Every Share Helps!

Originally published September 2010.

As I walked out of the village in Nepal for the final time, hand-in-hand with 7 year old Sorbina, I wondered who was leading whom. I had just endured one of the most emotional goodbyes of my life, leaving a community that has welcomed me without hesitation. In just six weeks, Jarang has become home.

Sorbina is a more recent addition to the village than even us. Ganga, her uncle and the unspoken village leader, adopted her and her sister, Soppana, two weeks into our stay. Her mother was recently abandoned by her husband and could not provide for her daughters. Luckily for the girls, Ganga welcomed them into his family fold as if they were his own children. It has been a difficult transition for Sorbina at such a young age. She is navigating the dynamics of another family, going to a different primary school, and making new friends.

And yet, as the tears continued to stream down my cheeks after my own gut-wrenching goodbye, it was her hand that wrapped around mine in a gesture of compassion. It broke and warmed my heart simultaneously, if that’s possible.

At Edge of Seven, we place volunteers in projects around the world that aim to improve education, health, and economic opportunity for girls like Sorbina. We believe that investing in girls and women is the best strategy to end global poverty. This summer, a team of twenty international volunteers, including me, worked side-by-side villagers to rebuild a collapsing primary school in rural Nepal. Over the course of six short weeks, we built a new campus for the children of Jarang. But more importantly, we became a part of the community.

We lived like locals with Nepali host families. For a brief moment, we saw life through their eyes. We slept on board beds, showered with buckets of cold water drawn from community taps, and ate rice and vegetables twice a day. We made do without electricity for weeks on end. We dug trenches, carried rocks, and mixed batches of cement by hand. We watched a plot of dirt transform into a foundation, a frame, and then finally, a school.

On my final day in the village, I welled up every time I looked at what we had created. It was far more than just a school. It was the signal of change in a poor village that had been overlooked. It was the investment in a generation to give them the confidence to be what they want to be when they grow up. It was the sense of community forged between strangers from different walks of life. In the end, I discovered that the people of Jarang gave us far more than we could ever give them. They taught us that happiness can be found without money, that family and friendship gives you strength, and that a community with a united goal can conquer all.

This fall, we are headed back to Nepal! We are building a 15 room hostel, a boarding-house, for the ladies of the Solukhumbu. Seven out of every 10 girls in the Everest region don’t get to go to college because of a lack of affordable housing for girls.

With your help, we can change that.

Edge of Seven will begin construction on a women’s hostel in the district capital of Salleri, which will house 50 college-bound girls from rural areas where higher education is not available. Want to help?

Volunteer for two weeks (or more) in Nepal! Donate today to help us raise $22,500 to fund the materials needed for the project. For more information about volunteering or donating, email erin@edgeofseven.org or go to www.edgeofseven.org and click on the program section of the website.

“Young people often ask us how they can help address issues like sex trafficking or international poverty. Our first recommendation to them is to get out and see the world.”
–Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky

Go.

Erin Guttenplan, the founder of Edge of Seven, is passionate about international service. For the last decade, she has held seven different roles with EF Education, the world leader in international education. After recently volunteering for five months in Asia, Erin saw an opportunity. She saw a movement that has been dubbed The Girl Effect. She met agents of social change ready to serve. She imagined the potential in connecting the two. Erin has traveled to 27 countries on five continents and hopes to conquer all seven soon.