The Oda COVID-19 Fund

My Connection to Oda

Between 2017-18 I spent nearly a year in the community of Oda.  Over that year I had the experience to work in the classroom with the kids, drink tea with their parents, and dance through the village with their grandparents.   I had the chance to see devoted staff members work tirelessly day and night to help provide for their community.  I saw the hardships of life in the village, while equally seeing the beauty of the people and the community.  I had the opportunity to connect with a community and a place, that even though couldn't be much farther to the other side of the globe, continues to feel like a second home.

Check out this video to learn some more about Oda:

About The Oda Foundation (Oda)
Oda helps local governments in rural Nepal provide critical services such as healthcare and education to their communities. The Oda Foundation is named after the remote village of Oda, where it is headquartered. The village is two hours from the nearest road and is located in Nepal's rural Himalayan foothills. Our dedicated team has been living and working in Oda nonstop since 2013, allowing us to be a deeply trusted partner of the communities we serve. We have been diligently responding to the COVID-19 threat since it became a public health crisis in Nepal.

What the COVID-19 Fund will Combat:

1. Food & Economic Insecurity: With lockdown measures being enforced, households dependent on migrant labor (almost all) are no longer receiving their wages to cover their family's food needs. Households with fields for agriculture will run out of food soon - demanding the need for a local food bank to be established.
2. Healthcare Constraints: The pandemic has not put a pause medical patient needs outside of COVID-19. Our healthcare team is prepared to provide for its regular flow of patients while simultaneously mitigating COVID-19 risks, but we need support! Fun fact, we delivered a healthy baby boy during week 3 of the lockdown!
3. Education Constraints: With school children at home indefinitely the world is turning to online and other tech-based solutions. Because our communities lack a basic power supply, we have begun designing worksheets and distributing them (safely) to households, however printing worksheets for an entire school every week requires a great deal of resources! 

By contributing to this campaign, you are helping us sustain and scale up our response. Every donation will be directly invested in the community and will provide real and tangible support to those that need it most.

We hope you are staying healthy and safe, and wish to sincerely thank you for considering supporting our work in these difficult times.