Meet Riva, our “sister-student” in the country of Nepalese. In each of the past nine years, Room 15 kids have committed to contributing their small change to see that a Nepalese child is able to attend school. Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world. Most children there are unable to attend school, but with our help, Riva can be an exception.

The cost to attend a quality school in Nepal is about $300 per year. That’s small change to Americans, for whom a public education is virtually guaranteed, but in Nepal that’s four months of income for the typical family.

Riva is a ten-year-old 5th grader from the village of Baglung. Her father is a farmer and she is one of five children. She is presently fourth in her academic class of thirty-nine students. Judging by her report card, she’s doing a particularly good job at Nepali (that’s like Language Arts for us) and Health/PE. She enjoys skipping rope and likes to run footraces with her friends. She wants to be a radiologist when she grows up. One of the reasons our Room 15 students selected Riva is because she’s a girl striving to become a professional. In Nepal, most girls’ aspirations are limited to becoming housewives.

Through a charity called ANSWER, Room 15 kids have been sponsoring students for each the past decade. Riva is our third. (For more on ANSWER, the Nepal Project, and some of our former sponsored-students, click here.) Twice a year we exchange correspondence and pictures. (Click here to see Riva’s most recent letter to us.)
At CPE we always have numerous fundraisers going on, but because the Nepal Project is unique to our classroom, we hope that families will be willing to drop their spare nickels, dimes, and quarters in the Nepal jar. If each of our students contributed just 25 cents per week, we will have more than enough to cover Riva’s tuition in Nepal. Thanks!