Subhash Ghimire shares fond memories of his experience at Budhanilkantha School in Kathmandu, Nepal.
This is my friend, Subhash Ghimire. He and Jen met more than one year ago at the European Summit for Global Transformation. "This kid is going places," Jen told me when she returned from the summit. "He's brilliant and he's going to change Nepal. I want to help him." So when we aimed our Picture Hope sites on Nepal, there was no question that we wanted to spend time with Subhash. And when we arrived, he graciously put his own priorities on hold to spend time with us and share his dreams for Nepal.
Subhash grew up in Arupokhari, a very poor and remote village in western Nepal disabled by a ten-year civil war, where he walked to school barefoot each day and studied under kerosene lamps each night. He was the first child to be selected from his village to attend the prestigious Budhanilkantha School, a British-style secondary boarding school in Kathmandu for the brightest students in the country. He recently graduate from college here in the United States.
During our visit in Nepal, we walked the Budhanilkantha School campus with Subhash listening to his stories and plans for the school he hopes to create. Subhash shares, "I am a wildly optimistic person willing to sacrifice for my country so that future generations do not have to suffer the same way. I believe that changing a country has to start with educating the young generation and that is where I am investing my energy. With the Sarswati Foundation that I founded in the summer of 2009, I am now working on building the first peace school in Nepal so that the children whose lives were blighted by the war get an opportunity to overcome unfounded prejudice and discrimination and realize the possibilities of creating an informed and tolerant society for future generations."
Subhash has been selected as a changemaker of focus for Epic Change, a US non-profit founded by my friends Stacey Monk and Sanjay Patel. Please join me in sharing gratitude and support for changemakers including my courageous friends Subhash and Mama Lucy Kamptoni during the Epic Thanks campaign underway now through Thanksgiving. No contribution is too small. We need your help.
Mama Lucy Kamptoni and her students in a Shepherds Junior School classroom located in her backyard in Arusha, Tanzania.
Friday, December 3, 2010 at 01:00PM 
Anita Chaudhary, age 19, seated beside her mother-in-law Sohagi Chaudhary, delivered her baby at a local health facility in Doti district in the far west hills of Nepal supported by CARE. Anita learned about the option of delivering her baby in a health facility during the monthly mother’s group meetings in her village. After feeling her first labor pains, Anita traveled thirty minutes to the health facility by buffalo cart. Upon arrival, she received pain medication to ease labor pains and care throughout the delivery before returning home just 2.5 hours later.
