Help for children of Nepal – 2024
Today I bring all of you who reach out to help me with our Children are Angels from Heaven children’s work, a just completed project in the country of Nepal.
Nepal is very far away north of India. The school that we helped was St Joseph School in a very remote village named Korabari.
The story started with my friend Sister Mary of the Daughters of the Cross Sisters in India . She is a very good friend and we have done many projects together for the children in India from buying computers , digging water wells to making playgrounds and many projects in between.
Sister Mary and many of the other Sisters know how I work with many questions along with detailed estimates and receipts with no exceptions. I am the custodian of your hard earned donated money to Children are Angels from Heaven and I take that very seriously. I also require photographs of a project from beginning to end so the photos can tell the story by themself.
The Sisters that I work with know where the need is needed most for poor people and children. They have their feet on the ground every day and can see everything first hand. This is one reason that I like to work with them.
Now that you know how I work and a little about Sister Mary and the Daughters of the Cross Sisters let’s get started with the Nepal Story.
Sister Mary was working on the remodeling of a kitchen project for us in a village in India that as of now, is still in the making. Because of your generosity in donations sent to me I had saved enough money to start another project. I told her that I was interested in working in Nepal, a small country right next to India. I asked Sister Mary if she knew anyone there that I might work with. Sister Mary wrote me back and said yes Ray The Daughters of the Cross Sisters have a Convent and a school there and they are in need of many items for the school.
Sister Mary called the Convent in Nepal and spoke to Sister Bindu and told her a little about Children are Angels from Heaven and our work. Sister Bindu knew about me from Kolkata and connected me with Sister Shanti at St Joseph School Korabari, Nepal.
Sister Shanti was excellent to work with. She told me that the village school started in 2015 with a kindergarten for first generation learners who live near the school. Since the first year the school opened the enrollment has grown. Today the school goes to Class 8 with 367 students and a staff of 15 staff, among 5 Daughters of the Cross Sisters.
In the general area around the school the families have little and rely on rice paddy cultivation for their basic needs. Most everyone is landless and are only daily laborers. The common person works in land owned fields.
To reach this village there is no proper road or easy transportation. In Monsoon season attendance is not 100% at school because it is too dangerous because of the small streams and rivers overflowing with water so NO holidays are given in summer in Nepal. But in monsoons all get 10-14 day holidays.
Along with other information and photos Sister Shanti sent me to look over and study if this school would be a good place for Children are Angels from Heaven to do a project. I was given a list of what the school needs. The most needed item in the school was school High and Low benches so that every student at St Joseph School in every classroom, has a place to sit in a chair and study on a table, as at the present 367 student enrollment there are not enough for everyone..
After a few days of going over all Sister Shanti’s information and photos to understand where our donated money would be spent and for what reason I gave Sister Shanti and the other Daughters of the Cross Sisters the green light to start the desk project in early March 2024 to get 40 High and Low benches ordered for the school from a local vendor who worked very well with the Sisters to deliver everything to the school at the lowest price that he could with good quality workmanship.
40 new High and Low benches will seat 3 small students in kindergarten or first grade Or 2 older bigger students in the 5,6,7, or 8th grade.
So if you think about it, whatever classroom they are put in, either 80 older students or 120 younger students will sit on a bench and do their school work on a school table that with the Daughters of the Cross Sisters help, Children are Angels has donated to them with your hard earned funds.
I am Happy and Proud to tell all of you that everything worked out perfectly.
Even better was the High Low benches were below my estimated figure.
I had figured out the exchange rate of USA Dollars to Indian Rupees. That was a mistake by me,
Indian Rupees are usually around 80 to 1, but Nepalese Rupees when converted from USD are 133 to 1.
That gave me an extra 50 rupees more per US dollar to work with than I originally expected …That total ended up to be $596 US dollars as extra after the high low desks were paid for.
I decided because Sister Shanti was excellent to work with along with all the other Sisters and that the School had other needs for the Students that Children are Angels from Heaven would take on another project with the school with the extra funds.
Along with the high low desks we also bought 18 3ft x 6ft White Boards to put in every classroom in the school so the teachers can teach at the front of the classroom from a big board hanging on the wall like we have here called blackboards. We were also able to stretch the extra funds to buy 3 small teachers desks with a locked draw for the front of the classroom for three teachers.
Again everything worked out perfect and everyone was very happy.
Our donated money by all of you that I am responsible for was well spent to help the school and its students and every penny was accounted for.
I thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for all your help me year after year to help others in need.
I could not do this work without ALL of you..
If you have any questions please call or write to me .
Ray OBrien
781-483-1002
Here are some photos to see St Joseph School, teacher staff, Daughters of the Cross Sisters and The students, assembly in the morning, exercise class and then school work.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
High – Low desk arrival at the school by farm tractor and trailer. The farm tractor traveled approximately 30 miles to the school in two trips. One in the daytime and one at night.
It is a happy time for everyone off loading everything into the school where the finished tops were placed on the desks and the 18 white boards were put in one room for later to hang on the classroom walls.
