Watching the incredible work of Educate the Children is an inspiration! Their efforts to help women and children in the foundation’s targeted areas has local, regional and international impacts that will make positive change lasting decades.
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Educate the Children is doing such important work for low-income women and children in rural Nepal. They have helped thousands of students by providing otherwise unattainable educational opportunities. They also help current and future generations by empowering women through agricultural and job training. Going strong for more than 50 years my hope is they continue their work for many, many years to come!
I have been supporting ETC for years. It’s cool to see what effect a little money can do to improve the lives and education of the women and children of Nepal. I know the organization uses the money well.
I’ve been donating to this incredible nonprofit for over ten years, and plan to continue to do so in perpetuity. ETC has an unparalleled network of grassroots people on the ground in Nepal that organize to significantly improve conditions associated with poverty. As a sponsor of a women’s group, I receive detailed and personal letters and photographs of the group’s activities and accomplishments. Being an adoptive parent of two Nepali children, I really appreciate this way of giving back to Nepali women who are provided with economic literacy and empowerment skills. Through ETC’s efforts, in small but important ways, the cycle of poverty that leads to women being forced to relinquish their children is broken.
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As an adoptive mother to two Nepali-born children, after adoption, I looked for a trusted Nepal-oriented non-profit, so that I could give back to to better the lives of poor Nepali women. My hope is that they would be in a better position to keep and raise their children than the birth mothers of my two children. My search led me to Educate the Children, where I have sponsored women's collectives and also donated following the earthquake. ETC's small, on the ground dedication to women and children in Nepal is impressive. Its been a privilege to sponsor a local group of women committed to pooling finances, cooperative ventures, improving literacy, etc. The accounting, personal letters and pictures that sponsors get is highly impressive. I have no doubt that every dollar is going exactly to where it does most good.
I love ETC! I've been involved as a donor, and earlier as a board member and staff member. The model ETC follows takes communities through a process of literacy, school improvement, as well as agricultural and income-generating techniques. This holistic approach brings community development for all, but with a laser focus on children and women. Also, ETC never enters a community without a serious period of discussion and discernment to ensure that expectations of all stakeholders are very clear. ETC has moved from community to community, always refining the model and making the most of the experiences learned in previous project areas. Finally, all of ETC's in-country staff is Nepali, ensuring that no funds are diverted to expensive consultants. I would recommend ETC to to anyone who wants to make sure their funds get to a motived community.
I'm a long-time supporter, having seen their fabulous operation in Nepal. Their work plan for developing the oppressed classes of Nepal is the best I have seen in 30 years of experience in Asia as a researcher. Highly recommended.
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We have supported ETC Nepal for a decade and a half, and will continue to do so. While other groups have "micro-lending" ETC actually has a plan to effect dramatic social change through their system of economic involvement in marginalized communities, with support on the ground and in-country experts. The letters we have received from the women's groups we have supported told the story—they have learned how to read, to add and substract, to become self-supporting. The women have become producers in their villages and their daughters are going to school as a result. Organic change over the long haul.
Educate the Children is a small gem. It has spent over 25 years refining a model of community development with an emphasis on women and girls that has proved to be effective in four different areas of Nepal. It works hard to provide targeted interventions, to not create dependency and to foster initiative on the part of local people to develop solutions to their most pressing problems. I have visited two of their four project sites and can genuinely say it is a very special and committed community of people - from the participants to the staff to the Board to the volunteers. Support it!
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Educate the Children does a wonderful job of providing local people - particularly women and girls - with the skills needed to positively improve their lives. It only works in an area for a limited amount of time (although maintains contacts afterwards with the communities) so as to avoid generating dependency and focuses on educational skills so that people can improve their own lives long after ETC has left an area. I am very proud to be associated with ETC's work - in the 1990s I was the director and since then I have remained a donor.
As a supporter for a number of years, I am filled with admiration for Educate The Children’s ability to execute its mission regardless of obstacles like the 2015 earthquake or this year’s Covid. ETC is small, flexible and rooted in the communities, so it can just adjust to current needs and keep going with helping women and children in the villages it serves improve their own lives.
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We have watched ETC grow and blossom from the dreams of one amazing woman, Pamela Carson, to a very powerful "change agent" in Nepal. During the years we lived in Ithaca New York we heard first hand about the improvement in the lives of women and children. Now I must keep in touch with the accomplishments of ETC via their newsletters and excellent web site. I have always been confident that our donations make a real difference in the day to day lives of Nepalese families. Thank you for all you are doing!!
These people use the money to do hand on work that is very measurable and personal. I know just where my money is going and I can see the tangible results. I love their attitude and the personal nature of the relationship that I can feel despite the number of folks involved. A wonderful non profit that i have been a part of supporting for many years.
ETC is the model of an excellent nonprofit that has made a huge difference in the lives of many people. I have donated to them for a number of years, both because I have personal ties to Nepal and because I am very impressed by how effectively the organization is run. It is very much an on-the-ground effort in which rural Nepalese women work with Nepal-based ETC staff to develop and sustain effective community development programs. Education is central but it is not just aimed at children: it also crucially involves their mothers. Nor is education pursued in isolation from other community needs such as sanitary toilet facilities. ETC follows an integrated community-centered vision, and the results have been consistently impressive. The US-side of the organization is also superb--a very small but exceptional staff and an excellent and knowledgeable volunteer board. Money given to ETC has far greater impact per dollar than money to larger, less locally accountable, organizations. I strongly endorse ETC.
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I had heard of and donated to ETC before I joined its board but in the time since I have become even more impressed by how effectively the organization works in remote communities in Nepal. Ithaca-based staff do an extraordinary job on less than the proverbial shoestring, and staff in Nepal have gained recognition locally and more widely for being absolutely committed to working closely with community members on a variety of projects aimed not only at educating children from minority populations but also at educating and empowering their mothers and families. Few other nonprofits accomplish so much with so little. Working on the ETC Board has been an inspiring experience.
I have been donating to this charity every year since 2001. It started when I read an obituary for my friend from Bowdoin College Jim Roux, who was onboard one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center. His family asked for donations in his memory to ETC, which I had never before heard of. Through the last 18 years I have been consistently impressed with their work and the improvements they have achieved in life for women and children in Nepal.
My wife is a former Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal and thinks the world of this organization. I have become a donor and have been amazed at the results that have been achieved. If you are looking for a genuine, grass-roots non profit that has helped thousands of rural women and their families climb out of abject poverty, ETC is for you. Every dollar you donate goes a very long way in Nepal and you are helping women and their families learn skills that eventually enable them to earn money and live a life that is far better than they every could have imagined. The results are just outstanding.
This is a nonprofit that is doing an amazing amount of good. Helping people in Rural Nepal make their own lives better. Education is the cornerstone to their work. It allows the Nepalese women to truly make their family lives better.
Outstanding work promoting the well being of Nepali communities through education programs for women and children.
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An organization dedicated to building family strength in Nepal. Working in communities facing unbelievable challenges every day. Making it possible for children to learn, women to gain the skills they need to guide their communities, creating sustainable agriculture for better nutrition for the whole community. When the devastating earthquake hit, they were on the ground helping communities help themselves. Building temporary shelters to keep families safe during the coming monsoons, built of materials that will be incorporated into the permanent homes they will build when conditions allow construction. Children are back in school, fields have been planted. Amazing.
My husband saw the benefits of this nonprofit over 25 years ago and has been donating since. We have 2 daughters and he wanted to help educate girls in Nepal. Our daughters wanted to see the schools we had been donating to so 15 years ago we visited the schools. We enjoyed meeting the children, teachers, the parents and seeing the home and school gardens that benefitted from agricultural classes also from ETC. Women were so proud of how much more productive their gardens are due to knowledge about good garden practices. They were proud of having better and more food for their families and having extra to sell.
I was on the board of ETC in the late 1970s, early 1980s. I continue to be impressed with the work they do in rural Nepal. I particularly like that they work to make their work sustainable in one area before moving on to the next. Empowering women in the villages has made a big difference in the lives of many people of this beautiful country.
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Our interest in Nepal comes from six wonderful years living in that beautiful country - three as PC volunteers, and three as teachers in the International School in Kathmandu. It was my privilege to serve on the board of ETC back in the 1980s and my husband and I have been supporters ever since. This is an organization that does a wonderful job working in the field helping the Nepali people to become self-sufficient. It has been a joy to receive yearly updates from the women's organizations and students that we have supported and to see the difference ETC is making in their communities and lives. There are many organizations who want our money, but I know with ETC the money is actually going to help improve the lives of the Nepali people. I have been impressed by the hard work done in the country in the aftermath of the earthquakes in April - it is so good to see pictures of the children back in school now. Thank you, ETC!
I have been thrilled to be able to support Educate the Children for more than 25 years, since I first heard about the excellent work they do. And over the years I have been impressed by the further reach of their activities, from helping children to making a broader impact in the communities they serve in Nepal by helping mothers, which benefits the entire family. I have some expertise in the field of family and children's welfare and believe that ETC is an excellent example of what a nonprofit group can do.
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What an exceptional staff. So communicative. Love how efficient they are with funding. Keep up the great work.
The story of "Educate the Children, Inc." is especially inspiring - in fore thought, planning, dedication and follow through. I've been to two fund raising events with Barbara Butterworth and Mike Gill (In the USA and in Nepal). They inspire the attendees with their passion for Nepal and the dedicated, solid work of ERC, their volunteers, staff and donors.
My wallet happily flew out of my pocket after I heard their presentations.
I learned about ETC and met volunteers in the nineties while I lived in Ithaca NY, and I was impressed by their focus on how to empower people. Since then, I have sponsored ETC rural women's groups. The members of these groups prosper by helping each other, by improving their farming skills, learning management, and acquiring literacy! They are proud to send their children - especially their daughters - to school.
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ETC is making an invaluable contribution to improving life in rural Nepal by educating women, thus improving the life of their families. In women's cooperatives that are supported for several years by ETC, members acquire literacy and accounting skills, they learn about nutrition, improved gardening, and sanitation. With starting funds given to their group they implement these skills in their homes and gardens and raise their standard of living. They send their daughters to school. After a period of initial help from ETC, these groups continue independently, and often help new cooperatives to form. Time and again, reading letters from cooperatives that I helped to support, I have sensed joy and pride of achievement!
With 4 friends, I had the privilege to see in person ETC's positive impact on the lives of Nepali women and children. ETC is one of the most efficient and effective nonprofit organizations among the many I am familiar with. When women learn literacy, numeracy, leadership and how to improve their family's economic standing, it's clear that ETC's work brings about real change
ETC is a small NGO working with women and children, and hence, entire communities. I have been involved with them for 16 years and am so impressed with all that they do. I was originally drawn to their work with education of children, where scholarships, teacher training, and school improvement were making a difference. Over the years I have seen the development of their focus on women's groups, using an amazing six year plan in literacy, sanitation, animal husbandry, kitchen gardens, scholarships, and community organization including micro lending that has noticeably changed the lives of the women, the children, the families and the entire community for the better. I met a woman who had learned to read and to write who had opened a small store for her village. She showed us her ledger where she kept track of her business. I shall always remember the very proud smile from ear to ear that she had. I was also impressed with the changes I saw in the communities where ETC had been involved with double crop gardens, animals kept in neat pens, the villages overall cleanliness. and the sense of empowerment in the women's groups that welcomed us. The staff of ETC has worked diligently to improve life in Nepal.
This is the organization that I feel does the most with the money it is able to raise.
The Educate the Children NGO is making a difference in Nepal. They arranged a trip for us to visit Nepal and meet the employees that are making a change in peoples lives. We visited 5 months after the earthquake and they were busy rebuilding what had been destroyed in the villages where they work. They have a sustainable model for change. Thank you for the work that you do.
As an Ithacan, I have long supported this wonderful group. Although unlike others I have no direct link to Nepal, I know people who have Nepali adopted children and who themselves have worked in Nepal. I know how great the need is, and how helpful ETC is to women & their families by helping them to help themselves, not simply with handouts.
Pamela Carson, the founder of Educate the Children, was a dear friend. I have shared her commitment to educating children and women in Nepal from afar. What this small, effectively managed non-profit does for the people whose lives it touches, should be a model for other non-profits. These people are helped and learn to help others. What more could we ask for our financial support?!
I have supported Educate the Children for over 20 years, and have seen the organization grow and expand its focus from supporting individual students to working on a regional basis to improve the lives of women and children through adult and childhood education. I'm proud to be a donor and supporter.
ETC really stepped up in the wake of the devastating Nepali earthquake in April. With the scramble for donor aid, and horrible mismanagement and allocation of funds by the government, it was extremely important that organizations with an already-established presence in the country step up to the plate. ETC did so, expanding the scope of their operation to include relief and rebuilding for the rural communities they were committed to. I have heard positive things from my friends in Nepal, and am amazed by their work.
Educated the Children is exceptionally knowledgeable about the areas it commits funds to. I have full confidence that any money I donate is carefully used.
I have worked as an anthropologist in one of the communities assisted by ETC. In that community/region, ETC helped schools and students, built educational facilities, established local women's groups that are now undertaking development works on their own, ran literacy and numeracy adult education classes, built latrines, and assisted households to install bio-gas plants for cooking gas. In short, ETC accomplished more than any of the much larger projects that have worked in the region.
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Through tough and changing times, Educate the Children has continued to provide engaged on-the-ground assistance to children, women and their communities in Nepal. I am an anthropologist and have supported ETC in various ways since its inception.
The work they did in the community where I originally did fieldwork is testament to the ETC vision and mission. In that community, the assistance ETC provided to schools, to women's literacy & economic development, and to community health is still evident and functioning--now without ETC support--even though it's been over a decade since ETC operated there. For example, the community today operates and staffs preschool opportunities, has a free-standing women's community building and programming funded in part by a small shop they run in the village, and the sanitary toilets at every house that were funded partially by ETC are still maintained and used by all.
All this in a community where, in 1977, 46% of the children died before the age of 5 largely due to diarrhea and other diseases attributable to lack of sanitation and clean drinking water, where the first girls only began to attend primary school in 1977 and no child had ever passed the national School Leaving Exam of the 10th grade, and where no adult women were literate. Anyone who has worked with very poor third world communities knows that these are dramatic changes. And, equally important, appear to be community sustained changes at this point.
This is not ALL the work of ETC, of course; much credit must go to the energies and commitment of the community itself. Still, in a world where nonprofits come and go, and where poor communities are sometimes increasingly dependent upon outside aid, ETC's history in Nepal has spanned the shift from a child sponsorship organization to a much more far-reaching--but still (and I think this is important) topically and geographically focused one very admirably indeed.
I have had the privilege of being involved with ETC from it's inception, as an acquaintance of Pamela Carson and as one of the first sponsors of a child, with whom I am still in touch. My Nepalese daughter is now 25 and a teacher, with a child of her own. Before ETC she was begging on the street . This organization has truly made a difference in the lives of so many like her, and has grown into a powerful organization with programs for women as well as children. And they have done it with integrity and compassion. Unlike other charitable organizations, ETC has very low administrative costs, which translates into more money going directly to the programs it has developed and the people who need it most. ETC deserves your support as they continue to make a positive and valuable impact on the lives of women and children in Nepal.
This is quite simply my favorite charitable organization. They do superb work in Nepal helping poor rural communities through education projects, women's groups, literacy efforts and other desperately needed help. My husband and I were close friends with its founder and travelled with her in Nepal. Her commitment and vision lives on in the board and staff. The work has a tremendous impact and donations of any size go a long way in Nepal!