Dil's Home Foundation-About

DIL'S HOME FOUNDATION

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A STORY OF OUR FOUNDING

Dil’s Home Foundation is a non-profit organization benefiting impoverished families and children in the rural village of Bandipur, Nepal. From 1996 to 2006, war raged throughout the country between the government and the Maoist regime. Bandipur, among the hardest hit areas, witnessed kidnappings, child-soldiering, property take-overs, and civilian murders in the areas surrounding the village. Children were orphaned, homes were destroyed, and schools and hospitals were ravaged of their supplies. Bandipur, once a prosperous trading post along the Prithvi Highway, became a deserted and forgotten. Furthermore, post-war Nepal has left one-third of the population living below the poverty line, transportation strikes occurring on a regular basis, power outages multiple times a day, and a food crisis that threatens over 6 million people – 2.5 million in immediate need of food assistance. On top of this, Nepal’s economy is unstable with corrupt government agencies and a fragmented infrastructure at the forefront. With inflation pestering daily life, natural disasters occurring more frequently, and burgeoning oil and food prices, underdeveloped countries such as Nepal, have the most difficulty keeping up with so many drastic changes.

Our mission is to alleviate a portion of these burdens on disadvantaged children and families in a communal effort towards post-war recovery in Bandipur. Aside from providing basic living needs such as food, clothing, and shelter, Dil’s Home Foundation provides a safe place to operate after-school care and tutoring programs for children and teens, as well as provide continuing education and job skills training for adults. Children receiving care from the foundation will gain the knowledge and confidence needed to become successful and independent members of Nepali society in their adulthood. For all members of Dil’s Home Foundation, we stress core family values in unison with Nepali heritage and culture, basic hygiene and health awareness responsibilities, family management and sex-education corresponding to each age group. Our target candidates to receive aid include orphaned children/street children, single parents, aging parents, and poor families.

Currently, Dil’s Home Foundation provides aid to 7 families, totaling 33 individuals including 18 children.

Nichole Myer
Founder and President
Nichole began her non-profit roots working as a volunteer for The American Red Cross of Greater Chicago for 3 ½ years. She also participates in many local fundraising events such as Chicago’s famous Go Vertical Sear’s Tower stair-climb benefiting the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation and the Hustle Up the Hancock stair-climb benefiting the American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago, with race times of 20 and 25 minutes to the top of each building. Nichole and her husband are monthly donors to a growing 6 year-old boy in Bangladesh through the Save the Children foundation of which they write letters and send gifts two to three times per year. She recently received her TESL/TEFL teaching certificate through Oxford Seminars to provide a helping hand at Dil’s Home Foundation Bandipur during yearly visits. She has also earned her certificate in Italian language from the Società Dante Alighieri, Comitato di Siena, in Elementare II (A1), where she spent six weeks studying Italian language and culture throughout the countryside and coastlines of Italy.

Nichole’s career in Bandipur began in late May of 2008 after she signed on for a 5-week volunteer position in Nepal through a local tour and volunteer group, Global Vision International and Himalayan Encounters. Since then, she continues her education and work with DHF from the United States, communicating with the co-founders of the Foundation via email and an occasional phone call.

Nichole and her husband live in a suburb of Chicago, IL about a 30 minute drive to the downtown metropolitan area. To date, she has travelled extensively throughout the United States and to the countries of Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Nepal, Romania, Serbia, and Switzerland. She and her husband welcomed their first child on September 25, 2009. Their son came in weighing 10 lbs. 7 oz. and was 22 in. in length..

Bijay Kumar Rana
Co-Founder
Born in 1987 to his mother and father, Dil Kumari Rana and Dhurba Kumar Rana, tragedy struck when Bijay was only eleven months old. His father passed away as a result of hypertension and Bijay was never given the chance to see or know him. Raising Bijay on her own in Bandipur, Dil enrolled him at Notre Dame School. Unfortunately, because of the political situation at the time, the school was locked down and Bijay was only able to attend up to grade six. To overcome this, his mother sent him to Kathmandu to study at Kingdom Star School where he was kept in an orphanage during his schooling. However, illness would strike a second time and at grade ten Bijay was sent home.

Bijay is now a volunteer at church in Dumre (a neighboring town at the bottom of the hill to Bandipur) where he does work as a worship leader and youth leader. When he is at home, he helps his mother on their farmland or with meal preparation. During his time between Dumre and Bandipur, Bijay visits each of the DHF Families to give counseling advice about family health care, cleanliness and sanitation as well as carrying out aid distribution each month.

During his free time, he likes to sing, play the guitar and listen to music.

Dil Kumari
Co-Founder
Dil Kumari Rana is a widow and the mother of our second Co-founder, Bijay Kumar Rana. After losing her husband and experiencing much marginalization from the local community, she and other local Bandipurites opened Seto Gunras Childrens Center at the entrance to Bandipur where she has been teaching children for the past thirteen years and continues to do so today. Dil is known in the community to have a serving heart and has done much social work to improve community standards of living in her spare time. She is also accredited for bringing electricity to the village which provided a quicker light and power source for families and businesses in the area. Bhanu High School has received many donations from Dil over the years and she is well recognized with many teachers and students even after they have graduated.

With a big heart and boundless apathy for homeless children, orphans and street children, she took in one young boy four years ago while riding a bus on the way to Kathmandu. She brought him home to Bandipur where Bijay and her took care to feed, clothe, and bathe him until his parents could be found. She immediately enrolled him at Notre Dame School but sadly after five months he ran away from the village and Dil and Bijay. She went as far as Damauli with advertisements and flyers in search of the boy and eventually found him once again. A short time later, his family received word that a mother and son were looking out for the boy and were inquiring of the whereabouts of his parents. They came as soon as they could to thank Dil and to take their lost son home again.

To this day, Dil Kumari Rana continues her teaching career at Seto Gunras Children’s Center and is heavily involved in community social work in and around the Bandipur village.