Sharing our gifts with the world!



Simon (left) and Chitiz showing their passion for dance

As you know, at Mitrataa we believe every single one of us has a gift to offer the world – we just have to find it, practise it (not such a challenge when it is something we enjoy doing!) and work out how to share it to inspire others.  

 

With the children we work with in Nepal, we work with them to identify their gifts, passions and strengths, and then we build on these. Simon for example, is a natural dancer. It is his way of expressing himself and he does it beautifully. Sabitri has the most incredible voice. It is a privilege to listen to her sing (unfortunately her current favourite songs are all One Direction!). Rebina loves to draw and can often be found sketching. Each child is different – but each has a gift. Once we identify these gifts, encouraging the children to develop these gifts also provides motivation for them with their studies and dealing with other challenges in life. It builds their resilience and their confidence.

 

Sabitri opens her heart through her singing

The same principle applies with fundraising, which is why we set our supporters our Passion Challenge – to use your passion or strengths to raise money for Mitrataa, and build your resilience and confidence at the same time. This is exactly what Aidan has been doing. He will be visiting us in Nepal in March with his father, Myron. Aidan is a passionate 14-year old basketballer. So what better way to raise money than to shoot hoops? And so he set himself a challenge – he would shoot one hoop for each dollar donated to Mitrataa. He has already exceeded his target of $1,000 and is preparing to shoot his 1,000 hoops soon. But let’s challenge him to shoot even more – there is still time to donate and raise his total. You can donate online at:

https://give.everydayhero.com/au/shooting-hoops-for-mitrataa

 

 

 

So what are you doing to discover your special gift, your talents, strengths and passions? Don’t keep them to yourselves. Share them with the world. And if you need an excuse, you can take our Passion Challenge and raise money for us at the same time, exactly as Aidan has. Have fun! And thanks so much, Aidan. Can’t wait to have you with us here in a few months!

 

Aidan practises for his "Shooting Hoops for Mitrataa" Passion Challenge

 

 

Passionate Success – the first Humani’Trail raises money in Switzerland to support Mitrataa and other organisations in Nepal

I am so lucky to have some amazing experiences working with Mitrataa. Last week was no exception. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to say a huge THANK YOU to 4 very important members of the Mitrataa family – Cedric, Sophie, Atal and Cedric’s mother.

Let me explain! I first met Cedric and Sophie in 2011 when they adopted their son, Atal, from Bal Mandir Children’s Home, which we were managing at the time. The universe is very clever and Cedric and Sophie are the perfect parents for Atal – they are very active and Atal NEVER stops!

About this time last year, I set all of our supporters the Passion Challenge – to raise money to support Mitrataa using one of their passions. Cedric, Sophie and Atal took up the challenge and this September they successfully hosted the first Humani’Trail. In Cedric’s words:

“Humani’Trail has been deeply inspired by Mitrataa’s program : “Passion Challenge”. The idea was to raise funds through a common passion, ours is Trail running. The link between this sport and Nepal is already very strong due to the geography but also thanks to our friend Dawa Dachiri Sherpa from Solukhumbu in Nepal who is an icon in his discipline with several major wins for the past 15 years and also participated twice to Winter Olympic Games where he was the first representative for Nepal. Based on these points, we decided to find a municipality in Switzerland ready to host a new race that will donate 100% of registration fees to humanitarian projects (Mitrataa being one of them). Very quickly, we got a very positive relationship with ‘Les Diablerets’, an alpine village 80km away from Geneva with typical Swiss chalets, beautiful mountain lakes and impressive views on the highest alpine peaks. After 10 months of a very strong engagement from the organization team, 400 runners finally went on September 21st to the 1st Humani’Trail which finally generated close to 30’000 AUD (25'000 Swiss Francs) !

While several top competitors were there, two Nepalese runners finally won the main 50km trail (Manikala Rai for women and Sangé Sherpa for men) which is a fantastic symbol for our action. A second edition of the race is already planned by September 27, 2014 in order to sustain our support to children in Nepal. Thanks Bec for this great idea that clearly changed our live forever !”

Last week, they visited our hostel in Nepal to give us the opportunity to say thank you so much for taking the Passion Challenge with such an inspiring result. We loved having you in our hostel and seeing how much Atal has grown! The children were very inspired to hear about your passion and the hard work you put in to achieving your goal. The money they raised for Mitrataa will be used to support our hostel which is home to a group of ex-Bal Mandir children.

Thank you to everyone who supported the first Humani’Trail event! You are amazing people and we are proud to have you as a part of the Mitrataa family! We look forward to a long lasting relationship with you and with Humani’Trail.