Oda Scholarship Fund

I spent the month of July 2019 volunteering at a hospital deep in the northwest mountains of Nepal, in the village of Oda. It was an incredible experience that I was able to do through The Oda Foundation, a non-profit organization started in 2013. In just four weeks I learned so much about the Nepali culture, and how warm, welcoming, generous, and hard working the people from Oda are. I am hoping to help the people of Oda as much as I can now that I am back home, and I think the best place to start is with the education of the children in that village. So I am asking for any donation, big or small, to put towards a scholarship fund I am starting. 

The village of Oda sits deep in the mountains in the district of Kalikot. To get there from the US I had to fly from Denver to Los Angeles, to Guangzhou China, to Kathmandu Nepal, to Surkhet Nepal. Once in Surkhet I took a 12 hour jeep ride on a dirt road and then hiked 2 hours through the mountains to finally arrive in Oda. Before this foundation was started, the nearest medical clinic was at least a 2 hour hike and 2 hour drive away in Manma, the district headquarter. From 2013 through January 1, 2019 the Foundation has constructed a stand-alone hospital and fully functional lab. This new hospital allows the residents of Oda to have better healthcare much closer to their homes and limits their travel to under one hour of hiking. The hospital has seen over 60,000 patients, has distributed over 9,000 reusable menstruation kits, and runs education seminars on the importance of health, nutrition, and clean water. 

Along with the hospital and the healthcare it provides, the Foundation has set up a school for kids ages 5 to 16 where they learn math, science, history, art, English, and Nepali. Again the Foundation has taken a basic need, quality education, and made it much more accessible to the people of Oda. I met many kids during my time in the village, but the four that I got to know the best are part of three Nepali families whose hard work plays a major role in keeping The Oda Foundation running. 

Sani Kanchi is a single mother and one of the three women who cook every meal for the 25-30 people who work and volunteer at the hospital, school, and foundation office. Her son Lokendra is 11 years old and wants to be a lab technician some day. Before and after school he helps out around the foundation campus by taking care of the animals and cleaning the dining area.  

Purna is also a single mother and another one of the cooks for the foundation. She has two daughters, Jamuna who is 10 and Rupa who is 7. These two have such a desire to both learn and teach. Most of my free time away from the hospital was spent teaching them English and in return, learning Nepalese. 

Prem works as a groundskeeper for the foundation and has helped build the hospital, office, and school from the ground up. His wife works in a village that is a two-hour hike and two-hour car ride away. So their daughter Binita lives primarily in Oda to get the best education possible. Binita is spunky, clever, and wants to be a nurse when she gets older.

Most kids from this village are not expected to go to school beyond age 16. The girls typically will get married and have children at a young age. While some of the boys can find work in Oda, most have to travel to larger villages, leaving their families for weeks at a time and sending money back home. The main inhibitor for children from Oda to continue their education is a lack of funding. The higher education system in Nepal is much less expensive than that of the U.S., however the people in Nepal and especially in an isolated mountainous village like Oda have very limited income and live in extreme poverty.

While the initial goal in creating a scholarship fund is to help Lokendra, Jamuna, Rupa, and Binita chase their dreams and receive higher degrees, the continuing plan is to extend the scholarship fund to more kids in the village in the future. The long term benefit of offering scholarships to these children will come from the knowledge and skills they will bring back to Oda, and their ability to grow and modernize their village.

I am hoping to reach my goal of raising $15,000 over the next 5 years. This will allow every dollar that is raised to grow and earn interest in a trust fund, so that when the first scholarship is given out, there will still be a fund that is earning money to be put towards future scholarships. 

Thank you for all of your support! 

Anne Lindberg