The Dusty Yak Foundation
The Dusty Yak Foundation aims to relieve the poverty, advance the education and protect and preserve the health of orphans, neglected, impoverished and/or sick children in need in Nepal and elsewhere in the world suffering from such hardship and distress through the provision of:
a) basic necessities such as care, accommodation, clothing, food and medicine;
b) educational tuition and equipment and the making of grants; and
c) financial, material and logistical support to organisations and individuals who work with such orphans, neglected, impoverished and/or sick children in order to help build or improve their accommodation, schools and living conditions in general.
Our First Project – The Dusty Yak House
On 18th August 2016 The Dusty Yak opened its doors to provide a home to 11 girls that were found living in squalid conditions in an orphanage in Kathmandu. Cramped living conditions, poor hygiene, rationed meals of rice and lack of clean water prompted The Dusty Yak Foundation to begin its journey to helping those lost children of Nepal. Seven months on and the girls are thriving, enrolled in a school and able to fulfill their true potential.
Our Second Project – Naxal Balmandir Orphanage
Thousands of babies are abandoned every year. Naxal Balmandir Orphanage looks after these new born babies. Thousands of new born babies have been looked after by a devoted team of Nepalese ”mothers”, some of whom have been working at the orphanage for over 20 years. The Dusty Yak Foundation supports the orphanage by providing much needed items such as nappies, clothing and baby formula.
Our Girls Education – Himalaya Private School
Our girls enrolled in the Himalayan Private School in September 2016. The school is a five minute walk from the house and offers a peaceful environment with qualified teachers promoting learning through Montessori methodology as well as following a curriculum similar to that of UK schools. The school year runs from mid-April through to the end of March, with semester exams. Our girls sat their first semester exams in October 2016 and made us all proud. They performed well in their second semester exams, with Anita coming second in her class:
| S.N | Name of the Children | Grade | GPA(2nd Terminal Exam) |
| 1. | Anita Shahi | U.K.G | 4.00 |
| 2. | Asmita Singh | One | 3.64 |
| 3. | Bhawana Chaulagain | U.K.G | 4.00 |
| 4. | Bipana Tamata | U.K.G | 3.29 |
| 5. | Kristina Tamang | One | 3.71 |
| 6. | Manisha Singh | Three | 3.75 |
| 7. | Parmita Shahi | Three | 3.82 |
| 8. | Pratima Malla | U.K.G | 4.00 |
| 9. | Puspa Bhattarai | One | 3.93 |
| 10. | Puspa Chaulagain | L.K.G | 3.91 |
| 11. | Sushila Shahi | L.K.G | 3.92 |
Our girls are currently taking their final term exams and results will be published at the start of April.Three of our girls were elected to be Class Representatives. The girls regularly perform at school assemblies.
Class Representative
| Name of the Children | Class |
| Anita Shahi | U.K.G |
| Pratima Malla | U.K.G |
| Bhawana Chaulagain | U.K.G |
Winter Fest Program 16th December 2016
Every year the City Centre Shopping Mall in Kathmandu hosts a winter celebration, called ‘Winter Fest’, an event dedicated to children. Our girls performed a Nepali cultural song. Spontaneously the girls volunteered to sing their own songs on the stage making us all very proud. The organizers of Winter Fest kept a donation box for the Foundation. We would like to say a big thank you to Wester Fest for supporting The Dusty Yak Foundation.
Futsal: Little one’s Inter Futsal Tournament 2017(LIFT)
On 24th February 2017 The Dusty Yak Foundation organised a Futsal tournament in Katmandu. The event was open to orphanages with some children coming from as far as Pokhara, which is approximately a 7 hour drive from the city. Fifty nine children’s homes with 600 children participated in the event. The event was a huge success, bringing together children from 6 years to 16 years (both boys and girls). The children were delighted to interact with other children from different children’s homes and Dad Matt and Mom Lou were here for the event too.
The Dusty Yak Foundation would like to thank all the children’s homes who participated in this tournament, our supporters, our sponsors and all the volunteers who helped to make this event a grand success.
Kathmandu-Zoo
On Saturday 25th February 2017, the only day off in the week, we took our girls to the central zoo of Nepal on February 25th, which is located at Jwalakhel, Patan. Dad Matt, Mom Lou and the Dusty Yak Foundation staff accompanied our girls. They were very excited to see Tigers, Elephants, Monkeys, Deers, Leopards, Peacocks and many more animals.
Welfare, Security, First-Aid and Health & Safety
Most Orphanage’s Staff receive no formal training in Nepal. The Dusty Yak Foundation staff, as well as staff from other orphanages, took part in a three-day Internationally Accredited Welfare Officer’s Level 2 Course designed and delivered by Terry Harman from DarkStar Group,
Holi
Holi is a spring festival celebrated in India and Nepal, also known as the “festival of colors” or the “festival of love”. The festival signifies the victory of good over evil, the arrival of spring, end of winter, and for many a festive day to meet others, play and laugh, forget and forgive, and repair broken relationships. Our girls chased each other, throwing handfuls of colored powders.
Our girls performance in Parent’s Meet 2017
On the occasion of Junior Exhibition and Parents Meet 2073 organised by Himalaya Boarding High School, our girls participated in dance and rhymes singing. The video contains clips of the event and our girls performances.
Birthdays
Remembering the days when our girls step their feet into this beautiful world, the Dusty Yak family celebrated the birthday of our little ones.
We celebrated the following birthdays –
Puspa Bhattarai, 8 years old on 18th January
Sushila Shahi, 6 years old on 26th January
Bipana Tamata, 8 years old on 15th March
Bandana Adhakari, 21 years old on 15th March (She is working as an intern at Dusty Yak Foundation)
Future Projects
Gyanodaya Blind School
We are working on a project plan for the Gyanodaya Blind School, which is located in Rakhu in the Myagdi district. The project will review the medical conditions of all the children, enhance current infrastructure, and provide new educational programmes. We are looking forward to supporting them and providing upliftment for a better life as well as further education.
The Dusty Yak Village
The project will build a rescue village for children who have been liberated from unlawful halfway houses, reinforced work and sex trafficking. Our vision is to offer a healthy, safe and secure home whilst the children are reintegrated with their families and society.
The village:
- A real home for will be provided for up to 120 children providing a psychologically stable family environment
- Full time ‘mothers‘ will be assigned to each group of children
- ‘Aunties’who are helpers will oversee the day to day running of the village
- The village will provide a community living atmosphere
Information of our presence in social media
We also want to extend a special welcome to our supporters on Facebook page: Dusty Yak Foundation – we look forward to growing with you all in near future and beyond. We feel happy to share that we are now on Instagram and encourage everyone to join our integrated community by following @dustyyak.
We have gone live with our new website, which you can view here: https://www.dustyyak.com/