2007, UNATTI GIRLS IN UNIFORM
FOUNDER’S MESSAGE
On March 6, 2002, in a crowded schoolyard in Bahktapur, Nepal, I had a great thrill. Five little girls holding hands, wearing their bright red uniforms and smiling nervously from ear to ear, walked toward me.
I knew immediately that these were the orphans who had just joined the Unatti family, and I cried with joy. The girls giggled excitedly to meet me, and I knew that the Unatti Foundation was no longer a dream. It was real and so were they.
I spent the entire month of March in Nepal with the Unatti family organizing programs, ironing out logistical bumps, and best of all, being American Auntie to eleven excited and beautiful children. I felt strangely at home on this, my fourth trip, in a land that is culturally so different from our own. I realized how fortunate I was to be part of it all, and to be contributing something of substance to the world.
Today, we have grown to 12 children and they all attend two of the most prestigious English speaking schools in Bahktapur. We also sponsor an additional four who live with their families. We have the funds to take in more girls, but we have run out of space in our current rented Unatti house.
My dream is to build our own larger house and create a self-sufficient model for other third world orphanages. A home of our own will provide long-term stability and security for the future of our children and The Unatti Foundation. We already have a beautiful plot of land and architectural plans for a home that will accommodate 25 girls, four international volunteers, three full-time caretakers and enough space to implement our programs to achieve self-sufficiency.
Notwithstanding the success of the Unatti Foundation, the opportunities for employment in Nepal are scarce. I believe it is better for Unatti and the local community if our graduated and well-educated girls stay in Nepal to help their community. Our mission is to implement programs to enable our girls to become self-sufficient, both as an organization and as individuals.
I am most excited about creating our Internet Handicraft business. This program will generate much of our needed operating costs while it provides jobs for our girls. Unatti has been selling Nepalese handicrafts for many years to raise funds for the Foundation, but the Internet will allow the girls to eventually run the business from Nepal. We will create apprenticeships, and ultimately jobs in manufacturing, sales/marketing, operations, distribution, accounting and retail management.
We are grateful to our first generation of house mothers who supported the girls emotionally but had no formal educations. As we know, children thrive when their classroom studies are reinforced by educated caretakers at home. It would be a good fit for some of today’s girls to become the “house mothers” of our next generation of Unatti children.
We will also expose our girls to administrative and operational rolls as assistants to Ramesh, our COO, who will eventually hire them to take on some of his responsibilities. The girls are already doing many of the monthly expense tallies and bettering their computer skills.
Our 12 Unatti girls are being given more than a home. They are being given the opportunity to elevate their quality of life. Now, for the first time, they know that education, proper nutrition, health care and a career are possibilities rather than unobtainable luxuries.
This is where as one person, I have taken this organization. Imagine what we could create if you joined me.
Will you please help me expand this vision with a one-time capital contribution to help our Unatti family move toward self-sufficiency? My dream is to instill new expectations for a generation of girls, creating a self-sufficiency model that lives long beyond my lifetime. This starts with our own house and powerful programs.
Please join me because I can’t do this without your generosity.
Namaste,
Stephanie Waisler
Founder, Unatti Foundation
