The school is in a small town close to Jiri, Dolakha and the money will get there directly. There are 5 teachers total, taking care of a nursery (25 kids), a 1st grade (14 kids), 2nd grade (20), 3rd grade (10), and a 4th grade with 1 child.
Only one of the teachers is being paid (the "principal") a symbolic amount. Courses taught are Math, "Sciences" (although they have nothing to do experiments with), Nepali, and "Population". There is also a nice website from 2 film makers about the general situation in Nepal: http://www.lunamdocs.com/
Benny says that he would see the kids carrying books in the middle of nowhere when he was out trekking. Some had to walk an hour to get to school, which is a lot more determination than I've ever shown for school. Also, some of the kids don't even have a pen for class, they always ask tourists for pens.
Anyway, your donation will go a lot farther in Nepal. The average income is less than $200 a year. So your money means a lot. The donations will go directly to the school, not through some umbrella organization.
If you are interested in donating, but cannot come to the party, you can donate via pay pal (great idea Lindsay). The button is on the bottom of the post. I just have it linked to my pal pal account (no tax write-offs, sorry!) because that was the easiest solution.
These pictures were taken by Benny's sister when she visited there in September.
Cheers, and see you on the 19th!
-Ted
Below are a couple of stitched together panorama pics of Benny trekking in Nepal.
