| BREAKING NEWS Nineteen Year-Old Student from Istanbul Teaches Children at Remote Himalayan School! Vidal Meric, a nineteen-year old student from Istanbul, spent the summer of 2009 volunteering at the remote and spectacular Lost Monastery of the White Tree, along the main trekking route linking Lukla with Everest Base Camp. Armed only with pencils, notebooks, and plenty of ingenuity Vidal became the best friend and hero for over 80 children at the primary school in the village of Sano Gumela. Vidal has described his six weeks in the Himalayas as “the most powerful and defining experience of my life.” Vidal first encountered Peter Dalglish in May 2009 when he came to speak at his school in Istanbul. Peter challenged the students to “make their world big’, and to consider volunteer overseas during school breaks with the South Asia Children’s Fund. Two weeks after the visit Vidal contacted Peter, and the arrangements were quickly made for the volunteer placement. Vidal was given the choice of volunteering in Kathmandu, in the town of Bandipur, or at the Lost Monastery of the White Tree in the Solukhumbu District. Despite the hardships of living in a room infested with dozens of rats, having no hot water and little access to the outside world, Vidal has already recommended the experience to other students at his school. “My friends have all enjoyed the benefits of a good education, in a society largely defined by materialism and consumerism. Working with destitute children in a remote location, totally on my own with little support or supervision, was an extraordinary personal challenge for me. And I know that my time in Nepal has already put me on a new trajectory.” See Peter’s story for the International Herald Tribune “We Need to Harness Youthful Idealism” at: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/20/opinion/20iht-edpeter_ed3_.html?scp=3&sq=Peter%20Dalglish&st=cse |
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| © 2009 South Asia Children's Fund |  |