jason and a local carpenter assemble the frame of the first bunk bed

After we arrived, we quickly learned that building a bunk bed in Nepal is like trying to build a space shuttle in the middle of the desert. The majority of the materials needed such as the finished wood and metal brackets needed to be made by hand. Also to contend with were extended power outages several times a day. This slowed our progress down significantly and at first was a bit discouraging. Coming from the United States where you simply drive to the nearest Home Depot to pick up exactly what you need, this type of working environment took some adjusting to. After we reset our expectations and realized that we weren’t going to be able to set up the typical American production line, we quickly adjusted to the normal Nepali way of doing things: slowly and patiently, with many breaks for tea! In true Nepali form, to make a long story go on for a little longer, we ended up building one bunk bed. We did actually manage to get all the materials and wood cut for the second bunk bed, but did not have time to get it assembled. We left the finishing of that bunk bed to the local carpenters who had worked with us.

Even though we only built one bunk bed, and at times it seemed like we had failed our mission, it had a huge impact on the children and us. All week long the children had watched us building the bunk bed with curiosity, excitement and anticipation. I wish I could describe the looks of joy on their faces when they finally saw the bunk bed finished. I learned later that there were many arguments over who would sleep in the top bunk! I realized at the end of this project that it was not so much the bunk bed itself that made them so happy, but it was the fact that people cared and loved them enough to build them a bunk bed: that people would leave their own country and go all the way to Nepal to help them. This is the power of God’s amazing love that he plants in our hearts, so that we can share it with others.

"We get the top bunk!"

In hind sight we realized that it was God’s plan to only allow us to complete a single bunk bed. The orphanage roof was in desperate need of repair. We had heard before going to Nepal that we may have to fix some leaks in the roof: but when we saw the roof ,we quickly realized that the entire roof needed to be replaced. We were not able to replace the roof ourselves, but left our excess funds in the good hands of Madan and Sophie to complete the roof. Just a few days ago I received pictures from Madan of the completed roof! The children will have a nice dry home during the upcoming monsoon season.

A new roof will keep the building dry during the upcoming monsoon season

Now that the orphanage roof is complete we can continue our work on the bunk bed project.

Lesson learned: God is in control. We went to Nepal with faith and a plan to build many bunk beds. I still have that faith and believe that the Lord wants us to finish this project, however, His timing is perfect and I obviously needed a reminder in humility.

I can’t wait to get back to Nepal to help with this project, but most of all, I really miss the kids.