About Us
See Our GiftsOverview
The Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation (NYOF) is a U.S. based nonprofit organization devoted to bringing hope to the most destitute children in the beautiful but impoverished Himalayan country of Nepal. With a personal touch, we provide them with what should be every child's birthright - human rights, education, health care, housing, and loving support. Empowered to reach their potentials, these children blossom, enriching the world we all share.
Our partners in this work are private foundations and individuals around the world and non-governmental organizations in Nepal. Because dollars go far in Nepal, we can literally change lives for pennies a day.
Olga Murray founded the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation in 1990. She continues to lead NYOF's efforts to help extremely disadvantaged Nepali children.
Mission
NYOF transforms the lives of impoverished Nepali children by providing them with what should be every child's birthright – education, housing, medical care, and loving support.
NYOF's projects include:
The Indentured Daughters Program, which rescues girls from spending their childhoods bonded into virtual slavery and enables them to get an education.
Nutritional Rehabilitation Homes, which provide health care for severely malnourished Nepali children. While the children are restored to health, their mothers are trained in nutrition and child care.
J and K House, NYOF's excellent children's homes which provide loving environments for some of Nepal's most destitute children.
Scholarships for students from busy Kathmandu to rural and remote villages. NYOF supports the education of children in primary school, boarding schools, and college, as well as disabled students. NYOF also funds the construction of new schools and trains new teachers.
Psychological counseling and vocational training for children in need.
History
When Olga Murray first saw the terribly impoverished condition of the children in the villages, she resolved that she would return to help them. She began giving scholarships to disabled children who had no way of getting to school in their villages, and needed to come to Kathmandu for boarding school. As the number of scholarships grew, she decided it was time to start a foundation that would help these kids in an organized way.
In 1990, she founded the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation (NYOF) to provide the most impoverished children of Nepal with what should be every child’s birthright - education, housing, medical care, and loving support. NYOF leverages the monies from developed countries to maximize the aid for these children. Olga still leads NYOF, spending half of each year in Nepal overseeing the organization’s projects, and the remainder at her home in Sausalito, California, raising funds for NYOF’s programs. The scope of her outreach and the number of children she helps have increased dramatically every year.
Program
Nutritional Rehabilitation Homes
Imagine a child seriously malnourished – unresponsive and pitifully frail. Jump to six weeks later; picture a bouncing, happy child with a parent now educated in child nutrition, hygiene and care. NYOF funds and manages residential rehabilitation centers for severely malnourished children throughout Nepal, which have rescued thousands of children. The children and their mothers come to live at these centers, where we restore the child’s health while educating the mother in child care, including preparation of nutritious meals, using foods readily available in rural Nepal. Our field workers later follow up in the villages.
Liberating Girls from Indentured Servitude
Unable to make ends meet, thousands of families in rural Nepal have been forced into a desperate trade – selling their daughters, some as young as six, to work in faraway cities as bonded servants. The situation is tailor-made for abuse. Many of the girls never return home, some of them forced into prostitution. Very few of the girls attend school. The fathers receive an average of $50 a year for their daughters’ services, and the girls get nothing. The families don’t want to sell their daughters, but they can’t do without the income.
NYOF helps parents bring their daughters home from the city and provides a tiny piglet or goat which the families can raise and sell for the same amount their daughters would have earned. We then pay all expenses for the girls to attend the local school. These girls are usually the first females in their families to receive an education! This program also has a micro-lending component, which instructs the mothers on starting their own businesses. Thousands of girls, newly freed and empowered, now attend school under NYOF’s auspices. There are thousands more we want to rescue.
J & K House
NYOF operates two homes for 40 children: J House and K house. These children are the most vulnerable among those we help. They were orphans, living on the streets, or were abandoned by their parents. Others are disabled. We shower love and attention on these kids and provide their living, educational, and medical expenses. We commit for the long term and give them what is usually the first real sense of security in their lives. Most of the children are sponsored by donors, who often become quite close to the child, even from afar.
Scholarships
NYOF intervenes at critical points to make education possible for children who have no other hope. We support thousands of youngsters from kindergarten through medical school. Our students attend private and government schools in busy Kathmandu and in rural villages that are often more than a day’s walk from any road. We also train teachers and improve schools.
Impact
The Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation brings together the best of two worlds—the professionalism and financial resources of generous donors in the "developed world," and the opportunity to dramatically improve the lives of destitute children in the "developing" world.
NYOF is a non-profit organization based in Sausalito, California, on the edge of the San Francisco Bay. From there we raise funds and provide fiscal and other oversight for our programs in Nepal. Hundreds of individual donors and volunteers, private foundations, and local businesses support these efforts. Thousands of children benefit.
We stay small and flexible. Our programs are carried out in Nepal by a highly qualified Nepalese staff. Olga Murray, the founder and president of NYOF, spends half of each year in California, and half in Kathmandu. In Nepal, we work closely with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), communities, families, and, of course, lots of kids—who astonish us every day with their ability to overcome their difficult pasts.
CEO
Olga Murray graduated with honors from Columbia University and received her law degree from George Washington University in 1954. Although there were very few women lawyers at that time and most law firms would only hire a female lawyer as a secretary, Olga was offered the first job for which she applied - as a staff attorney to the Chief Justice of California. She worked for the State Supreme Court until her retirement in 1992. During her time there, Olga helped write important decisions in the areas of children’s issues and women’s rights.
Olga first visited Nepal in 1984. After seeing the terribly impoverished condition of the children in the villages, she resolved that she would return to help them. She began giving scholarships to disabled children who had no way of getting to school in their villages, and needed to come to Kathmandu for boarding school. As the number of scholarships grew, she decided it was time to start a foundation that would help these kids in an organized way.
In 1990, she founded the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation (NYOF) to provide the most impoverished children of Nepal with what should be every child’s birthright - education, housing, medical care, and loving support. NYOF leverages the monies from developed countries to maximize the aid for these children. Olga still leads NYOF, spending half of each year in Nepal overseeing the organization’s projects, and the remainder at her home in Sausalito, California, raising funds for NYOF’s programs. The scope of her outreach and the number of children she helps have increased dramatically every year.
Board
Totton Heffelfinger (Assistant Secretary and Assistant Treasurer) was vice president, general counsel, and secretary of Kaiser Cement Company, as well as an adjunct professor at the law schools of the University of California and the University of San Francisco.
Yale Jones (Secretary) was a partner in Jones, Clifford, McDevitt and Johnson in San Francisco. In 1967 and 1968 he taught high school in Kenya with the U.S. Peace Corps. He has taught for the California Continuing Education of the Bar.
Ian Coats MacColl is Vice President of Research and Design at Wham-O. He was the managing director of IDEO San Francisco, and was the founding president of Inventures. Ian is also an associate professor at the California College of the Arts.
Lori Perlstadt is Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at M2 Inc. Lori has also acted as Sr. Director of Business Development at Pacific Telesis and as Director of Marketing for Royal Robbins, Inc.
Mike Preiss (Chairman) currently works at Cisco as Director, Corporate Development. He has spent nearly 25 years as a management consultant, advising major corporations on how to improve their operational performance.
Steve Fox (Treasurer) has more than 15 years experience helping companies operate more efficiently. He is the Controller of Zocalo. He is on the board of directors of Imago Products. He has performed volunteer work in Kenya, Africa and Thailand.
Haydi Sowerwine worked for IDEO, with her husband David. In 1991, she and David moved to Nepal, where they formed their own company, EcoSystems in 1996. Their products include a bridge for the rural areas of Nepal and a human powered generator and electricity distribution system.
Countries of Operation
Nepal
States
California
Contact
3030 Bridgeway, Suite 123
Sausalito, CA 94965-2810
Phone: (415) 331-8585
http://www.nyof.org
EIN: 68-0224596
A Gift Card
Basic Needs
Community
Countries and Regions
Education
Give counseling
Therapy for a child
This gift provides a psychological counseling session to a child in Nepal who needs counseling but cannot afford it. This child may be an orphan, or may have been abandoned or abused by his or her family. In order to meet the extreme shortage of pyschological counseling in Nepal, NYOF has established the Ankur Counselinc Center. Ankur provides counseling to children in need without charging...
$3100 $31.00
Give books to kids
For 1 Nutritional Home
This gift will provide much-needed educational books for severely emaciated children while they are restored to good health at one of NYOF’s Nutritional Rehabilitation Homes (NRH) in Nepal. Children stay at these small home-like hospitals under supervision of nurses, a nutritionist, and a doctor, for about five weeks, until they are restored to full weight and good health. During this time, the children's mothers will...
$1800 $18.00
Provide Education
For a former servant
This gift will support a girl in Nepal who has been rescued from a childhood spent in virtual slavery as a servant in a house or a dishwasher in a tea shop, far from home. In addition to protecting her human rights, your gift will enable her to attend school for one year, possibly for the first time in her life. It will pay for...
$2000 $20.00
Give Medicine
For a former servant
This gift will provide much-needed medicine for one severely emaciated child while they are restored to good health at one of NYOF’s Nutritional Rehabilitation Homes (NRH) in Nepal. The child will stay at one of these small home-like hospitals, under supervision of nurses, a nutritionist, and a doctor, for about five weeks, until they are restored to full weight and good health. During this time,...
Give a Piglet/Goat
To save a bonded girl
This gift will help to rescue a girl in Nepal from virtual slavery as a servant in a house or a dishwasher in a tea shop, far from home. In addition to protecting her human rights, it will provide her family with a piglet or goat which they can raise and sell for the same amount their daughter would have earned. By giving the girl's...
$1900 $19.00
Give Education!
One rural scholarship
This gift will provide the opportunity of education to an impoverished child in rural Nepal who has no other way to pay the school fees. It also provides the child’s school uniform, books, and other supplies. This child may be the first in their family to receive an education. The cost—$75 a year per child—is an incredible investment. An education will best prepare these youngsters...
$7500 $75.00
Save a Hungry Child
End malnutrition
This gift will enable one severely emaciated child to stay at one of NYOF’s Nutritional Rehabilitation Homes (NRH) in Nepal. They will stay at one of these small home-like hospitals, under supervision of nurses, a nutritionist, and a doctor, for about five weeks, until they are restored to full weight and good health. The gift will also enable the child’s mother to stay with them...
$34000 $340.00
Save a Bonded Girl
One year of school
This gift will rescue a girl in Nepal from a childhood spent in virtual slavery as a servant in a house or a dishwasher in a tea shop, far from home. In addition to protecting her human rights, your gift will enable her come home to live with her family and pay for her to attend school for one year, probably for the first time....
$10000 $100.00