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Little Sisters Puts Dent in Poverty $200 at a Time
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Tuesday, January 2, 2018
 

STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Trevor Patzer went to Nepal to lay his eyes on the world’s tallest mountain.

But it was the people on the ground of what is one of the poorest countries in the world that made a lasting imprint on his heart and soul.

“I was confronted with poverty for the first time in my life,” he said.

Shocked to find that fewer than a third of Nepalese women could read or write, Patzer learned that he could sponsor an 11-year-old girl’s education for a fraction of the $53,000 a year a family friend paid for him to attend the elite St. Paul’s college-preparatory boarding school in New Hampshire.

And the mere $200 it cost to provide her schooling for a year could protect economically disadvantaged girls like her from being forced into child labor, child marriage and child sex trafficking.

Today the Little Sisters Fund that Patzer started 20 years ago has provided an education for more than 2,100 girls in Nepal, with 500 of them graduating so far. And the girl that Patzer originally supported has finished nursing school and is now a registered nurse in Nepal.

The gift of education that family friend offered me changed my life forever. I always wanted to help others as I was helped,” he said. “If you give a girl a chance to go to school, great things happen.”

Patzer, the son of Alan and Midge Patzer, gave an update over the Christmas holidays to long-term supporters who gathered for a wine and cheese party at the home of David and Jill Hitchin.

David Hitchin recounted how he had been shocked to learn how Red Cross staff members stole $6 million in aid donations during the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

“That knocked my socks off and made me wonder how we can know we’re giving to a trustworthy organization,” Hitchin said. “I knew Alan Patzer through the ski school and heard of what Trevor was doing, and now the Little Sisters of Nepal is at the top of my list in terms of organizations I support.”

Nepal has a tremendous amount of need, Trevor Patzer told those assembled. The country doesn’t have the resources of the United States and its government is always afraid of getting gobbled up by China.

Half the population in Nepal lives on less than $2 a day, making school prohibitively expensive for families trying to put two meals on the table each day. Seven of 10 girls drop out of school before the age of 16 in rural areas.

Those who do go to school find themselves in schools made of corrugated metal. When their breath rises, it condenses on the ceiling and drips on them.

Girls who are not in school and not married are three more times likely to be working in the fields than boys. And, while it’s illegal to marry before the age of 20, police don’t enforce the law. Forty-one percent of girls enter into early marriage in what is one of the highest rates of early marriage in the world.

Nepal is also the largest trafficker of girls per capita, as well, with as many as 10,000 trafficked each year.

“We provide safety for girls,” Patzer said. “And we know that educating a girl breaks the cycle of poverty. One it’s broken, it’s broken for good.”

Statistically, Nepalese women who are educated marry later, have fewer and healthier children, earn more and invest more of their earnings in their families and communities. Eighty percent of what women make goes to their families; 23 percent of what men make goes into their families.

“The impact of an investment in the education of a girl is multiplied in her family, community and future generations,” he said. “Through education a life is transformed.”

Nepal doesn’t have a glass ceiling for women, nor does the country oppress women, Patzer said. But impoverished families funnel the resources to their male children—in particular, the first-born son or the “Golden Child.”

Nepali families believe any money they put into a daughter walks out the door when she’s married, becoming part of another family.

“Women have headed the Supreme Court of Nepal. So, there is opportunity for women, if they get an education,” Patzer said.

Ninety-eight percent of the girls Little Sisters has sponsored pass the national School Leaving Certificate exam compared to 38 percent of other girls.

Graduates have gone on to become teachers, nurses and engineers. And many are now supporting the next generation of Little Sisters monetarily and through mentorships.

“We tell them: We paid for your education. That’s half the wheel. Now you sponsor the education of another girl,” Patzer said. “The wheel’s starting to turn and it’s picking up speed.”

Little Sisters doesn’t build schools. Instead, it partners with 85 schools to identify girls who have promise but are not in school. The fund covers tuition, books, supplies and uniform costs.

Little Sisters also counsels parents and community on challenges they may face, including how to identify and avoid potential traffickers.

It provides preventative healthcare, teaching communities how to avoid unsanitary conditions that  cause intestinal worms. The fund also helps with the cost of de-worming and emergencies, such as broken arms and open heart surgery.

Little Sisters tries to dispel misconceptions about menstruation, which has led to girls dying of asphyxiation or exposure when banished to sheds.

It trains educators to move beyond rote memorization to incorporate more critical thinking methods in the classroom. It provides mobile libraries to take books from Kathmandu to rural areas.

And it’s started a savings fund for families needing small loans for higher education, small business start-up costs or family emergencies. It gave out loans of $150 to $300 to help rebuild homes of girls who lost theirs in the 2015 earthquake. And, when they were done rebuilding, Little Sisters forgave them the loans.

Many in Nepal are still waiting for money from the government to rebuild their homes, Patzer said.

Patzer noted that Ric Ohrstrom, the family friend who sent him to boarding school, once told me him that if he could make a positive difference in one person’s life his life would have been worth living.

“I hope everybody can find that for themselves,” Patzer added.

For more information, go to www.littlesistersfund.org.

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