Nine students of Baadi Community finally received the cash for scholarship funds from Punya Foundation US, that was committed last school year. A sum of Nepalese currency NRS 402,000 is handed over to Baadi Sarokar Manch: the organization shelters and protects the children of Baadi community from various hill districts of Karnali province.
Hikmat Bahadur Baadi, the president of the Baadi Sarokar Manch, received the funds from Punya Foundation Nepal. The Surkhet-based pressure group advocates for the social welfare of Baadi community, protects the vulnerable children and sends them to schools. Around 70 children are living in the hostel facility that the government built for them.
The scholarship funds cover most of essential components of education for selected children- clothing, medical, food, stationeries, residential needs etc. Online fundraising to support the children was launched in the US by Buddha Mani Dhakal on behalf of Punya Foundation US, who solicited thirty-two hundred dollars for the Baadi Children Education project. Chhabi Neopaney, a singer living in Cincinnati Ohio, donated his music album for the fundraising program.
Of the nine students who received scholarship funds, two are directly sponsored by Teknath Dhaurali, resident of Louisville, Kentucky.
These kids are from poor families, who lost either of the parents, or they are working as manual labourers in India, away from home. The youngest one, Pravesh Baadi, is just 7 years. Pravesh has an alcoholic father who makes living by doing seasonal labour.
These kids come from Dailekh and Jaajarkot districts.
Hikmat, the guardian of these students, solicits funding from local businesses, Nepalese living abroad, and partly from International non-governmental organizations based in Nepal. According to him, the monthly expense amounts to three hundred to four hundred thousand rupees. On any given day, at least 110 people need food.