It’s always an exciting time of year when we welcome a new class of children to Kailash. They don’t know it yet, but their lives have just shifted forever.

Celebrating 20 years of Himalayan Youth Foundation

To know, to really understand life at Kailash Home is to live in her sounds. Bells ringing suddenly in the pre-dawn light. The steady chanting of morning prayers. A hundred chairs scraping the dining hall floor. The clanging of dishes being washed and stacked back on their shelves. The routine thud of basketballs on concrete. Birdsong from just outside the open windows. And always, always the laughter and shouts and chatter of the children. Life at Kailash is an unending symphony of happy, vibrant noise.

Our Kailash Kids recently had the opportunity for a special virtual call with astronaut and Space Kids Global founder Sharon Hagle.

It is officially one of my favorite times of the year. This is the season when we welcome a brand new set of children to Kailash Home and our HYF family! While in Nepal last month, I had the opportunity to personally greet our four new students and observed with great joy just how quickly they assimilated to life with the other children.

In this post Guest Writer and HYF Board Member/longtime Kailash Sponsor, Brad Blum reflects on his first visit to Nepal almost exactly 7 years ago.

“As I write to you, I’m transported back in time and flooded with memories from my very first trip to Nepal.”

My name is Jayang Wangdue Gurung. I hail from a tiny, isolated village in the Tibetan border regions of Dolpa, a district in the north Western region of Nepal that lacks broad access to schools, health services, and modern transportation. As a young child, I lived there with my young widowed mother and five siblings. I was told that my father had passed away a few months before my younger brother was born, leaving my mother destitute, and shortly after I was admitted to Kailash Home at age 7, my mother also passed away. Like many other children, Kailash became the only real home I’d ever known.

One of our top priorities in all of our projects is to provide all of our children with the best possible education from primary school up through vocational school or university. 🎓 It is our goal that each and every #KailashKid can go on to achieve whatever their dreams may be and in the process make their communities just a little bit better. 📚

You may remember that just a few short weeks ago we announced that we had not only met, but exceeded, the goal of our 2021 Annual Appeal! We are still feeling wonderfully overwhelmed by the generosity of our community, and we wanted to update you on exactly what we’ve already been able to do with those funds.

We are kicking off 2022 in the best way! Thanks to our community of supporters, friends, and donors around the world, we not only met, but exceeded the goal for our 2021 Annual Appeal.