Photo Journalists Debby Ng and Edwin Koo of Singapore spent 3 weeks in 2008 photographing Little Sisters in their home and school environments. Their work resulted in the book "Life of My Sisters" by asia! Magazine. In the fall of 2009 their photos went on display in the Cathay Building in Singapore and on Saturday, April 17, 2010 the same exhibit kicks off in Kathmandu. Here is the press release: http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=17488

Good Luck Tomorrow!!!

Usually most people expect and accept help from others for their betterment but do not think of giving anything in return. The LSF program always reminds all the Little Sisters to be grateful to the sponsors who are supporting their education. This year a miracle happened. All the girls came together and arranged a donation drive. They wanted to give something back to the society. All ISP girls came together and donated what they could afford to the cause. Some girls even saved snack money and others used transportation money and chose to walk instead. By November 2008 they even inspired the SCs and Nepal Office staff to come forward and help. They collected a total of Rs.18,030 (about $250). All the Office staff followed suit and donated as much they could afford.

This year, the Little Sisters decided to spend this money on the education of three girls who are from a remote area of Nepal and cannot afford to go to school. They selected 2 girls of Bhumlutar, Kavre: Manisha Kharel who is in grade 5 and Santoshi Kharel in grade 6. These girls were forced out of school because their families could not pay for their books, uniforms and annual and examination fees.

Manisha has an older brother and a younger sister. Her father died four years ago. Her mother is a laborer and rears buffalos and sells milk in the local area for her and her three children’s living.

Santoshi also has two siblings: a brother and a sister. They live in a joint family of 14. They just have a small piece of land. Both parents are ill and thus can not effectively support the family. Similarly they selected Sarita Bhujel, 7 years old from Gorkha district presently living in a Katmandu slum, and enrolled her in Nursery in a government school. Sarita never had been to school before. Her mother, Kabita, works as a housemaid and father pulls rickshaw (three wheeled vehicle pulled by a person). They are very poor and cannot even afford to pay the uniforms, books and the annual registration fee of a so called “free” government school. Sarita has a younger brother who has not gone to school yet. The Little Sisters are inspiring the parents to put some money aside every day in a piggy bank from their daily expenses and use the money to send their boy to school. All believe that this boy will be in a school next year because our Little Sisters are watching them closely.

Thank you all Little Sisters for your great work. We are proud of you all. Please continue helping these girls in the coming years also so that they can complete their school education. We all are with you.

We organized the Annual Award Distribution program on July 25. The Award Committee chose the following 21 girls for the following awards on the basis of their academic and social performances this year :

S.N	Name		Grade	Award Name
1		Priyanka Bharati	7	Toppers
2		Barsha Rai	2	Topper Performance
3		Shusmita Simkhada	6	Topper Performance
4		Shanta Darnal	8	Topper Performance
5		Anju Gurung	12	Topper Performance
6		Rakshya Dhungel	Just Graduated	Patzer Outstanding Mentor
7		Aakriti Neupane	2	Excellence
8		Merisha Subedi	5	Excellence
9		Benazil Rai	7	Excellence
10		Sushima Panta	9	Excellence
11		Arpana Neupane	10	Excellence
12		Somi Lama	2	Excellence
13		Saroja Lumbunjar	1	Excellence
14		Mandira Kumal	5	Excellence
15		Atithi Ghimire	8	Excellence
16		Janaki Praja	9	Excellence
17		Rima Karki	8	Gabby Community Service
18		Puspa Karki	3	Gabby Community Service
19		Heema lama	7	Voracious Reader
20		Anupama Shree Dhamala	Just Graduated	Voracious Reader
21		Nikita Devkota	Just Graduated	Founders

All the winners received a certificate and a small cash prize for their good work. Usha Didi said, “This is what we wanted to see. Those who are not the winners must feel inspired to work hard the next year. Hard work pays off.” Every one looked cheerful. Every one in the Hall left determined to win the prizes next year.

On April 26th, 2009, Little Sisters Fund Co-Founders Usha and Trevor were invited to San Francisco to receive the Unsung Heroes of Compassion Award from Dick Grace and presented by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The award was presented to 49 organizations from around the world for their compassionate work and dedication to helping others. The recipients were called Bodhisattvas or "those who joyfully serve the world, dedicated to compassion and the liberation of every being." In addition to the luncheon and the award ceremony, renowned Buddhist scholar Jack Kornfield spoke and His Holiness the Dalai Lama spoke, blessed all those in attendance and gave his individual blessing to the award recipients.

The event was truly remarkable. Usha and Trevor were humbled by the good deeds of all the honorees.

Unfortunately, in Nepal the incidents of murder, kidnapping and other crimes are becoming common place. Mostly teen-age girls are the target. A recent incident shook the entire country. A girl named Khayti who was in the 12th grade was kidnapped and murdered by a man, who was a science teacher for 14 years in another school. He falsely invited Khayti for her interview to publish it in a popular magazine called VOW (Voice of Women). She trusted him and came with hopes of earning a name and earning a bit of money. The man eventually killed her and then asked for a ransom from her parents. Her parents paid the ransom with a hope of getting their daughter back. They did not know that she will never return home.

After this incident we at the Little Sisters Fund decided to do a counseling and awareness raising program for our girls to hopefully troubleshoot the rise of these crimes. We sat with all the ISP girls, grade 7 onwards up to the 12th grade, all the SCs, and also with all the SSP girls of the same category on July 4. We invited two women doctors and two Constituent Assembly members so that the girls get inspired from them and be focused on their study rather than on materialistic things. The two renowned Constitution Assembly Members, Ms. Chitralekha Yadav and Ms. Suprava Ghimire spoke to our Little Sisters. A top female journalist Yashoda Timsina also came and shared her experience. All of them discussed the importance of education in life. They told the girls that education is the only wealth that can remain with the person who has earned it in life; education is the only thing that can not be stolen from the person who has earned it; education is the only thing that travels with the person wherever that person goes; education is the only thing that increases as it is shared with others. A ‘change’ is possible, whether it is in a person’s life or in community, society or in a country only through education. They also said that all LSF girls were lucky because they have an opportunity for good education.

This year 12 ISP girls have become Big Sisters. They completed the 12th grade and graduated from the program. Ten of them have already accepted positions within the Little Sisters Fund of School Co-coordinators to mentor younger Little Sisters in the SSP. They have already successfully performed the position of Mentor within the fund for the past two years, while they were in the 11th and 12th grades, and also helped all ISP younger Little Sisters in their monthly letter writing activities.

Congratulations to you all for your graduation as well as a promotion from the Mentors program to full-fledged Scholl Coordinators. Back row left to right: Nikita Devkota, Shukla Acharya, Rakshya Dhungel and Manajyoti Lama. Front row left to right: Sumitra Lama, Kabita Tamang, Pushpa Adhikari, Jyoti Rajbhandari and Sapana Shrestha.

Results for this year’s School Leaving Certificate exam, administered upon completion of 10th grade and known as the iron-gate exam for students, are out. A total of 10 Little Sisters took the test and once again, ALL PASSED!!! But this year is special as 4 secured distinction, 5 secured 1st division marks and 1 secured 2nd division. Out of the total students appeared in the test only 68.47 per cent passed it. Less than 5% of test takers scored distinction and less that 38% scored 1st division. It suffices to say that the Little Sisters Fund girls had a very, very strong showing this year.

Congratulations! Kriti, Iccha, Kranti, Pariksha, Prabina, Sharmila, Pooja, Shiva, Saraswoti, Ashmita. We are really proud of all of you and of your achievements!!!

This summer the Little Sisters Fund held a health program outreach for all ISP and SSP Little Sisters. Dr. Saron Tiwari, our consultant, was assisted by a newly hired Health Assistant, Trimuna Siwakoti to do the job.

All Little Sisters along with their parents or guardians were exposed to the concept of basic health and hygiene including personal, family and community cleanliness. They were also informed on topics ranging from nutrition to epidemics/communicable diseases and how to prevent them. Vitamins and de-worming medicines were distributed with explanations.

This program is vital today in Nepal as the country faces great challenges of epidemics such as cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, swine flu, and influenza. The cholera epidemic is the worst in the western part of the country. Every day people – in particular small children are dying. Cholera is spreading from the villages to the towns. This outreach program will save lives.