Time with Olga

Hello Hello ;0)

Dinner and then coffee with an awe inspiring women has left me consumed with excitement and has fed the overt optimism that guides my life…

Olga Murray, to keep it brief, has single-handedly saved the lives of over over 6,000 young girls of Nepal, not to mention the thousands of children/mothers she has educated and saved from malnourishment. She has been on Oprah, was asked to be on Greg Mortenson’s board of directors (for those of you who have read the book Three Cups of Tea), and the list of accomplishments goes on.

Her organization NYOF works in the rural areas of Nepal where girls are sold, as young as six, by their poverty stricken families for $40-$70 into a “bonded” life of slavery. They are often fed scraps, given away as wedding presents and treated as possessions. Olga's method is that she gives the family a goat or pig (better than the money they would receive) in exchange for the girl, who she sends off to school. With $100, she is able to rescue a girl, pay for a year of education and compensate the parents with the animal. Just $350 pays for 6 years of schooling, which enables the girls to complete through grade 10 (equivalent to graduating high school).

The girls, educated on their rights, return to their communities where they organize clubs, write and perform plays for community awareness. They are now turning entire communities away from the practice entirely. If they find that a father in the village is going to sell a young girl, they will march up to the door of his home in their school uniforms to confront him…incredible.

With an organization Olga started just a short time ago, she is empowering an entire nation of women. The key is that after she is gone, what she has brought to these villages will carry on forever through the women, their children, and their children’s children.

Olga is now 84 years old. When she retired in 1992, she began this career. The message in this is that it is NEVER too late.

“I feel so fortunate,” she exclaims sipping on coffee, “I am now happier than I have ever been.” I can’t help but smile as her kind and still vibrant eyes look into mine… as I am utterly consumed by indescribable inspiration.

Check out Olga's website: www.NYOF.org