Thank you for visiting my fundraising page!

I have been given the opportunity to travel to Thamel, Kathmandu, Nepal to work with women in the local community on several empowerment projects for a month. This will be for my practicum in my master's program. Throughout Nepal, women are organizing to pursue healthy and sustainable livelihoods, cultivate leadership and political opportunities, improve family health and literacy, ensure personal safety, expand and protect their rights, and develop safe places where they can discuss other challenges in their daily lives.

I will be working with the women of the community, side-by-side, providing leadership training, helping organize and conduct trainings in community development, establishing savings and credit for the women, promoting income generation and teaching specific skills in organic farming, candle-making, pickle-making, sewing, and knitting.

I will be living with a family in the local village while working with the community members to meet there needs. As I humbly learned during my trip to Ghana, in the end, the people of the village gave me many more intangible gifts then I would ever be able to give them.

Living, working, and learning about other cultures and ways of life is one thing that I am very passionate about. I am sure many of you already know this. I truly believe that below the surface we are all very similar and different in beautiful ways. No matter what country you were raised in, what religion you practice, or your cultural believes, at the foundation we are human and have the same basic needs. After the devastation in Haiti happened, I realized more than ever that we as people need to come together and co-exist peacefully and help one another out. Maybe the answer to peace is understanding and coming together.

Thank you for all your love and support. Your donations will make this trip possible.

The program cost for the month:

Living and meal expenses for the entire trip: $700

Visa: $40

Flight: $1,500

 

With much love and gratitude,

Ashley Nemiro

If you have any questions about the program I will be working with or about the trip please feel free to contact me by email ashley.nemiro@gmail.com

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Many thanks for your support -- and don't forget to forward this to anyone who you think might want to donate too!

The Invitation

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

-Oriah Mountain Dreamer