My Discovery of Rukmini Foundation and My Visit to Nepal

When I discovered the Rukmini Foundation website a year ago, it helped me learn more about the challenges Nepali girls have staying in school through high school graduation. As I dug further, my interest grew and ultimately led me to join the Rukmini board of directors.

While I’m excited about helping with marketing and fundraising, I knew from the beginning I also wanted to get involved with the work in Nepal. During my recent trip to Nepal, I had the opportunity to meet the Rukmini team and experience many of the important ways we help girls, their schools and communities … to empower girls through education!

So I’m excited to share my visit with you … and encourage you to visit Nepal if you ever get the chance to and see the great work Rukmini is doing there.

When I met up with the team, everyone introduced themselves – their name, role on the Rukmini team, what they studied in college and other activities they’re involved with. Learning their names was challenging as they always say their first and last names together and they’re so different from the names I am used to, that it’s hard to understand them. My best tip is to write names down, carrying a cheat sheet until you learn people’s names. 

Finally we ordered lunch and had momos, a popular Nepali dish of steamed dumplings with different fillings although all team members except one are vegetarian. Oops, one person got French fries.

Meeting the Rukmini Team in Nepal

Rukmini was started by two brothers, Bibhuti Aryal who lives in Pittsburgh and Nabin Aryal who lives in Kathmandu. I’ve had multiple phone conversations with Bibhuti and was able to meet Nabin for lunch in Kathmandu, where he filled in more details about the history of the foundation (learn more about the Rukmini team).

A week later, Usha Adhikari and the Rukmini team were able to travel from Pharping into Kathmandu. The monsoon flooding and landslides that struck Nepal in late September 2024 had blocked many roads and did significant damage at two of the schools Rukmini supports.

Schools in Nepal are different from those in more developed countries. Classrooms are smaller with hallways outdoors, covered for the rainy season. Schools have a courtyard for playing and school assemblies. Sometimes the courtyard is surrounded by classrooms (my favorite) and other schools found more space by using space on one side of the school.

Each school visit began with a meeting including the principal, teachers who could join us, the Rukmini team and myself. These meetings were formal and a bit awkward as I really didn’t know how to introduce myself. It was fascinating to learn how long the teachers had been at their schools (most more than 10 years) and the only disappointment was how few women teachers there were … but we’re working to change that!

My favorite school activity was seeing the lunch program first hand, having read about it in various Rukmini newsletters. The team recognized that children’s learning is impacted when they’re hungry and even in the US, more than 60% of public school students get lunch.

It’s hard to explain in words the magic of the school lunch program I observed at Setidevi Secondary School, Sokhel. The schools have gotten creative about where to cook and serve lunch. Here the kitchen is about the size of a classroom. The kids eat standing up, with their food on a narrow shelf. Everyone gets a bowl of dal bhat (rice with a lentil soup, which changes for variety) and a vegetable. When they’re done, they wash their bowl and spoon for the next group of students.  

Scholarship Girls and Their Families

Most of the girls who receive “scholarships” come from families where the mother and children manage the crops they grow to feed the family and sell while the father is a day laborer. A number of the bahinis (younger sisters) sadly lost their parents in the earthquake, so they live with relatives who have limited resources to feed them, let alone cover school expenses.

Yet every family I visited during my trip offered something to drink, typically green tea.

Visiting the Rukmini Office

The Rukmini office is located inside one of the partner schools. There is a very special relationship with the school because our donors provided the funds to rebuild one entire floor of the school following the 2015 earthquake. The floor is named for the foundation and the floor’s walls are covered with the names of the supporters who made the rebuild possible to honor and thank donors.

Rukmini Scholars are Called Bahinis

During each school visit, I was able to meet all of the bahinis (younger sisters) receiving Rukmini scholarships. The foundation has worked hard to make sure these girls are fully integrated into their schools, wearing the same uniforms as everyone else (they get two uniforms each year). 

The girls shared their names, grade level and most important, what they’d like to be when they grow up and I was quite impressed by one ten year old girl who said she wanted to be an engineer. It was also fun to recognize some of them dancing at Rukmini’s anniversary celebration several days later.

Girls Programs Organized by Rukmini

While visiting Rukmini I was able to participate in two programs. Being there in person far exceeded my expectations after reading about these programs in numerous newsletters and blog posts over the past year. 

The Didi (big sister) program had a guest speaker, an incredible young woman who shared her story about overcoming challenges to become her own person and financially independent. At 25, Brinda Bhattacharya has completed college, worked as a social worker for several years and now teaches social work to first year college students … along with volunteering to help empower girls!

The GLOW Club is an after school program for girls, both Rukmini scholars and other girls in the school recruited by the club mentor. They meet once a week, giving girls the space and support to ask questions, explore their feelings and learn to advocate for themselves. One of the exercises in this program was to learn how to give yourself personal space and to speak up when others get in your personal space. It was a fun game where a pair of us asked each other questions and moved closer together until the person said no to coming closer into their personal space.

I plan to write about the various GLOW Club activities in future blog posts so I’ll just list just a few examples here so you recognize the incredible value this program offers:

• Girls Question Box – where girls write down questions and they take turns pulling questions from the box for group discussions.
• Personal Space – was the day’s lesson, teaching the girls how to say no when someone gets too close to them … with a fun exercise to practice saying no.
• Walking – where girls had to write down all the places they walk to but I missed the discussion as we had to leave to catch the bus back to Pharping.
• And, much more.

Celebrating Rukmini’s 13th Anniversary

On my last day visiting the Rukmini team, I had the privilege of participating in the foundation celebration recognizing their 13th anniversary. There were lots of speeches by local officials but what I loved the most were the girls dancing, both traditional and more contemporary (sorry I can’t find photos so I’ll add them later.

How Walking to School & Work is Integral to Life in Nepal

Nepal is famous for trekking in the Himalayas and the mountains are beautiful when they aren’t hidden by clouds. What you probably don’t realize is how people in Nepal walk everywhere, especially those who live outside the larger cities like Kathmandu.

Some days I walked more than my target 10,000 steps. I can’t imagine how many steps the children take to walk to and from school in Nepal. It’s not unusual for kids to walk an hour and some have a two hour walk each way. Fortunately, Rukmini provides sturdy shoes to their scholarship girls as some students wear flip flops which is scary when you see the roads and trails.

One day I was able to participate in a GLOW Club meeting where the activity was to write down all the places we walk to. This showed me how different my life in the US (car oriented) is from most people in Nepal. 

• Girls list – neighbors, friends, relatives, school, temple, store or farmers market
• My list was different – neighborhood walks to reach 10,000 steps/day, walking to/from the car and around the stores or buildings I visit. 
• Plus a driving list – grocery stores, post office, library, friends and family, restaurants, gas stations, shopping centers, movie theaters and more.

I found that family and community relationships are much more important in Nepal. Some of this is based on their culture, their religion and most important (my opinion) is they haven’t buried their heads in electronic devices. Although, this is becoming different in the cities where mobile devices and the use of social media is increasing rapidly.

What Did School Mean to You as a Child?

Once upon a time we were young and went to school. We had favorite teachers, friends and hopefully one or 2 subjects we enjoyed. Most of us took school for granted, just like we take turning the lights on .. or getting water from the kitchen faucet for granted. 

In Nepal, many children live without one or more of these things. That’s why Rukmini Foundation is so important, helping girls remain in school through high school graduation. We start by providing girls with the basics like uniforms, shoes, and school supplies. 

What most people may not realize is that Rukmini provides support to the schools the girls attend. Here are just a few of the ways they insure girls are getting the best education possible:

• Lunch for all students in partner schools where we have a meal program because hunger makes it difficult for students to learn. The challenge is now to get this program in all of our partner schools.
• Classroom supplies to assist teachers and enhance student learning.
• Repairs to school buildings affected by climate emergencies like the recent flooding and landslides.

While visiting Nepal shortly after the 2024 flooding and landslides, I witnessed first hand the damage to one of Rukmini’s schools. It was heartbreaking to see the devastation affect schools like Shree Kalidevi Primary School. 

What’s amazing is how random the damage is. Most of the primary school rooms lost all their contents while only two classrooms in the secondary school (higher up the hillside) were damaged.

Rukmini’s focus following the floods and landslides was to check on the girls we support. Fortunately none were hurt although some families suffered damage to their homes and/or crops … with rice about to be harvested.

With the roads now open, we’re able to visit the schools to see the impact. Fortunately only one or two of the schools suffered significant losses. We hope during this time of giving thanks, you can contribute to helping these schools:

• Replace Shree Kalidevi primary school kitchen equipment.
• Rebuild Shree Kalidevi classrooms.
• Purchase teaching materials that were destroyed in one of the schools.

These are just some of the projects I feel very passionate about working on as the newest member of the foundation board. I am grateful for having the opportunity to visit and witness empowerment through education in action and I look forward to doing much more in the coming months and years.