The Small World

Women Empowerment Projects

We believe that women can be lifted out of poverty, which will have a positive effect on the economy while promoting social growth and advancing towards gender equality in Education. ... ...

GIRLS HIGHER EDUCATION

"The girls that came to the hostel to attend college 2 years ago from all the far flung villages in this region were a bit scared, very shy and unsure about being away from their communities for the first time. Living with a kaleidoscope of other girls from different ethnic backgrounds, languages, religions, food - talk about diversity! Quickly bonding into a real didi-bahinni (sisterhood)...

Community Development Project

The Small World is grounded in the belief that the communities themselves know best regarding their real needs, therefore we dont do any project what we wants but we support every community base project providing full ownership involving local people directly & we just remained their supporters utilizing our resorces to empower & mobilizing community to acheive their goals & d...

Himalayan Girls Home

Providing hope, home & education to stop grils trafficking, abuse & child labor by investing in a girl and her future, we know for a fact that she can lift herself out of poverty, altering the economic condition of her family, her community, and ultimately her Nation supporting a girl at a time. ...

Sustainable Community Project

We have an unique vision and direction. We don't impose solutions, but work with communities over many years to strengthen their own efforts to throw off the social problems. We constantly seek new solutions and ask ourselves how we can make the greatest impact with our resources ...

Blogs

Good Karma in a Small World

Valentine Essay‏ By Ryan Guru- In LA Times

   After three weeks in the Himalayas, drenched by unrelenting monsoon rains and thoroughly exhausted by demanding service work, I was not prepared to meet my wife. But life's beautiful karma snuck up on me when I least expected it.

   For the last five years, I have had the honor to work with Students Shoulder to Shoulder, an international school whose mission is to have high school students engage with NGOs around the world in sustainable service work. This work had changed my life, introducing me to my soul brother, Karma Sherpa, who grew up as a nomad, and due to one generous American's scholarship, was the first person from his village of 10,000 to go to college. To thank his generous donor, Karma decided to give back to his country by creating his non government organization, The Small World. In the last five years, his organization, with the help of SStS, has built seven schools, women's empowerment hostels, numerous water projects and a number of other projects that have provided hope and dignity for the world's 12th poorest nation.

    Ryan in The Small World

Hence, when ten of my students, 30 porters and 10 Sherpas were entrapped in the monsoon's grasp in a Nepali village named Phablu, we were not only proud of our accomplishments, but we were also down right dirty. My co-trip leader, named Ryan Aldrich, who met his soon-to-be wife because she accidentally called Ryan Aldrich instead of her teacher friend, Ryan Gray, saw something quite odd in our time in the little Himalayan town. It was a westerner. Ryan invited this soaked French woman to talk to our students about her work teaching Nepali students English in an even more remote village six hours walk from Phablu. As she would tell me later, this was really "the last thing" she wanted to do, but based on circumstances, she came to our tea house because the internet, her reason for the six hour trek, was being uncooperative.

    She was beautiful. Her French accent and kind heart caught my attention, but the mention of the word "boyfriend" depleted any possible hope of a long, long distance relationship. I had always been a dreamer, but in my older age, I had also become a realist. Our group talked for an hour, Emilie and I exchanged emails, and this was it. My trip to Nepal was life changing, but little did I know it's true impact on my future.

    Two years later, I got an unexpected email from someone in Belgium. She asked, "Hello. By any chance, do you remember me?   We met in Nepal a while back... I am going to be upfront… for the last two years, I have not been able to stop thinking about you." Emilie had me at "hello." I would have dropped a knee right there, but even in the Skype age, this would have been strange. Emilie updated me on her life; she was now working for the European Union in Iceland and wanted me to visit her fiercely independent island. Her boyfriend was history. Because I had duties as a history teacher, I cordially declined her invitation, but invited her to Colorado. Surprisingly, Emilie had traveled the world several times over, but she had never been to the United States. Her father, however, had been a Rossignol representative decades back merely 30 minutes from my house.

      Several months later, with a hand-drawn sign of the Belgium, Nepali, Icelandic and American flag, I anxiously stood in the DIA airport realizing just how crazy this story was. I was meeting a person I had known for one hour, and I was hosting her for nine days. I could only think the thoughts running through her head and what possible calamity could ensue. Yet when I saw her curly hair and warming smile, it was like we had been mates for years. We loquaciously exchanged our life events in the last two years, and caught a green beer in Boulder for St. Patty's day under another rainy sky. We ventured up to Gold Hill, a historic mining town outside of Boulder, danced at a marathon blue grass concert, and enjoyed the splendors of the area. In one day, I knew it was meant to be!

      The ultimate test, however, loomed in the near future. Would my mom, sister and nephew feel the magic that was surging through my every sense? Two days in Grand Lake, hiking, eating and laughing, the verdict was in- Emily was the one. From Grand Lake, the two of us drove to Vail and Fruta, where we experienced yet more snowy and single track adventures. After nine glorious days, the honeymoon was coming to an end. The question was how could we extend such a fairy tale.

      Three months later, we met half way in New York City. On my hefty teacher's salary, I booked the nicest Upper West Side hotel I could afford, and we gawked at Himalayan-sized buildings and Central Park's Shangri La. Our two day NYC adventure had put me into not only a "New York state of mind," but also a focus on the future.

After another transformative SStS trip to Nepal, back where it all began, I was off to Iceland, where volcanic eruptions threatened to delay my flight. Yet, once again, good Karma was on my side. With a turquoise and diamond engagement ring that I had hand designed with a wonderfully charismatic family friend,   I stepped out onto what looked like the moon, with Iron Maiden's plane right in front of me. Immediately, I knew that Iceland rocked.

    For two weeks, Emilie and I ventured to Jules Vernes "center of the Earth" at Snaefelness, trekked across glaciers in the midnight sun, and watched the clumsy puffins take flight off thousand foot cliffs. I knew that the ring I carried was worth every cent, even though I had met Emilie for a mere 11 days!

    For my birthday, Emilie bought me a seven day adventure to Greenland, a place that made Iceland seem like a metropolis! The magic continued. We home stayed with a cordial, humorous Inuit family who took us on their boat to see whales frolic between the melting ice caps. My only worry was how I would spring the question.

And the answer, like Emilie, just came to me. On a two day adventure with three other global couples, we made our way to the Disko Islands through pastel glaciers and deep blue seas. On an island within Greenland, I saw the light glaring to the spot. It was yet another island within a Disko Island, and my heart was dancing. In wetsuits, Emilie and I paddled to this spot where we would enjoy a simple picnic. I had set Emilie up for this moment by presenting her a gift a day in Iceland with her eyes closed. And so when I attempted to take a knee in a wetsuit, I felt like I had adequately prepped for my final exam. Her words, however, were not in my study guide. She had yelled something, and I thought it may be perhaps in French. For ten awkward seconds I stood there in my suit of sorts wondering whether the ring would be wrapped around a finger or stuck in a lonely box. The words, I would later find out, were, "You're CRAZY!" Emilie's embrace finally answered my question. Good karma was on my side as will be my Nepali brother, family and wife this July for our small world Chamonix wedding .