Appeal

Help Aishwarya to become a doctor!

A incredible young woman from Nepal - named Aishwarya Tamang - has a dream: to become a doctor, the very first one in her region.

She has the drive, she has the talent, but she doesn’t have the money.

Help her to help others!

My name is Dion Maas, and I’d like to share her story.

I met Aishwarya through the Dolma Foundation, a non-profit organisation run out of Kathmandu in Nepal. This foundation is mainly active in the north of Nepal, an indescribably beautiful, but harsh landscape. Apart from the yearly monsoon rains, this area was also the epicentre of the destructive 2015 earthquake.

Via the Dolma Foundation, I started sponsoring Aishwarya. The Dolma foundation has the mission to provide education, food and clothing to over 100 poor children from that area, which they helped to rebuild after the earthquake. Three years ago, Aishwarya was about to graduate from the highschool at the Highland Boarding School, and started with prep school for her medical school. Last year, she passed the medical school entrance exams with flying colours. Unfortunately, we didn’t have sufficient funds to also pay for her medical school. For her to start her studies, we set up this crowdfunding campaign. We would like to appeal to everybody to help her raise enough money to finally make it happen.

The goal of this campaign is to raise money so Aishwarya can fulfil her lifelong dream of being the first doctor in the remote village in Nepal where she grew up and save lives in her local community. Five years of medical college in Nepal costs around EUR 35,000, of which ca. EUR 10,000 are needed for the first year, which will start in October 2019.

Any contribution to this cause is highly appreciated, either financially or by creating some noise - on social media or by telling your friends and neighbours. Many, many thanks in advance for your support on behalf of Aishwarya, the Dolma foundation, and myself.

Some background information:

Aishwarya is from a very poor family. She got separated from her parents at a very young age and was raised by her grandmother, whose house was destroyed in the 2015 earthquake. In the video below, Aishwarya explains how she became interested in becoming a doctor. Her grandmother took her to a Health Camp when she was little, telling her that the men and women in the white coats are messengers from God who save people's lives. Since Aishwarya learned that these people are called "doctors" she has wanted to become one. Once this mission is accomplished, she wants to return to her village to be the first doctor there so that people don’t have to travel for hours, or sometimes even days, to visit a doctor:

Why am I doing this? I consider myself incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to travel the world, but it also made me realise how much poverty and inequality exists. I wanted to sponsor a child so they could get an education and hopefully a fighting chance for a better future.

Where? Since Nepal is my favourite country, and it holds a special place among all the areas of the world I travelled to, it had to be Nepal.

How? Was the most difficult question to answer. I wanted to make sure that I had a direct impact on a single individual, I wanted to be involved, and I didn't just want to send money to a large charity where your contribution is highly appreciated, but often anonymous and not always well-spent. The Dolma Foundation met my requirements and exceeded my expectations and through them I started sponsoring a girl so she could attend classes in primary school as well as get room and board in the Highland Boarding School during the week.

Ana (my girlfriend) and I visited the Dolma Foundation in Kathmandu in April 2018 and we met Aishwarya in person. She came across as very intelligent, and we were highly impressed by her drive to achieve her single purpose in life:

Here is a picture of Aishwarya and her grandmother:

More information on the Dolma foundation:

https://www.facebook.com/dolmafoundation
https://twitter.com/dolmafoundation
https://www.linkedin.com/company/dolma-development-fund/about/


Have a wonderful day, and Namaste!

Dion