The Project:

Your Child is invited to participate in an international photographic fundraising project . Give your child the opportunity to learn about giving and making a difference in the lives of children less fortunate. Photographs accepted into the exhibition will be paired up with a Nepali child’s photo of the same theme showing differences and similarities in our two worlds.

The exhibition will be held in early December at The Brentwood Art Center in Brentwood Calif. A full color catalogue will be produced and sold along with the photos displayed. All the proceeds of this photographic exhibition will fund the education of our Unatti girls and our Unatti programs.

Unatti Foundation is open for photographic submissions of the following themes

(Max 5 submissions per child):

Portraits of…..

My self My best friend My grandmother My grandfather The oldest person in my neighborhood The youngest person in my neighborhood

My sister My brother Who cleans my streets Who washes my clothes Who sells me fruit Who earns the money in my family

Submissions should be sent as a JPG or TIFF file along with the submission form below. All Photographs can be emailed to stephanie@unattifoundation.org. Submission forms can be found on our website www.unattifoundation.org and can be emailed or faxed to

323.933-2977.

Deadline for all photo submissions is Sunday, August 1, 2010

Namaste and Thank You for your invaluable support.

 

Download Submission Form Here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See more beautiful photos from the Nepal Journey taken by Sullivan Carter

@ www.flickr.com/photos/sullivancarter/sets/72157622573386222/

Filmmakers Janelle Eagle and Patricia Ramsey are traveling with The Unatti Foundation.

While traveling with the founder, Stephanie Waisler, these two artists will meet the girls living at the Unatti Home in Bakhtapur, Nepal. They will engage in a theatrical workshop, mural painting with artist Clinton Bopp, and film the incredible connection made between children in Los Angeles and their friends living across the world.When Patty and I wake up in the morning, we quickly eat breakfast and walk through the ancient city of Bhaktapur. The streets and buildings are red brick, wood carvings, stone carvings, and the alleyways are small. There is a light haze that is refreshingly chilly, but burns off as soon as the sun peaks its head over the Himalayas. It is with that morning sunshine that we walk down a hill to the Unatti Home, past the buffalos and chickens, and along a panoramic view that is breathtaking.

Post borrowed from www.unatti.blogspot.com by Janelle Eagle

Ocotber 13 Bhaktapur, Nepal

When we arrive at the orphanage, the 13 girls run shoeless down the five flights of stairs yelling “Sister! Sister!” and attack us with hugs and kisses when we meet in the middle. Every appendage that is not occupied is grabbed by the hands of the Unatti girls and we are lead upstairs into the long Dining room. We sit on mats at the floor, giggle, practice language (they teach me Nepalese and I teach them English), and wait for breakfast.

The house mothers bring in large metal plates that are full of the same four ingredients each meal: Rice, Lentil Puree, Vegetable, and Pickle Veggies. This infamous dish is called “Dal, Bhat, Tarkari, Achar.” There are no utensils, and only one hand can be used to feed yourself because the left is historically used to wipe in the restroom. Perfecting the “mix and scoop” takes a meal or two, but soon you ignore the thoughts in your held that tell you this is unsanitary.

Once breakfast is finished, it is time for the girls to run to the roof, brush their teeth, rinse their hair and put on their school uniforms. All this is done while taking for granted the 360 degree view of Bhaktapur that surrounds them. It is hard to focus on the view, I’m sure; as the water is not heated and they sometimes get headaches from the sudden burst of cold on their bodies.

Thirteen girls run back down the stairs armed with small backpacks and hands messily tying blue bows into pigtails. Elbows and knees collide as they change from their plastic pink house sandals into their black shiny school loafers and amass outside in the alley. One by one the girls descend and as soon as everyone is ready, we link hands.

It feels like a very large honor to walk the girls to school. It feels special that every hand or elbow that can be linked with another is an opportunity to literally connect. We are the ones that stick out. Taller and thicker than the average Nepali, it is easy to pick us out from the sea of blue uniforms. It is not a far walk to Everest School, but there are many cars, many people, and a lot of commotion to get through. Everyone arrives together at the gate of the school and says “Bye, Sister! Have a good day!” We watch them walk into the yard and can’t help but feel like proud family members as their pigtails sway behind them.

These girls are the lucky ones. They attend private school, paid for by the incredible supporters of the Unatti Foundation. They have polish for their shiny shoes. They bring “show and tell” pictures made with colored markers and crayons on large pieces of paper. They have no parents living in Bhaktapur, but they are surrounded by each other and the adults that run the Unatti Home at all times. There is no shortage of love. Perhaps because we are new here, the love that we feel for these girls is overwhelming

Tuesday 6 October  Bhaktapur, Nepal.

Made the journey from Vajra in Kathmandu to the Unatti House in Bhaktapur, a short 10 miles as the crow flies. What once took 20 minutes is now a grueling 1-2 hour ordeal due largely to road construction. So after making the trek it was a pleasure to walk down the narrow dirt path, pass the women tending to their gardens and hanging the laundry out to dry on the roof, into the empty Unatti house. All the girls were in school.

I took a few moments to walk each of the five floors and really look at the house. The well kept dorm rooms, the sparse yet highly functional kitchen, the artwork with which they have decorated the worn walls, and a new addition: A “friend’s wall.” The night before they took all the photos from the donated clothes of Child to Child and

glued them directly onto the soiled yellow wall in the stairwell. The quiet space also revealed the need for more space. The Unatti family has definitely filled the entire space. I sat on the bed of Sita Sister, one of our housemothers and said out loud, “This year we will build you a new house.” I made this promise to the room of bunk beds lined up one after another after another. I think first “telling the beds” gave me the courage to promise the girls the same thing two days later. The girls do not ever complain about the limited space; they even choose to sleep two in a bed for companionship and warmth. But I want to give the girls more space.

I walked up the brick road to JC Secondary School to pull out our five oldest girls a few hours early. It was in this same schoolyard eight years ago I met the same five girls.
That day they were wearing bright red sweaters holding hands and giggling. Today they sit as proud young women at their desks but again giggle when I enter the room.

Then it was my time to giggle. Walking the girls home from school, arm in arm, I, the American Mother, was giggling with pure joy. After changing out of their uniforms I asked to see everyone for a chat.

Sitting on the linoleum floor of the dorm room, I wanted to have a chance to talk. To share stories and listen to them and their needs. Housemother Saroswoti joined us. She is new with the Unatti Foundation. One by one each of the girls said “My aim is to be teacher…a doctor…a nurse.”  No, I said, “what would you really like to do in your life?”  They were perplexed. This a culture of traditions and most women get married young, have children and do what all women do, care for the family and the home. So I began telling them about the plans I am making to insure jobs for them within the Unatti Foundation once they finish school. “We will need an assistant to Ramesh our COO, we will need a manager for the handicraft business and womens’ co-operative. We will need an accountant to oversee the finances or maybe we will need another housemother. Imagine you can have a salary and your own room. We can help you find any family you might have and you can have them come live with you in your own room outside of the Unatti house. Sangita’s dark eyes filled with tears behind her glasses. I know she has been worrying about the future of her mother who has lost the use of her legs due to malnutrition. Now she may have the possibility of becoming the caretaker and I could see this moment sunk in deep. Her face softened as she cried in her sisters’ arms as we all cried together.

I then shared a story of my childhood. Until now they were not old enough to hear this but, “I was for all intents and purposes an academic misfit, me and school were a bad fit.” Shrijana began to melt. Last term she failed two courses and I know was worried if there would be consequences. I assured her there would be none. “Poor marks are not going to get you kicked out of Unatti. All I want from you, from all of you is to be kind to each other, to try your best and always be proud and thankful for all the gifts you do have.”

This was the first time I was able to share with them as mature young women. WOW, it was powerful for all of us, holding each other, learning about each other and cherishing the time we get face to face.

Then we had business to tend to. We had to go buy a library worth of books thanks to the Carlthorp 3^rd grade Brownie troop. At the local bookstore the girls chose books for themselves and their little sisters. Books in Nepali, books in English, picture books, storybooks, and then Puja said, “what if we get some books for Sharda School?” (the same children to whom we had given Child to Child clothes). How proud was I. In the moment when my girls are being given a very substantial gift, they are thinking of passing it on.  The smile that filled my face as I caught Puja’s eye was all she needed to confirm her generosity was BEAUTIFUL.

Child to Child

Sunday 4 October-Bhaktapur Nepal

Child To Child is a program Unatti has been administering for seven years. Before each journey to Nepal, Unatti officials and supporters gather slightly used clothes and shoes, hand carry them to Nepal, and arrange for the Unatti girls to distribute the clothing and shoes to children more needy then themselves in their town of Bhaktapur.

For this journey Unatti received the support of a 3^rd grade Brownie troop at Carlthorp School. They packed up bags of clothing three weeks ago in Brentwood, California, and yesterday the Unatti girls invited the children of the Sarda School in Bhaktapur to receive the clothing. The Sarda School is a government school attended by some of the poorest children in Bhaktapur. We were having lunch at a restaurant overlooking the majestic and century old temples of Durbar Square when Ramesh informed me the ninety plus children of the Sarda School were already waiting.

Waiting in the garden, which is really an empty dirt lot where the Unatti girls run and play, were the ninety plus children sitting quietly, shoulder to shoulder, around the entireperimeter of the lot. As I took a few steps down the metal stairway leading to the dirt lot,  the entire group, as if rehearsed like a choir, said “Namaste” and I stopped, looked at them and thought to myself, “look at what we are doing here, giving a gift of clothing to these beautiful children who are truly in need,” and a waterfall of tears poured from my eyes. So I picked a few shirts from the bag and walked to a mother, who only had one good eye, and held up a shirt to her young child’s body and a tear filled her eyes too.

Ramesh was distributing toothbrushes and toothpaste as the Unatti girls were fitting the young children with new clothes and shoes. I began picking five or six articles of clothing at a time and walking them to each child. I looked for the quiet ones, the shy ones and that is who got the next gift. Then in the back I saw a familiar face, Deviki. Deviki is the mother of one of the first two boys I put in school close to ten years ago. Without exchanging words we took each other in our arms and wept. So many years have passed, and although her son never did finish school, we remain sisters in our hearts and always will be.

Then like each prior Child to Child clothing distribution, chaos sets in, with mothers and children all pillaging the duffle bags, hoping to grab as much as possible. We all try to keep some order but it is no use.  I don’t know if it is cultural or a reaction to their circumstances, but what feels like chaos is everywhere, on the road, in the school yard, in the marketplace and here in the dirt lot.
This is always how Child to Child ends: with needy children benefiting from the generosity or other children.

Saturday 3 October – Kathmandu, Nepal

After close to six years, here I am again. The journey this time is unlike any of the other eight times I made the long and ardous trip. This time I brought with me my two young children to meet their Nepali family. Happily I can report Shreeya (4 years old) and Sammy (2 ½ years old) are really great travelers.

It really hit me as we left the Kathmandu airport and began making our way though the chaos of the city, that familiar cacophony of sounds and smells that I both love and hate. A deep and profound sense of serenity came over me like a wave. A quietness that took over. I turned to my mother and said, “here we are, home again,” and I worked to hold by tears. I have been working out this moment in my head for months and now it is here, the reunion with my Unatti girls.

The bus made its way over the bridge were family tent homes share the riverbanks with pigs and cows and buffalo carcasses, children picking trash and endless piles of garbage.

We turn into the gate, onto the gravel drive and my heart is racing. I remember peering out the bus door toward the garden and there they were, fourteen girls with wide smiles and little-girl-giggles running to me. I got my arms around Sangita and Shrijana and the other twelve joined the hug, holding each other as tears start to run down my face. Lots of tears. These are my girls.

In the sea of girls I found Shreeya, surrounded by her Nepali sisters. They were touching her light curly hair saying ramro Shreeya, ramro!, which means beautiful. I could see she was overwhelmed by the attention but loving it. We were all given Tika and flower garlands and started to get reacquainted.

Later in our room Shreeya put herself on the bed, looked up to the ceiling and said,  “Mommy, they all love me so much, so much love I don’t know what to do, so much love.” Yes I said, “they do love you so much, they are your sisters.”

So the journey continues. . . . .

Third Grade Brownie Troop 695 had a great experience  today, participating in “Child to Child” a program of The Unatti Foundation. The Unatti Foundation is a non-profit  organization that raises funds for food, shelter and  education for underprivileged and orphaned girls in Nepal.  Unatti has a foster home in Bhaktapur, Nepal with 14 girls  who live as a family and attend two of the best English  speaking schools in the region.

For “Child to Child” our Brownie girls gathered some slightly worn clothes and shoes, placed photos of themselves on the clothes and packed the clothes with hand written letters to be hand carried by Unatti’s founder, Stephanie Waisler Rubin, to the 14 Unatti girls in Nepal next week.

Our Brownies learn the great joy in giving and the Unatti girls too get to feel the great joy of giving. To learn more about  “Child to Child” and The Unatti foundation, please visit www.unattifoundation.org.

8 days escorted tour Oct 1^st- Oct 9^th, 09 see the best of Kathmandu/ Bhaktapur/ Thamel/ Pashupati/ Patan

A very old Hindu text has described Kathmandu as the land of gods surrounded by beautiful mountains around it.

Kathmandu the capital of Nepal, is situated in a valley of an open-air museum of famous sites, ancient temples and shrines. It’s a city of inexhaustible historic, artistic and cultural interest, in the heart of the Himalaya Mountains with rich history. The capital is quite up to date in terms of comfort and convenience boasting luxury hotels, bars, restaurants, shops and casinos. Transportation is convenient and inexpensive.

                                                                                                                          

Day 1. Kathmandu       

 Upon arriving in Kathmandu we’ll be picked up to drive to hotel Vajra. We begin this extraordinary adventure with a welcome reception in the hotel garden by the Unatti girls and the extended Unatti Family while enjoying tea and momos (dumplings).  In the evening we will meet at the hotel lobby for a 15-20 min walk to Thamal for dinner at the Third Eye restaurant, serving International food.  After dinner it’s a free time to explore, walk around Thamal’s shopping area, or walk around to explore.

 

                                                                                                                

Day 2.  Bhaktapur                                          

After breakfast at the hotel we’ll depart for a day trip to Bhaktapur, a twenty-minute ride. First stop will be the Unatti House, to interact with the girls and see what they have been doing, including their daily programs and accomplishments. The central activity of the day will be participating in “Child to Child” in Durbar Square.  This is where our Unatti girls organize distribution of donated clothes and shoes to the less fortunate children in their town. This is a hand on experience, giving to some of the poorest children in Bhaktapur.  Be sure to have your camera and a box of Kleenex.  We will have lunch in Bahktapur and then enjoy a walking tour of this ancient town, guided by the Unatti girls. The town center, Durbar Square is a conglomeration of pagoda and (mountain peak) shikhara-style temples grouped around a fifty-five window palaces of bricks and wood. The square is one of the most charming architectural showpieces of the valley as it highlights the ancient arts of Nepal.  Arrive back at the hotel by 6pm, dinner on your own.

                                                                                                               

Day 3. Swoyambhunath/ Pashupati  

We’ll start our journey with a morning walk to the (monkey temple) Swoyambhunath Stupa. It’s an ancient religious complex atop a hill; it’s a fascinating Buddhist architecture. We will walk the 300 steps to the Buddhist temple, and talk about the temple and the Buddhist prayer traditions, the holy site in fact is the massive stupa (a dome-shaped Buddhist shrine). Then you’ll get some time to explore the area on your own. After our great experience we will drive to Thamel for lunch and some free time. Later in the afternoon we’ll drive to Pashupati  to explore the biggest and the holiest shrines of all the Hindu temples and cremation site. It is one of the largest Hindu temple complexes in South Asia with hundreds of shrines and icons of various Hindu gods and goddesses inside. We’ll end our day with an upscale dinner in café Caroline at Barbar Mahal. After dinner we can walk to wonderful and lovely upscale shopping, or go to see traditional live music and enjoy a drink.

                                                                                                                               

Day 4.  Bal-Mandir/ Thamel             

We leave the hotel for breakfast at Mike’s breakfast in Naxal. After breakfast we’ll visit to Bal- Mandir,(2-3 minutes drive) the largest state run orphanage in Kathmandu valley. There we will again participate in  child-to-child clothing distributions, and then we’ll drive back to the hotel for lunch. After lunch we’ll walk to Thamel for a free time to explore the area and shop in the little streets and the bazaar. If you’d like to explore other places in the area we can give a suggestion and we can also arrange for a driver. 

                                                                                                              

Day 5. Bhaktapur- Art Project            

Today we’ll be returning to Bhaktapur . You can choose to visit local schools. The school  many of our Unatti children attend, Jaysee secondary school, is our first stop.  After lunch at Bhaktapur we’ll visit a government (public) school to observe the differences and better understand the needs of the community. In both schools we will have the opportunity to works directly with the students, doing art projects, reading books and delivering supplies. Back to the hotel at 5PM, dinner on your own.

                                                                                     

Day 6- Patan            

This morning after breakfast we will be spending the day in Patan. A 25-minutes drive.  Patan is the world Heritage site, this whole square is a cluster of the fine pagoda temples and stone statues. At every step one comes across a piece of art or an image of the anonymous Patan’s skilled artist.  We’ll explore the ancient palace of Malla kings and the stone baths, visiting some pagoda-style temple including of Lord Shiva, and Krishna Temple- as one of the most perfect style of architecture, we’ll enjoy unique shopping. Back to the hotel at 5PM, dinner at the hotel.s

 

Day 7.  Boudha Stupa                                                                 

Today we’ll go to visit Boudha Stupa. This ancient Stupa is one of the largest in the world and the influx of large populations of Tibetan refugees from China, and it’s a big Buddhist community.  After lunch, we will have a free time to explore on your own. If you’d like we can arrange a journey to visit a Tibetan refugee village of carpet weavers and dyers. Please let us know the night before or in the morning if you wish us to arrange this special journey for you. We’ll end the day at dinner at 1984 restaurant.

 

Day 8. Independent exploration                                 

This day is free to relax and enjoy the serene beauty of this place, or use the day for last minute shopping. If you wish to explore more places please let us know and we’ll be happy to organize a driver for your convenience.  Dinner will be a Nepali Feast at the hotel with our extended Unatti family. We will be graced with singing and dancing by our Unatti girls.

 

Day 9. Departure /Goodbye ceremony

Today is the first day of the Dashain festival.  The most holy holiday in the Hindu calander. And as part of the ceremony we will each get a Tikka, which is a big red dot on your forehead for good luck. After the ceremony will drive to the airport for our flight to Los Angeles. 

Shyam Thapa and Namaste.

 If you have ever wanted to visit Kathmandu, I invite you join me for a trip of a life time. The journey begins on 1 October when we all arrive in Kathmandu for what will be an emotional reunion. I haven’t see the girls in close to 5 years. Straight from the airport we will be delivered to Hotel Vajra where we will sip milk tea in the garden with the extended  Unatti family

It will be a nine day journey and we will work directly with children in need, delivering shoes and clothes to orphaned children living in the state-run orphanage, Bal Mandir. There will be opportunities to teach in local schools, visit the schools our Unatti girls attend, explore the old ancient towns of Patan and Bhaktapur, dine with local people and drink in the beauty of Kathmandu. And don’t overlook the shopping opportunities, rugs, shawls, wood carvings, thanka paintings, hand made paper products, etc.

There is no fee to join the tour. Just pay your own way and I will be happy to show you my home on the other side of the world. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me @ stephanie@unattifoundation.org

 

Flights: we are flying United flight #891 leaving LAX 29 September, arriving in Bangkok 30 September 11:10pm

continuing Thai Air October 1, 10:35am arriving Kathmandu 12:45pm

We will be staying at Hotel Vajra- rooms from $15.00-$60.00

Return flight leaves Kathmandu 9 October Thai Air, 1:50pm, continuing on United flight #890 leaving Bankok 11 October 6:50am arriving LAX 11 October 11:20am