 |
|
||||||||
|
dZi Foundation: | ||
| From July through September, 2006, we will be supporting dZi Foundation a US-based non-profit that is committed to helping indigenous mountain communities of the Himalayan region, with a focus on Nepal and Ladakh, India. Here are a few articles about the situation in Nepal, dZi foundation, and some of the girls they help at the Friendship House. | ||
|
Helping the people of the Himalaya
 Despite the precarious nature of Nepal's future the dZi Foundation has continued with its projects and humanitarian efforts. Every year dZi has increased financial donations to projects while remaining open to changes in involvement relative to the dynamic political climate in Nepal. DZi has chosen to not fund buildings and capitol projects in the mountainous regions of Nepal. Although schools, teacher's houses and medical clinics are greatly needed in these areas there are unpredictable consequences resulting from involvement in these projects at the present time. The people who would oversee these types of projects would be identified by the Maoists and extorted for money that they do not have. The dZi Foundation's heart is in Nepal but as situations unfortunately continue to worsen we have had to take extreme caution with what and where we fund projects. In recent weeks, Nepal has created a new government led by a Prime Minister and Parliament. They have slashed the authority of their very unpopular King, and have agreed with the Maoists to cooperate in the new government. It is a situation that is changing daily as we speak, but the signs, at last, are encouraging. One of The dZi Foundation's strengths has been its ability to partner with other small non-profit organizations. Bringing together the respective strengths of each individual organization has allowed us to accomplish things that alone would not be possible. In 2003 we partnered with an excellent group called the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation (NYOF). The NYOF had been in working in Nepal for a number of years and we found that we had similar missions, offering us a great partnership. The NYOF was founded by the visionary Olga Murry. Olga and Jim Nowak became good friends over the years and they trusted and respected each other's work. In an effort to help support the Nutritional Rehabilitation Home (NRH) in Kathmandu, established by Olga in 1998, dZi now contributes 75% of the annual costs to the program. The Kathmandu NRH is the flagship of NYOF's nutritional program. All remote NRH village staff are initially trained at the Kathmandu facility. The dZi Foundation's support has allowed NYOF to be able to open 2 smaller NRH Homes in rural areas. In 2003 dZi partnered with the Himalayan Dental Relief Project (HDRP). This organization had been treating children under the age of 18 in Nepal with dental care. In the spring of 2003 dZi funded and facilitated a dental camp in Sikkim India. We temporarily converted our girls home, in Gangtok, Sikkim, into a dental clinic allowing 3 dentists to treat 365 children over 7 days. In the fall of 2004 we again expanded our facilities relocating the dental clinics to Ladakh. With a partnership with The Lions Club of Leh International Youth Hostel, we held a camp in Leh, the capitol of Ladkah. Nepal is still the base for the HDRP with dZi continuing to fund a dental camp there every year. The dZi Foundation is fully committed to helping indigenous mountain communities of the Himalayan region. Not just when times are good, but especially when times are tough. Despite the current political unrest in the world, the dZi Foundation has a thoroughly reliable infrastructure in place for money flow and coordination of all our projects. In our opinion the only way to accomplish security and success is to be established with locals in villages and communities of each project. Jim Nowak, our Executive Director, also spends 3 months a year, between his bi-annual trips, reviewing the success and efficiency of ongoing projects and investigating new projects.
|
|
|