We’re excited to bring you HERstory, a monthly series featuring our Unatti Girls as we aim to give each of them empowering opportunities to use their voice and become leaders within their community. 

This month we’re celebrating Puja! 

Puja was one of the first five girls who took up residence 17 years ago when we opened the Unatti Group Home for Girls in 2002. Throughout her long connection to the Unatti Foundation, Puja has served as a surrogate big sister to all of the girls.  In the words of Unatti’s founder, Stephanie, “What I love most about Puja is she has always been an incredible role model to her younger Unatti sisters. She has big dreams, a huge heart and a determined spirit.”

While Puja is always going to care for her little sisters, we’re proud that she has since graduated out of residency at the Unatti Home, and lives in Kathmandu with her aunt. Our programs are designed to make sure that after primary education is completed, our young girls are supported as they become mature and independent young adults with career paths that can sustain their independence, health and impact on the region.

As a perfect example of this strategic educational path, we are proud that with the support of our generous donors, we are able to provide Puja further financial support to study Environmental Sciences in college. She has an emphasis on Forestry, and is so passionate about it! She is at the top of her class and loves spending time in nature.  In her studies, she’s required to give presentations to all of her peers and is consistently showing up as a leader in her program. 

When asked to reflect on her University Experience so far, Puja wrote, 

“For a few months, I felt like studying nature is not something I want to do in clooege. But I went with the flow and decided to embrace this uncertain field of study.  In my first term, I topped my college ranking and that was when things actually started changing fo me and I felt the world rush in my veins. I started working harder and challenging myself to become more focused and driven. Ultimately, I started loving being in nature and practicing field work. I topped my college again in the 2^nd semester. The immense pride and joy I felt at that moment could not be explained in words. All these achievements have only encouraged me to do more and be grateful for the opportunities I have because of Unatti.”

We’re so proud of all that you’ve accomplished so far, Puja and can’t wait to see what the future holds for you!

This is a chance to experience genuine cultural immersion.

This is a 8 day journey May 8-16, 2019

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We will be immersed into the daily lives of our Unatti girls  | do community service activities | learn to cook traditional Nepali food | do yoga in the Himalayas | sight see the majestic beauty of the Kathmandu valley | go whitewater rafting | sight see 500 year old World Heritage Sights | fly over Mt Everest | all accompanied by our Unatti Girls.

Each day you can choose between multiple activities to get the most out of your time in Nepal, plus we have an excursions planned, a 2-3 days whitewater rafting/ camping trip.

COST OF THE JOURNEY 

$1000.00 per person donation to The Unatti Foundation.

Your donation will cover | airport pick up and return | group daily transportation | 24 hour support from our Unatti team | local guides | two group meals.

Each traveler will be responsible for | their own airfare | food and accommodations.

$525.00 per person is the cost of a 2-3 day all inclusive whitewater rafting excursion.

SIGHT SEEING STOPS

Boudhanath Stupa is the largest stupa in Nepal and the holiest Tibetan Buddhist temple outside Tibet. It is the center of  Tibetan culture in Kathmandu and rich in Buddhist symbolism.

Pashupatinath Temple The sacred Hindu temple complex that is located on the banks of the Bagmati River where you will witness sacred cremation rituals.

Swayambhunath Also known as Monkey Temple is perched atop a hill on the western edge of the Kathmandu Valley, and is Kathmandu’s most important Buddhist shrine.

DAILY VOLUNTEERING ACTIVITIES

Participate in our Enhancing Rural Schools Program, painting classrooms, creating libraries and preparing food for local school children.

Hygiene products distribution at a local brick factory.

Backpack & school supply distributions to needy children in local schools.

DAILY ADVENTURE ACTIVITIES

Early morning Mt Everest flight  | Clay therapy in Pottery Square | yoga in the Himalayas | 2 day trek in the Kathmandu Valley

Look how far we’ve come!

Some of the highlights of our accomplishments in 2018 include:

•We welcomed two new young girls Rashmi age 8 and Roshani age 10 into the Unatti Group Home for Girls.

•We are the first in our region to provide therapeutic mental health support in both individual and group therapy sessions on a weekly basis to all Unatti girls. We have already seen measurable emotional growth in our girls!

•We are covering the full cost of 6 girls who are enrolled in full-time professional and career colleges.

•We are providing subsidized housing for 5 graduates from our Unatti Group Home for Girls as they transition into adulthood and career paths.

•We continue to host free art classes for the children of Bhaktapur at Unatti Art & Music Center.

•We distributed backpacks and school supplies to 300+ students in rural schools.

•We have extended healthcare coverage and retirement savings funds to all full-time Nepali caregivers, staff and administrators.

•We hosted community workshops in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Girls Rights and distributed reusable menstruation kits.

•We have signed a new lease for our currently rented Unatti Home for an additional 6 years.

•Sangita, our eldest Unatti graduate is not only a licensed nurse and happily married to an young Nepali hydro-engineer, she gave birth to a beautiful and healthy baby boy. The young family is adjusting to the new addition, and Sangita is looking forward to returning to work at the hospital in a few months and her mother-in-law will look after the baby.

As always, we are thinking ahead and plan to continue this great work into 2019. As more of our girls graduate from primary and secondary school, we’ll continue to assist them through transitions to adulthood and careers to confirm and support their independence.

“My Name is Rita and I was born into a very poor family in Bhaktapur, Nepal. When I was 6 years old my father passed away and I stopped going to school so I could help my mother at her work. In 2007 the burden became too much for my mother, so I moved into the Unatti Group Home for girls.I always thought I would study to become a nurse, but my Unatti Anutie saw my love for numbers and my high marks in math, so she helped me apply to accounting college. I see a bright future as an accountant. I was surprised and humbled when Stephanie mother began talking to me about serving on the Unatti Nepal Board of Directors as trasurer. It makes me the most happy that I have the ability to give back to the foundation that I love so much. I am so honored to hold an official position where I am helping to determine Unatti’s mission and goals.  I will do everything I can to see that more girls get a chance for a great future, just like me.”

Clinical Psychology is taught only at the Master’s Level in Kathmandu. People with severe mental disorders and their family members are targets of stigma and discrimination in Nepali society. So we are overjoyed to have introduced counseling and group therapy in the Unatti Home.  All of our Unatti girls have experienced extreme situations of abuse, neglect and trauma and now under the watchful eye of Anita we are able to provide our girls with the therapeutic support they need for an even brighter future.

“Working at the Unatti Foundation has given me the opportunity to fulfill my vision and dream to make an impact in the social sector of Nepal. I get the opportunity to work with young women and help them be strong and live a dignified life. At Unatti we focus on developing leadership qualities so they can be educated, bold, ambitious and have the confidence in themselves to achieve their goals. I am so lucky to be working with a foundation that has already made such a great impact in these girls lives as well as the community that surrounds them, and I am committed to continue the great work of the Unatti Foundation.” – Anita

http://unattifoundation.org/product/the-october-music-festival-tickets/?mc_cid=929dd5d6b8&mc_eid=[UNIQID]

We invite you to join us on  June 25th 2017, from 4-8pm at the Lee Waisler Studio 516 Sunset Avenue Venice 90291 for a Nepalese Photography Exhibition Fundraiser and to enjoy delicious Himalayan food, have some cocktails, and hear about all of the wonderful things happening at the Unatti Foundation.

Earlier this year, we were honored to host a 10 day Photography Adventure Workshop throughout Nepal. Lead by Laura Grier – Adventure Photographer, Photo Anthropologist and Travel Writer – the group generously invited our girls to participate, capturing the beautiful Nepalese culture surrounding them. We are thrilled about this new collaboration that benefits each and every one of our girls and we are excited to share the wonderful artwork that transpired from it.   

We have so many beautiful images from this photography workshop, that we have decided to create a limited collection of Fine Art Prints for sale. All of the proceeds will go back to the Unatti Foundation.  

Please visit our online galley at: https://prints.ly/@lauragriertravel to preview the images in the show or purchase a photo online. 100% of photo profits will be donated to The Unatti Foundation.

About five years ago, we began the Unatti Handicraft Workshop in Nepal where we commission women artisans to create hand-made handicrafts that bring warmth to our lives and bring much-needed financial stability to our artisans. By ensuring their continued employment at fair-market wages, Unatti Handicrafts empowers these women to take care of their families and take a leadership role in the financial future of their children. Profits form the sale of each handicraft also help fund the education of the girls who live at the Unatti Group Home for Girls.

If you have recently checked out our new website, you may have noticed that we now feature the individual stories of our artisans alongside the items sold on the website. These are real relationships and this business is making a real impact.

A good education is unfortunately not a guarantee for success.

While graduates of the Unatti Group Home for Girls emerge with superior education, there are not enough jobs waiting for our talented young women in the Nepali workforce. We believe Unatti Handicraft will foster an entrepreneurial spirit and can provide employment for our Unatti girls, it is becoming a business for them to run, and teach them valuable business skills such as accounting, management, exporting, and inventory. These are not subjects taught in Nepalese classrooms, especially to women.

Every purchase makes a difference when you shop
UNATTI HANDICRAFTS

Namaste-
Stephanie Waisler-Rubin
Founder, Unatti Foundation

In the Los Angeles ares you can SHOP UNATTI HANDICRAFTS at

Tuesday Dec 6, 2016  10-2 PM
Wilshire Bl Temple Holiday Boutique
https://www.wbtla.org/holidayboutique

Wednesday Dec 7, 2016  9-3 PM
Valley Beth Shalom Encino
https://www.vbs.org/ecc-hanukkah-boutique

Friday Dec 9, 2016  4-8 PM
Viking Fund
Shop ‘Til you Drop Holiday Boutique
Supporting Samohi Athletic Booster Club
http://smbwc.org/contact/

Sunday Dec 11, 2016  9-12 PM
Leo Baeck Temple Holiday Sale
http://www.leobaecktemple.org/events/lbt-women-holiday-boutique/

Sunday Dec 11, 2016  9-2 PM
Temple Israel of Hollywood Boutique
http://www.tioh.org

Rachana joined the Unatti Group Home for girls after being placed in our care by the surviving members of her poverty-stricken family in Dhading. This extremely remote area in central Nepal has limited access to basic facilities that so many of us take for granted.
Rachana’s father has been struggling for many years with mental illness and is unable to provide support to her and her six siblings. The only existing working hand for the family is her mother, who due to malnutrition, is very physically weak and unable to do the hard labor jobs that have limited availability. Getting enough food for this family of eight is a daily, if not hourly, struggle.
Our newest sister has left these destitute circumstances and has found a strong and safe roof at the Unatti Group Home for Girls. She’ll experience a full belly every day, be stewarded through a new school by tutors and her house full of sisters, and will become a self-sufficient young woman who was given a second chance due to the support of donors like you.

We’d also love to introduce you to Kriti:

Kriti comes to us from within the walls of the Unatti Foundation’s own home base of Bhaktapur. The earthquake drastically affected her biological parents; they were forced to move into a small tent after their family home crumbled in the quake. Her father subsequently died from jaundice, leaving her disabled mother as the only breadwinner and caretaker for three children. With limited mobility and strength, Kriti’s mother has struggled to feed and raise her children in these conditions.
Fortunately, Kriti has been welcomed with open arms into the Unatti Group Home for Girls. Her mother will have less mouths to feed, Kriti will get a permanent and safe home, individualized educational tutoring, and a support group of sisters to help heal from all her recent trauma. We couldn’t be more grateful to the many supporters who joined the Unatti Family after the earthquake to be able to provide exactly this sort of sanctuary to victims of the quake in Bhaktapur and greater Nepal.

Today these girls have all graduated high school at the top of their classes and graduated out of The Unatti Group Home for Girls. Now living with a brother or an aunty, they have all found jobs and are either in collage or are applying to college and starting their independent lives.

With the support of the Unatti Foundation (and donors like you!), these brave young ladies will continue their higher education in college while simultaneously working to support themselves financially. Our support will continue to finance their education and provide each girl $500.00 US in a savings account to ensure that they have funds until they are fully financially independent.

This is a very strange and unfamiliar transition as our girls have lived most of their lives in the cushion and opportunity provided by the Unatti Group Home for Girls while their relatives have not. While our girls have been getting education, nutrition, and opportunity, their families have remained poverty stricken, uneducated laborers, earning barely enough to cover minimal living expenses.

“It has been 4 weeks since I moved out of the Unatti Group Home for Girls. I am living with my Auntie. It is hard with no daily schedule and no sisters around me. But I have learned so many life skill like taking the bus, going to the bank and organizing my time between work and school. I am very proud of myself for finding myself a job. I am making beading for a non-profit which give me a small income and a lot of flexible time so I can focus on my studies. I like it very much.  Each day I know I am well on their way to becoming more independent and functional in the world outside of the Unatti home.” – Puja age 20

Sangita, age 23, has completed nursing college and is working as a nurse at the Pokara Regional Hospital living wither her brother , sister in-law and there new baby. “ I am so happy to help people and when I get enough salary I will give some to The Unatti Foundation to support my younger sisters.”

Rita, age 20, is living with her sister and has a job at the high school she attended as an administrative assistant. “ I am so happy to see my little sisters at school every day even if I am not living with them.”

Junu age 20, is enroll in college in business management, living with her mother and brother and working as a receptionist at a tour company. “ I think I will one day have my own business, maybe in tourism, showing people the beauty of Nepal.”

No doubt their younger Unatti sisters are watching very closely, and will be influenced by their decisions and accomplishments.