Play To Help

r, there were many children who needed help and few individuals who could help them. Therefore, we decided it is a good idea to raise funds organizing fund raising activities and online through crowd funding. Later we established PlayToHelp in order to continue helping the children. Our children are inner city children who live in the capital city in subsistence. Most of our children live in Kalankisthan who come from two kinds of families. First group is the families from so called untouchables and lower caste. Even though the caste system is no longer in existence in law—as in the case with minorities around the world—the marginalized class from the past live in dire strait in present. These families live in $1-$5 per day. And there is another group of people who immigrated to the city during and after the People’s war searching for safe haven. Kathmandu city saved them from political violence; however, she is ruthless when it comes to the cost of living. Therefore, both group of families with minimum income live in a small dilapidated room no bigger than 200sq. ft (that is area of 20 square tiles by 10 square tiles on our office floor). Depending upon the size of the family, an entire family lives in such a small room—at least 5-6 residents. The single room is their bedroom, living room and kitchen; all that with no ventilation. These families are prone of respiratory diseases like TB, which is prevalent in these groups in Kathmandu. Thus, we believe that the only thing that can bring the children of these families out of this viscous circle of poverty, disease and misery is education. However, education does not become first priority when we live in such conditions. Basic education is a human right. We believed it is our responsibility to help the children get at least basic education so that in the future they get an opportunity to employ themselves in healthy and productive lives. This is what we intended to do—help these children get basic education. So, group of friends and families got together to raise funds to help. First year we talked to our close family and friends. Even though there were at least twenty students that needed financial help, we could only help four. Therefore, in the second year, in order to officially raise funds in large scale, we approached various non-profits in the US to help us run fund raising events. After few initial rejections, a Wisconsin based non-profit agreed to help us to run a project under their name. We organized PlayToHelp events in Minneapolis and Indianapolis, and a crowdfunding campaign through Guidestar. That year we helped twenty children. In the third year we applied for a grant from ANMN in which ANMN would organize a fund raising event to fund our project. ANMN was generous enough to donate all the funds for our project to run the project. At this point we were certain that we needed to take care of our children on our own. In order to continue fund those children through high school, we could not rely on other non-profits to help us run projects. Thus, PlayToHelp was formed. The name came from one of our popular event in Minneapolis. Our theme was to make giving fun. PlayToHelp continues to make sure the fund raising events are not only a fund raising event but also an entertainment or escape for the participants. The raised funds helps children in Kathmandu attend a better school. We believe that public education should be free. However, in Nepal the public sector does not provide minimal quality education needed in the twenty first century. Therefore, it is our goal to provide free education to these children in a little better private school, which are better than public schools. PlayToHelp would like to continue fund these twenty children until they complete high school. It is our primary goal. However, if we are able to raise more funds then we would like to help more children like them, organize problem solving campaign in Kathmandu, and build other educational structures in Nepal in collaboration with other non-profit around the world. We believe only educated public can flourish development and freedom in Nepal and other developing countries.