Biography of Sahara Giri

Overview

Biography of Sahara Giri, born in Nepal on BS 2053, Kartik 18.

_{Registered by K.P. Kieft.}

Read more about todays Status of Saharas Study here.

Identification

Sahara was born in Nepal as second Daughter in a Family living in Kurani-8 Village,
located in the Sindhupalchok District , Bagmati zone, Duwachaur V.D.C (dubarchour)
with central District Office in Chautara 45306.

Her date of Birth in the local time/date System is BS 2053, Kartik 18.
In AD notation of the western Calendar that is November 3, 1996.

The Children in the Family are

Usha, Sister (1994 AD), married with Quarter, with Daughter Yarusha (2009 AD)
SAHARA, (1996-11-03 AD)
Sabina, Sister (1998 AD), also known as Shirjana, FB-nickname Crijana
Ramila, Sister (2000-06-05 AD)
Sunita, Sister (2002 AD)
Sudip, Brother (2004 AD)

First Contact

Sahara was first met by a Group of Dutch Travellers in 2003 AD.

My Daughter Ingrid with her Partner Jimi were Part of this Group
on invitation by her Partner's Parents to celebrate the 30 years Marriage of those Parents.
Sahara was working as Kitchenhelp at the Lodge where this Group made a Stop during their Helambu Trekking.

Sponsor Initiative

Over Dinner during their Stay some Members of the Group asked about the Chances
of Education for Girls like Sahara in their Nepalese Future.
The Girl's Name was not yet known during this Discussion.

The Owner of this Lodge then asked the Dutch Guide of this Group
whether the Group could find a way to send the Girl to School,
while He nor the girl's Parents had the Means to accomplish this.
To his Opinion she could do much better with Schooling
than Her just washing Dishes as she was doing.

The Guide, Sam Voolstra, discussed this with the Group
and they decided to adopt this Girl, introduced to them as Rita Giri.
But this Adoption had one Condition:
All Members of the Group had to take Part in the financial Concequences.

Why me as Sponsor

My Daughter and her Partner did not have an Income in that Period.
They had not completed their Study in those Days.
So my Daughter asked Me and my Partner for a Loan.

We refused to do this as a Loan, we decided to take their Part for our own Budget
to complete the Contract to send Rita to a Boardingschool
for the standard Education over 10 Years.

One of the other Members of the Group, Lize v.d. Veen,
organised the Collection of the Funds and the Transfer
to the School where Rita would be studying.

First School

In 2003 Rita was placed in a Boardingschool in Kathmandu
for her lower primary Schooling.
This School was known with the name "Dorji School",
with mail Address g.p.o. Box 1447 Kathmandu 44602 Nepal.

Second School

After a couple of Years this School was followed by "Blue Moon School",
located in Mitrapark Chabahil Kathmandu 44602
that thereafter was taken over/renamed "Texas School".
This Institute presented lower secondary Education.

SLC

In this School Rita, by that time known by her real Name Sahara,
made her final Exam for SLC. SLC stands for School Leaving Certificate.
Her results for SLC were very good.

Education System in Nepal

To explain the Education System in Nepal a Comparison with the Dutch system is available
on a Website EPNuffic.nl, it can also be downloaded here.

Contact

During Sahara's Education more Communication happened
when the Director of this Boardingschool, Mr. Karna Bahadur Shahi,
asked the Sponsors to exchange emails with Sahara so she could practise her English Language.
This email-exchange resulted in a Plan for Sahara to extend her Education with a Plus2 Program.

Plus 2

The Plus2 Program was presented to the Sponsorgroup of the previous Period.
Most of the Sponsors agreed to continue the Support, but for one Condition:
the Coördinator of the first 10 Years would not do the Administration and Mentoring.
At that point the Decision was taken to transfer this Mentorship to me (K.P. Kieft).

The Program of the Plus2 Schooling offered a basic Specialisation,
where Sahara decided to go for Hotelmanagement and Tourism, the prime Economy of Nepal.

Sam, the Guide of the original Sponsorgroup, acted as local Contact
and helped a lot to solve problematic Situations.
She also helped Sahara to get extra English Lessons from RTC,
a local Institute that gave training for IELT.
This IELT is the minimum Level of English for international Education or working Permits.

Apart from this RTC-institute Sahara got admission to an Organisation
"WomenLEAD" that helped her to develop her Presentation and become a Leader and Changemaker.

Sahara is on the Back Row just below the word "LEAD"

Internships

Sahara has done a couple of Internships to get Experience and to get some Income.
One Internship she fullfilled at a Lodge "The Last Resort Nepal" that is owned by Sam Voolstra,
another Internship she got at a wellknown Travel-Agency in Kathmandu named "Socialtours".
Some of the Tasks she got with WomenLEAD can be interpreted as Internship as well:
Sahara did a Project concerning Violence Against Women for the UN
and she participated in a Campaign against Street Harrassment called "Hollaback".

A Dream

Halfway through the first Year of the Plus2 Program, when Sahara got used to email and chat with me
She told me of a Dream/Wish that She wanted to meet me and my Partner.
I told Her the Chance we would come to Nepal was not real because of my physical Condition
and sensitivity to certain Spices. But I had te same Dream of meeting my Protégé.

In November 2013 I found a possibility to get extra Sponsorship to fullfil the Dream.
It took till January 2014 to get the needed Budget to work it out, so then the extended Procedure started
to get the needed Paperwork like Passport, Visa and Ticket to have Sahara as Guest in the Netherlands.

To meet Sahara

The Invitation for Sahara was presented to her to accomplish three Goals:

first just to meet her,
second to help her in her Developement for Hotelmanagement and Tourism by being a Tourist
and last but not least
to give her the Recognition and Respect she deserved for working hard through her School up to SLC and beyond.

At the end of Class 11, the first Year of the Plus2 Program, Sahara promoted with good Results.
She was the only one in her Group that reached this Result in just one Try.

Her Visit

Then, in October 2014, Sahara came to Düsseldorf Airport where we picked her up for a Stay of several Weeks.
In these Weeks Sahara stayed with several of the Sponsors and she got to visit a Series of Tourist Attractions
like Rotterdam Harbour Tour, Hoensbroek Castle, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, the Beach in Zandvoort
and Dutch National Open Air Museum Arnhem.

Two special Activities she also performed are:

a Presentation to 4 Groups of Class 4 VWO/Gymnasium at Staring Institute in Lochem
and
a short Internship at Van der Valk Hotel with Avifauna in Alphen a.d. Rijn.

Bachelor

Following Sahara's Visit there was a series of Evaluations made about her Capabilities.
The professional Presentation at Staring Institute, combined with her attitude
and personality gave Room for a further Plan to enable her Wish for higher Education.
The Budget for this Plan could be realised with new Sponsors added to the Supportgroup.

Thanks to Staring with a significant Contribution and the Commitments of several Sponsors
the Supportgroup decided to help her through a further Plan to study
at the level of Bachelor in Hotelmanagement and Tourism.
For this Course her Institute of Choice was Silver Mountain School for Hotelmanagement.

To add extra help for this sponsoring click here to get Information how to donate.

Plus2 Exams

In 2015 Sahara was going to get her Final Exam of the Plus2 program
when the heavy Earthquakes of April and May 2015 hit Nepal.

Read more about todays Status of Saharas Study here or go to the Homepage.