Our involvement in South Asia began in 1999 when one of our board members saw an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. When he learned that it cost only about $100 to free a family who was bound in slavery, he traveled to Nepal and purchased the freedom of 42 families. Shortly thereafter, the government of this Himalayan nation officially banned slavery, freeing over 200,000 people! The problem now is that these families have their freedom, but literally nothing else – they are in extreme poverty. Therefore, Gateway to Nepal is partnering with local leaders to do basic community development for these newly freed men and women.

Currently:

• We’ve recently finished building a beautiful new school for the children, and we’d like to build more.
• We’ve helped many families purchase farmland, but now we need to help them irrigate the land by building wells. We are also installing two water treatment systems so entire villages have access to clean water.
• We would like to purchase one water buffalo for each family so that they can drink and sell its milk. This will help them earn about $1 per day to live on.
• We are giving these villagers microloans to start up a banana plantation to provide families with a source of income.

Your donations help us dig wells to irrigate the land and purchase water buffaloes to help make families financially independent. Each well costs about $1000 and each buffalo costs about $250. Water buffaloes provide approximately 4 liters of milk a day. One liter can be used to provide nutrition for the family’s children and the other 3 can be sold, providing families with sustainable financial support. Your donations also provide new school supplies for the children attending our school and go towards sponsoring teachers in the villages. Finally, your donations allow us to provide villagers with microloans to work towards their financial independence.