Tag Archives: maggie doyne

A New School Year and New Surprises at Kopila Valley!

Kopila Valley students Goma, Kalpana, and Ganga smile for the camera!

Kopila Valley students Goma, Kalpana, and Ganga smile for the camera!

Although the new school year started just slightly over a month ago for students at Kopila Valley Children’s Home in Surkhet, Nepal, the school has been filled with a flurry of activities! The “newest little kopilas” – as they’re affectionately called by the school’s founder, Maggie Doyne – are enjoying classes, playtime and making new friends. Seven new teachers also joined the school and big plans are on the horizon for Kopila Valley’s school and health clinic!

Though the school grounds are filled with lots of smiles and back-to-school excitement, Kopila Valley has been dealing with water shortages and no electricity or Internet as Nepal worked to meet its May 27th deadline to finalize the country’s new constitution. According to Maggie, this left the school, and country, in shutdown mode. During Kopila Valley’s first full school week, the country was facing several days of political strike, meaning several days of school not being in session. Though the well has been a saving grace for everyone at the school, keeping so many children occupied for days of extreme heat and no power has proven to be quite a challenge. The students distracted themselves with an ultimate Frisbee match, scavenger hunts, singing during music month and of course, schoolwork.

As if all of this activity wasn’t enough, Kopila Valley made a huge announcement in mid-May. After years of searching, the school finally purchased their dream plot of land for the future and permanent site of Kopila Valley School! Tucked in a valley amidst fruit trees and fertile land, Surkhet’s first sacred temple, and a farmhouse, the location is perfect. The new construction will allow Kopila Valley to expand and offer 9th and 10th grade. In her blog post, Maggie writes, “We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us and a lot of big dreams for the future . . . I am so excited for Kopila Valley and honored that I get to keep living my dream each day, doing what I love and bearing witness to the children blooming before my very eyes.”

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Guess What’s Happening at Kopila Valley!

Celebration room

The room is packed at Kopila Valley's anniversary celebration!

As our blog readers know, we’re all about the “firsts” here. However, today I’m writing about a “second” that She’s the First is thrilled to share.  On Christmas Day, Kopila Valley School celebrated its second anniversary! A beautiful celebration filled with butterfly songs, bird dances, colorful streamers and balloons, the students and supporters in Nepal gathered round to commend the wonderful work of Kopila Valley.  The highlight of the ceremony was a moving speech by Deepa Nepail, a young student who is filled with strength, courage, and grace.  Over the summer, Deepa was diagnosed with advanced lupus.  Despite her diagnosis, Deepa attends school daily and shines brightly at Kopila Valley.  In her speech, Deepa reflected on the blessings that Kopila Valley brings and the hard work of her peers.  She finished her speech with this note, “We Kopila children feel lucky that we get this amazing opportunity to study in this school.  We love our school and we are soooo proud of it.  We are the Kopila Children and we are blooming like flowers!!!”  Maggie Doyne, the school’s founder, shared Deepa’s speech in its entirety on her blog here.

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She’s the First Success Story Premieres on NBC!

This commercial, which aired during the Notre Dame football game on NBC yesterday, is one of the most powerful two minutes I’ve ever watched:

You’ll recognize Lindsay Brown, of course! She’s the creator of the first tie-dye cupcake bake sale for She’s the First, which sponsored the three girls in Nepal whom she visited on this trip–when she created the first girls’ soccer team at Kopila Valley School.

Lindsay’s cupcake sale exactly one year ago inspired the Tie-Dye Cupcake Bake-Off this past November 1-8, for which 100 teams signed up! The grand fundraising total is still being tallied, but I can tell you this: It’s no chump change. We’ll announce later this week!

So, what do you fight for? She’s the First is proud to fight for girls’ right to an education and their opportunity to break barriers and be a “first”…with all of you, I feel like we’ve created quite an all-star team to fight in the most creative, productive, and peace-building way possible.

Thank you, Maggie Doyne, for working so tirelessly on a school and building a community of deserving children for us to support. Thanks to Maddie Fox, the NCAA-winning womens’ soccer team at ND, and She’s the First*{Notre Dame} for helping to make this small idea so huge, and thank you, Notre Dame, for bringing millions of hearts to Surket, Nepal. You never know where it will lead…hopefully to many more sponsorships, and in turn, girls who are the first to graduate!

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Kopila Valley Wins Prestigious Award!

She’s the First is honored to congratulate its latest first!  The Kopila Valley Children’s Home in Nepal is our first partner school to be awarded the 2011 Norman Borlaug Humanitarian Award.  This award, named for Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Norman Borlaug, is given annually to humanitarians committed to changing the world.  In addition to this outstanding honor, Maggie was awarded a $100,000 contribution from MedAssets.

Maggie has already been named 2009’s Do Something! Grand Prize Winner, CosmoGirl of the Year, and has been featured in the New York Times’ Magazine.  Now, one more tremendous award can be added to the growing list of the Kopila Valley’s supporters!

Even though she was in Las Vegas to accept the awards, Maggie still made time to say goodnight to the Kopila Valley children over skype.  Between celebrating two birthdays and welcoming new students into the start of the new school year, it goes without saying that Maggie and the Kopila team stays busy!  To read more about the honors, adventures, and new students of Kopila, check out Maggie’s blog.

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4 Directory Partners, 1 Week!

It was an unprecedented week for She’s the First! We have the honor of meeting up with leaders/founders of four of our nine partners in the She’s the First Directory. Follow along, and as we better understand the needs of these amazing sponsorship programs, find out how you can help!

Christen Brandt, Ashley Shuyler, Tammy Tibbetts

First visit: Ashley Shuyler, Founder of AfricAid & the Kisa Project, Tanzania

Bourbon Coffee on 14th Street

We gave Ashley the copies of Arianna Huffington’s personally autographed On Becoming Fearless books, to bring to Elizabeth, Grace, and Happiness, our Kisa Scholars, in Tanzania. We talked about how the Kisa Project is doubling in size and what a social media literacy workshop for the girls might entail, if we were given the opportunity to travel and teach it. Currently, the Kisa Scholars log into a ning-like social network where they correspond with their sponsors and upload pics.

How can you help? Have expertise or interest on teaching workshops or social media skills to youth? Email us!

Second visit: Maggie Doyne, Founder of Kopila Valley Children’s Home & School in Nepal
The Hummus Kitchen on 9th Ave and 51st St.

This is the first time we met Maggie, which considering her busy schedule, was a privilege! She is visiting the States until June to help grow the 501c3 that supports Kopila Valley, BlinkNow.org. We talked about how video storytelling could power more sponsorships, helping Maggie reach her goal of enrolling 1,000 students into school this Fall.

How can you help? Are you savvy with video editing and scripting? Might you want to travel to Nepal this summer to be part of the film crew? Can you recommend film experts/videographers to advise us? Email us!

Third visit: Arlington Academy of Hope (Uganda) Team in DC & Virginia — beneficiaries of GIRLS WHO ROCK 2011!

John Wanda

On Saturday, Christen Brandt & Tammy Tibbetts will megabus-it to DC to meet Dan Gardner, the Executive Director of Arlington Academy of Hope in Uganda, as well as Carol and Bill Burke, two Board members, for lunch. We’ll then hop over to the home of the founders, native Ugandans John and Joyce Wanda, for dinner with their family.

How can you help? Follow @GirlsWhoRockNY & like GIRLS WHO ROCK on Facebook so you stay informed on the concert & online fundraising!

Fourth visit: Shanti Bhavan Children’s School Volunteer Natasha Khanna (India)

Natasha Khanna, She's the First guest blogger, volunteering at the Shanti Bhavan school in India

After hearing the first-hand stories of @AAHUganda, we’ll stay the night at the home of Natasha Khanna, Shanti Bhavan volunteer and She’s the First guest blogger! Natasha recently returned home from teaching at Shanti Bhavan, where she worked directly with Jancy, the 11th-grader we sponsor as a result of the She’s the First Soiree on November 1.

How can you help? Leave comments on Jancy’s letters to She’s the First, and organize your own dinner party, cupcake sale, or mini fundraiser to support a girl’s sponsorship at Shanti Bhavan. Post this video on your wall to show how She’s the First supporters really can make a difference.

Follow @shesthefirst on our adventures, and tweet us questions you want us to ask @AAHUganda & Natasha!

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Poems from Girls at the Kopila Valley Childrens’ Home in Nepal

After the heartfelt poems from Shanti Bhavan students in India, we received poems from girls at the Kopila Valley Children’s Home & School in Nepal to add to Poetry Month! She’s the First most notably sponsors four girls in the Kopila Valley program, through the tie-dye cupcake bake sales of the women’s soccer team at Notre Dame, as well as the yard sale & coin collection fundraiser of NJ teen Mackenzie Olsen.

Enjoy, and please share your reactions in the comments so they can be shared with Kopila Valley Children’s Home & School Founder Maggie Doyne and her girls. (Don’t forget to tweet your own #stfpoem verses, too!)

White Cloud

by Nisha

I saw a white cloud floating by in the sky

Nisha

She was looking down on me saying hi

I told her to come take me for a ride.

She said sorry my dear, you need to stay behind.

You have so much to learn,

You have so much to do.

The world is at your fingertips.

Just waiting for you.

But why can’t I come too? I asked.

To learn all of those things with you?

Because you need to go to school,

And wear your uniform, and shine your shoes.

There are books to read

And sums to add

Little girls look good in plaid.

That’s where little girls need to be.

In school learning, you see.

Okay I said.

I will learn all there is to learn in the world.

And then I’ll go far away.

Up in the clouds.

With you.

Today

by Janak

Today is a day to play

Today is a day to win.

Today is a day to get started.

Come on!  Let’s practice the game

In the big field

In the sunny weather.

Today is a day to win.

I hope that we will win. Continue reading →

Posted in Kopila Valley Children's Home and School, Voice Your Verse | Tagged | 4 Comments

Inspiration for Sponsoring a Girl in Nepal: Maggie Doyne

Maggie Doyne and the Kopila Valley Children's Home graced the homepage of the nytimes.com today!

She’s the First is thrilled to report that Maggie Doyne, founder of the Kopila Valley Children’s Home and School, was just featured in the NY Times Magazine and on the homepage of nytimes.com this morning!

Well-deserved! We are so proud because Maggie’s school is in our directory,  one of our carefully selected partner programs of where you can sponsor a girl. In his article “D.I.Y. Foreign-Aid Revolution,” Nicholas Kristof applauded the efforts of young women like Maggie who are “driven by a passion to create a better world…in particular, a better world for women.”

After high school graduation, Maggie embarked on a “gap year” to work with impoverished children in India, and then traveled to a rural Himalayan village that changed her life.  In this village, Maggie found that school was a luxury most children couldn’t afford.  She befriended a young Nepalese girl named Hema who couldn’t attend school. Maggie resolved to pay for Hema’s education.  For just $15, Maggie sent Hema to kindergarten and asked herself, “If I can help one girl, why not five?  Why not 10?”  In a life-changing move, Maggie telephoned her parents and asked them to send her life-savings to Nepal.  Immediately, Maggie began working with locals to construct an orphanage in rural Nepal.  In just a few months, Maggie raised $25,000 to continue construction.  After winning the DoSomething.org $100,000 grand prize and being named CosmoGirl of the Year, Maggie’s efforts quickly became nationally recognized.

At just 23, Maggie is now fluent in Nepalese and serves as principal and founder of a school that houses 200 young Nepalese children.  If you’re moved by Maggie’s story and would like to sponsor a young girl at the Kopila Valley Children’s Home, visit http://shesthefirst.org/directory.  For just $300, you can help empower a community by educating a girl.

Journalist Nicholas Kristof, who wrote the article, has been a long-time advocate of girls’ education in the developing world.  In the phenomenal book he wrote with his wife Sheryl Wudunn — Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity — he hopes to instill in readers the idea that “the best way to fight poverty and extremism is to educate and empower women and girls.”  Last month, I attended New York Women in Communications’ “A Conversation with Nicholas Kristof” event and book-signing with She’s the First President Tammy, where we were able to make a brief introduction to Mr. Kristof. Next up, a few She’s the First team members will be attending his lecture at Syracuse University on November 3rd and have the chance to meet him!

Read the full article on Maggie’s amazing work here. Maggie, we will continue to do all we can to support you. We hope to bring many more sponsors your way — Mackenzie Olson was the first!

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Jessica Posner Wins the 2010 Do Something Award!

Jessica Posner wins the jackpot $100,000! Woo hoo, it's like our team won the Super Bowl!

Jessica Posner wins the jackpot $100,000! Woo hoo, it's like our team won the Super Bowl!

What is it that would cause me to almost scream out of joy and wake my entire house up at 10:59pm on a Monday night??? JESSICA POSNER WINNING THE DO SOMETHING AWARD! (since I couldn’t scream in my house I figured I would take advantage of the digital scream through caps lock)! This makes two years in a row that She’s the First partners have won the Do Something Award. Last year’s grand prize award recipient, Maggie Doyne, creator of the BlinkNow Foundation, was on hand for the evening’s festivities. Including, Ashley Shuyler of AfricAid, a 2007 Do Something Finalist, we now have 3 DoSomething Award honorees in our network! We are so proud of all of the work that they’re all doing towards furthering the education of girls worldwide. A big congrats goes out to Jessica! Live it up and enjoy the fruits of your labor! You deserve it!!!

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New School, New Beginnings at Kopila Valley Children's Home

Girls at the Kopila Valley Primary School look out the window on their second day of school

Girls at the Kopila Valley Primary School look out the window on their second day of school

One of my favorite parts of working with She’s the First is hearing school and student updates — which is why I’m ecstatic to be able to share with you this news: The Kopila Valley Primary School officially opened its doors! Two weeks ago today, on June 7, the school for the Kopila Valley Children’s Home in Nepal kicked off the school year.
The school building is designed with all local materials, mainly bamboo, and Maggie Doyne, founder, tells us that the curriculum will be innovative, going beyond traditional Nepali teaching techniques. They’re training local teachers to instruct in exciting and experimental ways, using lots of art, music, and theatre. Check out Maggie’s slideshow of the first day — I promise it will tug at your heartstrings.

The new school has a ton of after-school programs lined up, including sports, tutoring sessions, poetry programs, dance, and theatre performances. These programs, and the school’s facilities — including a library, computer lab, and health clinic — will be open to all children of Surkhet, not just students of Kopila Valley Primary. The school impacts the whole community in positive ways.

This year, the school will admit 250 orphan, abandoned, or handicapped children from throughout the Surkhet Valley. If you’d like to help support, you can find more info in our directory. And if you’d like to follow Maggie’s story, check out her blog.

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Selling Her American Girl Dolls & Sponsoring a Nepali Girl

Mackenzie at her yard sale!

As we count down nine days to our GIRLS WHO ROCK benefit concert, the Twitter buzz builds, tickets are selling, the emails fire away…but as on-track as our plans may be, there’s always going to be a little stress. You know what melts all worries away? Reminders that She’s the First strikes a chord with young women and drives them to take their own action for girls around the world. The latest evidence comes from the blog of 13-year-old Mackenzie Olson, who we first wrote about when she collected change in her community to sponsor a girl in Maggie Doyne’s Kopila Valley Children’s Home.

Mackenzie was back in action to finish the $200 she needed for her sponsorship, by hosting an “All Things Girly” yard sale, selling old childhood toys. We congratulate Mackenzie on her success and hope you do too. She’s a shining star! In her blog, she writes:

“There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few that will catch your heart. Pursue these.” Michael Nolan’s words are so true and She’s the First http://www.shesthefirst.org/ has truly captured my heart. She’s the First is a grassroots campaign that helps to enable girls in developing nations to have a better future with an education thru their online directory of schools with sponsorship programs.

We in America take for granted our public education, while in developing nations some girls never have the option to attend school. With an education these girls can overcome poverty, grow up to be leaders and better their world. With our help a young girl may in turn become the first in her family to graduate, the first female president of her country or even the first to discover a life saving drug. It’s possible that She’s the First but only with our help and every girl deserves the chance to be the first!

My personal mission is to help a young girl in Nepal who is living in the Kopila Valley Children’s Home. In 2007, Maggie Doyne of Mendham, New Jersey started construction on the Kopila home, in the town of Surkhet, that she built on a piece of land bought with $5,000 she had saved babysitting during high school. The vision of the home is to “sustain and improve the quality of life and the future for children of Nepal.”

How was I going to raise the money to see my mission through was my next question. With a little help from my mom, we came up with a project “Pocket Change for Change.” I figured we all have a little spare change jiggling in our pockets so why not put some collection boxes in local businesses. My good friends at Red Carpet Prom and Pageant allowed me to put one of my boxes at their register during Prom season. Wireless Electronics had one at their Berlin location and thanks to a special supporter, Janet Shaw, Kabuki Salon also had a box on display.

However, I had not raised enough money so I put my thinking cap on and decided to have a charity yard sale. “All Things Girly” was a huge success and I was excited to have my mentor, Kaitlin Davis drop by. Although I was sad to see all my American Girl dolls and clothes go I was happy to know that the money was going to a good cause.

I am proud to say that with the help from my “own village” and complete strangers I have raised enough money to start my sponsorship. I can’t wait to see who my new friend will be and start writing back and forth with her. My hope is to continue to sponsor her year after year helping this young girl become and educated young women.

By the way, I am the first in my family to speak German!

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