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For those interested in more detail regarding the history, people, and projects of Ten Friends we invite you to read on...
Ten Friends Project recognizes the human impact of economic hardship throughout the world. Our values are cultural respect, human dignity, increased quality of life, and environmental preservation. We are especially concerned with the challenges faced by children. These values will guide us as we seize opportunities to empower less fortunate people and enrich their lives. We all share a collective responsibility and together, with friends, we are prepared to act now.
Something to ponder:
"I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything; but still I can do something; And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do."
Edward Everett - U.S. Secretary of State - 1852
If each of us tells ten friends about what we can accomplish . . . and each of them tells ten friends . . . then what we can accomplish has no limits. That’s the power of friends!
Ten Friends is hundreds of people who have been involved in our work and our door is always open for you. Every summer we travel to Nepal, often taking volunteer students or friends. Our first project was delivering stretchers to villages along the trekking paths near Mt. Everest so that injured villagers could be carried safely to hospitals. We have seen how poverty, government instability, or natural disasters make it difficult for people to realize their hopes and dreams. Children are most affected by these conditions. From the stretcher delivery project and other charitable opportunities that arose, Ten Friends Project was born. We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit and donations are tax-deductible.
Ten Friends’ funding is raised via our internet website, locally organized events, school educational fundraisers, and mailings. Your donations to Ten Friends provide basic health and safety needs that save lives, ease suffering, and improve the welfare of children. Currently, we are focused on service in Nepal. However, we will work with any individual or organization in any nation to improve the lives of people in need. Our foreign assistance projects are efficient and well managed. We don't pay salaries to ourselves, or anyone else, except to our employees in Nepal. We pay them $1.50 per hour and that's three or four times more than the average wage in Nepal.
Student/Community/Intern Involvement
A big part of the Ten Friends concept is to welcome new ideas and assist others in their desire to help people. Education and awareness are important too. We have given presentations to thousands of students at local schools. Our presentation includes pictures and information about life in the kingdom of Nepal.
Students are often surprised how different life is for children in other parts of the world. Several classrooms have started fundraisers for Ten Friends. Banks High School in Portland, Oregon is fundraising for Ten Friends. Banks High School teachers Gabe and Heather Pagano, also Ten Friends volunteers, are heading up this fundraiser. Thanks Gabe, Heather, and Banks High School!
Students and parents from Sisters Elementary School in Sisters, Oregon, have raised thousands of dollars for Ten Friends. The school's Help Kids in Nepal fundraisers have been wonderful. In fact, this generous community has carried Ten Friends from the beginning. Each day, more and more people donate their money, time, and energy to assisting others in faraway lands, giving them clean water, food, education, and a bed to sleep in. Thanks Sisters!
Our Summer 2007 Nepal trip included volunteer students and teachers from Sisters High School in Sisters, Oregon. They were a great team and we got a lot done with their help! They helped construct cement water basins at two of the wells in Siddartha, a community of tent-dwelling Indian people who have immigrated to Nepal. The area around the hand-pump wells was difficult to walk on due to broken cement, open sewage ditches, and mud. The entire area was cleaned and concrete catch basins now provide a safer and more usable area for this community. The interns also helped deliver stretchers in the remote Makalu region of Nepal. They participated in orphanage water filter project, and spent several days volunteering at the hopeful home orphanage. We believe the interns gained valuable experiences in service work and the culture of Nepal that will positively affect them and the lives of others far into the future.
Ten Friends Employees in Nepal:
We have an excellent part-time employee in Kathmandu, Nepal. His name is Dinesh Khakurel. Dinesh is also the director of the Hopeful Home Orphanage in Kathmandu. He's a kind person, solid, and committed to our work together. He has our respect and commitment too. Dinesh visits orphanages prior to our arrival in Nepal. He interviews orphanage directors and orphans to better understand the children's needs. His work helps us get the maximum benefit from the water filters, bedding, or other assistance that Ten Friends provides before we get to Nepal. Dinesh makes sure of that donor money is used efficiently. He is also the supervisor of our school sponsorship program and other orphanage assistance projects. He saves us a lot of time and donor money!
Lhakpa Sherpa has worked with us for years. He helps us with porter services, language translation, stretcher delivery, and countless other needs. He has also become a close friend. Lhakpa owns Namche Book Shop in Namche Bazar, Nepal. Consider hiring him for his experienced mountain and trekking guide services if you're in Nepal. His brother Dawa owns Variety Book Shop in Lukla. Lhakpa's email address is namchebook4@hotmail.com.
Currently, there are hundreds of orphanages in Kathmandu and, by some estimates, over 1000 in the country of Nepal. Over 10,000 children live in orphanages in Nepal and more than 7,000 of them are in the Kathmandu valley. Nepal is a very poor country. Because of the poverty, families are often not able to provide for their children and may give them to an orphanage in hopes that they will have a better life.
Also, many poor people living in rural areas move to Kathmandu with the hope of finding work to support their families. They often do not find work or can’t afford food and housing for their children. To be sure their children have food, schooling, and safety, they may give them up to an orphanage.
A large percentage of the children living in these homes are not orphans because they have living parents. Therefore, these organizations are often called “children’s homes” rather than “orphanages”. However, 56% of the children in these homes are either single or double orphaned.
During the Maoist rebellion in Nepal, untold numbers of fathers were killed, kidnapped, or severely injured in the conflict. Often they never returned to their families. Mothers were left to provide for her children, which is nearly impossible with the economic conditions. Many orphanage children are a product of the Maoist conflict. If there were adequate social services, brighter economic conditions, and a stable democratic government, many of the children would not be living in these homes. Orphanage conditions vary, but Ten Friends is finding that many of these homes are unable to provide basic needs for the children they house, including the most basic need, a safe drink of water. The good news is, there is a new government forming in Nepal, with hopes for better days ahead!
Orphanage Statistics
41% of children in Nepal’s orphanages are stunted (height for age).
29% are underweight (weight for age), and 4% are wasted (weight for height).
77% of the children are in these homes because their family is too poor to take care of them. That’s about 7,000 children.
In 2001 it was estimated that 12,000 children were trafficked every year in Nepal.
The majority of the homes do not provide safe drinking water. Only 40% of the homes had drinking water supply which would be considered safe.
Approximately 38,000 children die in Nepal each year from drinking unsafe water.
Individual charity and donations are the most frequent source of funding for the homes (62%)
The four most frequent health problems among children in these homes are ENT(ear, nose, and throat problems) skin diseases, waterborne diseases, and arthritis.
Lack of funding is the largest problem faced by the homes. Most of them do not have long term funding assurances.
8% of children in these homes are disabled. Disabilities include deafness, blindness, physical handicaps, and retardation.
The process of changing donations of money or time into better lives creates a human connection – smile to smile, country to country. We think it’s important to have the same people make that connection on both ends. Ten Friends is always on the lookout for more ways to help people but we never want to tackle anything we can’t do well. With those thoughts in mind, we choose our projects.
Ten Friends has been working on charitable projects in Nepal for several years. Over 100 portable stretchers have been delivered to mountain villages in Nepal. These stretchers are manufactured in Sisters, Oregon, by Rescue Response Inc. Rescue Response gives Ten Friends a generous discount on the stretchers. The stretchers are designed so that bamboo poles can be inserted for transport. Each year new villages are targeted. Ten Friends volunteers deliver stretchers to a central location in each village and educate villagers about the proper use of the stretcher. We are pleased to find that this project is improving or saving lives. Follow-up visits have shown that stretchers are being used to carry sick or injured people to medical posts and, in fact, one of the stretchers has been used five times in the last year! Stretcher sponsors are needed at $100 per stretcher.
We have found that one major need that is simple to meet is the need for clean drinking water. The “government” water only runs 2 days each week and is contaminated with bacteria. The contaminated water is a constant source of stomach problems, tragically killing thousands of children every year. During their 2006 and 2007 summer trips to Kathmandu, Ten Friends installed dozens of Eurogard Brand water filters in orphanages. Thanks to donor support for our Water Filter Project, more than 3,000 children in these orphanages are experiencing less diarrhea and stomach problems. The cost to sponsor a “Euroguard” water filter is $200. Orphanages without electricity need gravity fed ceramic filters costing $25 each.
In the last couple of years, Ten Friends Project has developed a close relationship with the Hopeful Home Orphanage in Kathmandu, Nepal. Over the last few years we have provided a large portion of their food budget. We will continue our sponsorship of food and other basic needs for this orphanage, and are seeking donations of any size specifically for the Hopeful Home.
Besides the Hopeful Home, many other orphanages in Nepal are unable to meet the basic needs of children. For example, many orphanages are short on mattresses and beds. Children sleep directly on concrete floors. Some of these orphanages have water purification equipment, but most do not. Scabies and other skin problems are common in orphanages due to poor hygiene and malnutrition. Many orphanage children are stunted (low height for age). A large percentage of Nepali people have intestinal parasites. Slowly but surely we will improve these conditions with your help.
Improving the lives of orphanage children in Nepal is one of our main priorities. Generally, we purchase, deliver, and install durable material items for orphanage children, or adults, that cannot be sold for profit, exchanged, or manipulated. We are careful with foreign cultures, making sure we're providing the tools for a better future, not imposing our culture on them. Ten Friends is eager to provide filtered water, mattresses, and beds for more orphans. The cost to sponsor a “Euroguard” water filter is $200. Orphanages without electricity need gravity fed ceramic filters costing $25 each. Other sponsorship options are $30 per mattress, and metal bunk bed sponsorships at $150 each, or school sponsorships at $200 per child for one year of school.
Beginning in 2008 Ten Friends will be assisting in the building of an orphanage. We have already received over $2000 in dedicated donations for this project which will provide a rent-free, permanent building for the children of the Hopeful Home orphanage in Kathmandu, Nepal. We will be involved in fundraising and hands-on work with this ongoing project.
Most orphanage children need financial support for school. School is not free in Nepal. School expenses include tuition, books, and uniforms. After children reach the age of 8, it is very difficult to integrate them into school without previous education, so we are trying to get sponsors for children who are ready for kindergarten. Ten Friends is now offering the opportunity to personally sponsor a Nepali child for school. This project began in 2006 with 13 sponsored children. By the end of 2007 it had grown to over 50 sponsored children, giving them hope for a better future. A $200 sponsorship donation pays for all school fees, books, and uniforms for one year of school. If you choose to sponsor a child you will receive a personal child profile including picture, child information, and family information (via email). Our employee in Nepal, Dinesh, manages this project and does follow up visits with the children and their families. It's amazing how much this can change a life for so little money. Schooling provides self - esteem and opens a door for the future. If you are interested in sponsoring a child, please email Mark. Thank you!
Ten Friends partnered with Nepal Bhotia Education Community(NBEC). NBEC is working to provide higher education to young women in a rural (extremely isolated and remote) region of Nepal. These young women are receiving an education to become teachers, upon graduation, back in their native villages. These women are proud, studious, and very happy to have the support from distant peoples. Ten Friends has provided over $6000 in scholarship grants for the further education of these young ladies of Bhotia, in Northeast Nepal, near the Tibetan Border.
In the summer of 2006 we had an opportunity th help 250 Indian people in Kathmandu who had no bathroom. With donor support we built a new well and bathroom for this community. It took about a month to construct. We also built two bathrooms for orphanages in Kathmandu that summer.
Student interns helped construct cement water basins at two of the wells in Siddartha during the summer of 2007. Siddartha is a community of tent-dwelling Indian people who have immigrated to Nepal. The area around the hand-pump wells was difficult to walk on due to broken cement, open sewage ditches, and mud. The entire area was cleaned and concrete catch basins now provide a safer and more usable area for this community.