Gyami was born in Kathmandu and received her non-US education in Nepal and Europe. She has worked directly and indirectly with NCEF for about 10 years along with several close friends, her sister, and her friends from Kathmandu. She has served on the NCEF Board of Directors since 2011 and leads the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program Office in Washington, D.C.

The United States is home to many of Nepal’s most highly educated expats. We are the fortunate few born among a nation of millions without access to education owing to financial, geographic, and cultural factors. Often, education takes a backseat to the priorities of daily subsistence.

Many children are not sent to school because their parents cannot afford it which forces these children to work the fields, or elsewhere as child laborers. Girls in these circumstances are often married off to much older men; children who are orphaned discontinue their education because their extended families cannot support the expense. Along the streets of Kathmandu we often see such children, taken out of their schools or never sent there, continuously abused in their homes, and consequently choosing life on the streets to escape their mistreatment and neglect. The vicious cycle of poverty and abuse continues.

Organizations such as NCEF are beacons of light and often the last hope to such children. Our scholarships, coordination and supervision via NCEF volunteers persuade parents and extended families to continue their children’s education across the rural mountains and plains of Nepal. We monitor these children’s progress through high school, ensuring they are progressing so they can graduate with our support.

Please take a moment to reflect on your own education opportunities and help raise funds for these children in need by walking for NCEF at the ‘Walk for Nepal-DC’ event. I am mobilizing NCEF, friends, neighbors and acquaintances from diverse backgrounds to raise awareness of these issues. Please show your support too! Walk for us and/or sponsor us via http://www.walkfornepal.org/dc . You may select the Nepalese Children’s Education Fund or any of the walkers walking for it. Please share this among your friends, families, colleagues and acquaintances