Teachers reach across the world

Rand Runco and Mark LaMont are leading a one-month trip to Nepal starting July 9, to continue the work they've been doing to improve the lives of people in Nepal. Their nonprofit organization Ten Friends began when Runco, LaMont and eight of their friends spent a summer in Nepal. Now hundreds of people have gotten involved in their work

Every summer the teachers travel to Nepal, often taking volunteer students or friends. Their first project was delivering stretchers to villages along the trekking paths near Mt. Everest, so that injured villagers could be carried safely to hospitals. With the stretcher delivery project and other charitable opportunities that arose, Ten Friends Project was born. The organization is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and donations are tax-deductible.

Traveling through Nepal they have seen how poverty, government instability, or natural disasters make it difficult for people to realize their hopes and dreams. Children are most affected by these conditions. In a valiant effort to offer better lives to their children, parents send their children away from their beautiful - but needy - homes to orphanages or schools to receive, what they believe, is an education and chance for a better life. The results are often not what the parents had hoped for.

Seeing the poverty and destitution of these displaced children, Runco and LaMont began "moving upstream" to get to the origins of the problems they saw in the city. What they found were villages that were unable to provide a better future for their children. Poor water quality was making their children sick; there were no sanitary bathrooms in place and no possibility of education for the children.

Being teachers to the core, the men saw a chance to make a big difference in a few important areas. Relatively speaking, the cost to do this was not high; success depended on spreading the word to others and bringing aid from our country of abundance to a land that lived on so little.

This year's trip will include five student interns, including Sisters students Drew Harrison, Hayden Wester, Amy Yoder and Claire Seibold, and Summit High School graduate Harlan Porterfield.

Along with Runco and LaMont, Jeff Smith and Kevin Metzger will accompany the group. For the students, this vast distance from their home is a chance to see the world and get a different perspective on where they come from and how they live. It will also allow them to join these amazing men as they continue their dream to put systems in place that will eventually make their presence unnecessary to the villagers' well-being.

For their first week, the group will be in Kathmandu checking up on various projects Ten Friends has put into place, including their stretcher program, sponsored students in school, water filtration systems and the orphanage projects they've worked with.

"We've put in about 150 water filters in the city," said Runco.

There are over 400 orphanages in Kathmandu, and Ten Friends has close ties with over 50 of them by providing beds, food, water filters, cooking supplies and school uniforms.

In 2008, Ten Friends helped the Hopeful Home orphanage purchase a new home. With rent sky-high, it was very difficult for the home to function. Now that they don't have rent payments, their home is more stable and secure for the orphans. The Sisters group will visit Hopeful Home and check on the children as well as meet with the staff and see how they're doing.

When their time is up in the city, they will head to the mountains via Tumlingtar Airport. If all goes well, they'll fly to Khandbari in northeastern Nepal, to the Ten Friends Himalayan Education Center (HEC). HEC is the home for 14 girls who were chosen to be teachers for their villages.

With the financial support of Ten Friends, the girls are living in a hostel in Khandbari and attending a small university there. The girls come from remote villages near Tibet, where women are discouraged from getting an education. In fact there are no schools past 6th grade in many of their home villages. After completing their teacher education requirements, the girls at HEC will return to their native villages to become teachers and community leaders, creating an invaluable link to the outside world.

After visiting the girls of HEC, the Sisters group will head to the base of the Himalaya mountains by Tibelat Bad Lingam to the village of Lingam, where a library was built in the name of sorely missed Sisters teacher, Diane Jacobson.

They will deliver more books to Diane's library, which is a testimony to her love of teaching and the heart and soul she put into her job educating Sisters students.

They will then head to Hatya Village, where the Rob Kurtz memorial library is being planned. Ten Friends plans to build libraries for Sisters teachers who have passed away to honor their dedication and love of teaching. Next year they hope to build another library that will memorialize Sisters Elementary School teacher Fran Thorn. The interns will see first-hand what a legacy the teachers have left, not just in the small town where they taught, but halfway around the world.

After 10 years of building relationships in Nepal, Ten Friends has developed a successful way to travel in a country often seen as unstable and even dangerous.

"The country had a monarchy for 350 years," said Runco "and now it is in constant flux, changing about every six months."

The good news is, Nepal's economy relies heavily on tourism, which helps groups like Ten Friends travel safely throughout the country.

"Our employees and Nepalese friends let us know the safety level. We check on the region constantly, up to the day we leave. The people of Nepal have been so kind to us," said Runco.

The group will spend most of the time in the mountains. They also travel mainly by air, staying away from road travel, which can be challenging. Once in the countryside, the group will trek for miles in mountainous terrain that will test the endurance of all of them. They will hike to the remote villages, checking on their programs and learning about the culture and the different way of life there.

All of the interns are excited to travel around the world and help their teachers continue their mission to improve the lives of others. An invaluable lesson, taught by teachers who embody all that is good about the people we entrust to educate our children and broaden their understanding of the world we share.

To learn more about Ten Friends, visit http://www.tenfriends.org. A video of their 2009 trip brings to life the successes and challenges met and overcome; visit: http://vimeo.com/11868548.