KATHMANDU, Dec 8: When Maggie Doyne, 23, boarded a plane at Newark Airport, New Jersey, and set off to see the world in 2005, she had no inkling that her trips through Fiji, Australia, New Zealand and India would eventually take her to a country she had never heard of.
The gap year, that she took after high school hoping to become fully committed to college, built a different kind of commitment in her to a different purpose: giving a childhood to the neediest children of Nepal.
Today, Maggie runs the Kopila Valley Children´s Home in Surkhet that she built on a piece of land bought with $5,000 that she saved babysitting during high school.
The home today shelters 28 children and supports education of 60 additional children, apart from assisting in the placement of over 700 orphans in different households and shelters. The Blinknow Foundation that Maggie established also facilitates life-changing surgeries for children and improves schools in remote areas of Nepal.
Maggie spends eight to ten months a year taking care of the children in Surkhet. She is aided by seven staff she has chosen with utmost care to make sure that the staff are loving people.
A chance visit
Born in Moorestown, NJ, as the second among three daughters of her parents, Maggie was a typical New Jersey high school girl. She says she had never planned to end up doing what she is doing today.
"I never wanted to do anything like this," Maggie told Republica. "I had always planned to further my studies."
But a chance meeting with a 16-year-old Nepali girl in Rishikesh, India, and a visit to Nepal with her, made Maggie radically alter her plans. The 16-year-old had fled Nepal to escape the ravages of armed conflict and was returning home after eight years. During the Nepal visit that included a two-day trek to the girl´s village, Maggie saw with horrified eyes how the war had taken away everything, including hope, from the neediest members of the society: children.
"Meeting the children and people of Nepal led me on a detour," Maggie said. "I was astounded by the poverty, and by the number of children who had lost parents. I got this idea that I could build a home for them and put in school the children who didn´t have a chance to study."
During her next trip to New Jersey, Maggie went around showing people pictures of needy Nepali children. She told people about the conditions in which those children were living in Nepal and that for very little money people could bring about huge changes in the children´s living conditions.
"My community back in NJ really supported the idea and everyone pitched in to help, especially schools and community groups," she said.
Though her parents supported her, she was aware that they weren´t totally comfortable with her idea. "I don´t think they liked the thought of me being so far away and I think they were worried about my safety. But now they realize that I´m fine and are proud of the work I do," she added.
$ 100,000 award
On June 4, 2009, Maggie won $100,000 at the DoSomething.org awards for being an outstanding world-changer under the age of 25. With the fund, Maggie has expanded Kopila to a three-storied home.
The home does not take children who have parents or loving caretakers. "There are too many other children who don´t have anyone to look after them," said Maggie who only takes children from very poor and desperate background with no relatives to care for them.
Kopila gets about five to 10 requests every day from parents wishing to enroll their children. "It´s sad to have to say ´no´ all the time. I try to help families who are poor by putting their children in good schools and helping them with their school fees, supplies and uniforms," she added.
Easier said than done
Maggie isn´t the typical young dreamer who has mystified people with her compassionate venture. She is too engaged in the day-to-day task of personally taking care of children. The caretaking can sometimes be ugly.
Last week, Maggie received a call from a security guard in Surkhet Hospital. She was informed that an epileptic boy, Buday Kumar Giri, had been admitted to the hospital once again. Recently orphaned, Giri was living on the streets in Surkhet, suffering from seizures and harming himself physically during his fits. This was the third time police had brought him to the hospital after finding him living like a mangy street dog on the streets, with no food, no clothes, and no sense of his surroundings. The visits to the hospital hadn´t done him good either, and the hospital was in no mood to keep him for long.
For six months now, Maggie has been looking for the boy by providing him food, clothes, blankets and arranging a woman to give him medicine. But Giri doesn´t stay in one place and keeps on running away from the woman.
Maggie has tried her best to make sure that Giri gets better. Once, while taking him to a doctor on her motorbike, she ended up having his nasal discharge and urine all over her. At other times, she has helplessly watched him suffer a seizure.
"There is nothing you can do during a seizure so you just sit there and watch, feeling helpless and waiting for it to pass," said Maggie who has personally cleaned feces and urine off Giri´s body.
Maggie has tried reaching out to every organization in Nepal, only to find that Giri is too old for orphanages and too young for Mother Teresa´s Home for the dying and destitute.
"There are some days when I would rather not be here. There are some days when I would rather be cramming for an exam in the library or with my friends from home or working in a grocery store or doing something else. The world can be a very, very sad place with lots of suffering and there are days when I would rather just look the other way," she said.
Fortunately, last Thursday Maggie found Mangali, a woman who has agreed to take care of Giri during her trip to the United States that she is planning to start this week. But she is yet to find a permanent caretaker for the boy.
Rewards and responsibilities
"Hearing the children sing and watch them dance, the smiles on their faces, the bonds they have with each other! It´s really special," said Maggie, when asked about what keeps her going. "We created our own family and we are all really happy to be here. I really stress that this is a children´s HOME!!! Not an orphanage, not a facility, not a hostel!"
Despite suffering through days when she would rather just look away, Maggie plans to remain in Surkhet and continue to enroll children into schools.
Maggie believes that her generation has a reputation of "ignorance and selfishness" to fight against.
She thinks that if everyone in her generation knew what the problems are, what the issues are, all of them would choose to live a little differently.
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Wonderful!! We too are doing something on the same line. Please click on www.setconp.org to see for yourself. But there is an ocean of despair out there and more you do more you feel that you have done nothing.
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Keshav Upadhyay
Good job Maggie !!! people like you make a difference to our world. Your Work is much appreciated !!!
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Raghav
What a heart-warming and inspiring story! It´s a pity that we Nepalis, ourselves do not have the kind of philanthropical culture that some other people seem to have. Thanks to Maggie and wish her all the best!
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Nepal ko chhoro
this article about the us girl have given message to all nepali youths ...that in our day to day life we say kasto tith lagne bichara....but that all are in our words only...but in really practice we don't do it....we just keep hanging with frens or do something unusual....we spend our valuable time uselessly.....i would like to appreciate the work the us girl done.....she has given us lesson.....there are many organization for children but don't do there work efficiently.... i am bachloer leve
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krishna
It´s sad that Nepalese look away rather than look within. Most Nepalese act as if they are dead inside, specially those in power, those who can make a huge difference to our society.
And then here is this girl, who instead of living in a place of want, chooses to stay at a place of need. Ms Maggie Doyne, I salute you. Jai Hosh.
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Maggie isn´t the typical young dreamer who has mystified people with her compassionate venture. She is too engaged in the day-to-day task of personally taking care of children. The caretaking can sometimes be ugly.
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