The power of partnerships - COMO and St Catherine's visit

One of Mitrataa’s core values is networks and the power of partnerships. Over the last few weeks we have seen the wonderful magic that results from the strength of both.
 
COMO Ambassadors Visit

Every year, COMO selects a number of Ambassadors from its staff worldwide. The Ambassadors then choose one of COMO’s partners to visit. We were so fortunate this year to host 2 COMO Ambassadors – Ika from Malaysia and Judy from London. Judy and Ika spent 5 days with us, running various workshops and activities for our network of inspiring girls and women.

 

They taught sales and marketing techniques to our women’s network on Tuesday, made Malaysian traditional crafts with our Passion for Life girls on Wednesday, ran an intensive English workshop for 4 of our Dream Catchers scholarship girls and attended our 20^th Dream Centre graduation at the Wiley Dream Centre on Thursday, attempted to see the mountains at Nagarkot (sorry for the clouds, guys!) and helped us to run a “How to take control of your future” workshop for 35 of our older Dream Catchers scholarship girls in Bhaktapur on Friday and then hosted a Nepali New Year’s Eve Party with momos and games for the children of Bal Mandir on Saturday.

 

 

They were welcomed with open arms at each event – and they gave back their love and energy in equal parts. We thoroughly enjoyed having Judy and Ika with us – they immediately felt very much like part of the Mitrataa family and we welcome them back any time. Thank you both for everything.

 

COMO is a wonderful partner and we are very grateful for all of their support which is not only financial but equally importantly they help us to improve and grow as an organisation. We really enjoy working with them and hope to be given the opportunity to host more COMO Ambassadors in future.

 

St Catherine’s inspire our Dream Centre girls once more

 

Our partnership with St Catherine’s School in Sydney is one of our most successful, and a large part of that is thanks to the commitment, passion and energy of Sarah Hatch, the co-ordinator from the school who works tirelessly to fundraise for Mitrataa as well as to prepare and host the group of St Catherine’s girls every year. It is always a fun-filled and inspiring week when they visit and the group this year was no exception! They taught life skills in our Dream Centres over 3 days with topics varying from team work and motivation to how to work with the community to protect the environment. The week then ended with a celebratory picnic with games, friendship bracelets and a drama performed by our latest Dream Centre graduates. The Dream Centre girls hosted the picnic, showcasing their leadership skills as well as their enthusiasm for games and spending time with their new friends from St Catherine’s.

Our annual picnic with St Catherine’s is the highlight of our Dream Centre network’s year and they are already planning next year’s event! But it is not only the annual visit which makes our relationship with St Catherine’s so valuable. In addition to their fundraising support which we really appreciate, many of their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award students work with us as part of their community service element. This year, 3 girls from St Catherine’s plus Sarah Hatch helped us to launch the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (known as The International Award outside of Commonwealth Countries) for Mitrataa. We look forward to continuing this as our girls in Nepal embark on their International Award journeys also! Watch this space for news of our launch and our plans for the award in Nepal.

 

Thanks to our wonderful partners, COMO and St Catherine’s for your support in enabling us to empower the networks of amazing girls and women we work with in Nepal. We are excited about the possibilities for continuing to grow these partnerships in future!

 

We tailor all of our partnerships to ensure that they are mutual and that we build on each other’s strengths, passions and needs to create powerful, inspiring and fun-filled partnerships. If you or your company are interested in discussing a partnership with Mitrataa, please do not hesitate to let us know. We would love to work with you!