The HYF Story
In 1997, Tashi Gurung and Dave Bidwell, with the help of the Greendale Foundation, established HCF as an NGO in Kathmandu. After meeting on a trek to Mustang in 1999, Micheline Kramer and David Bidwell decided to work together to expand the Himalayan Children’s Foundation (HCF) in Kathmandu. Their love of the country and the people of Nepal planted the seed that eventually would become the Kailash Hostel. What began with six needy children living in rented quarters, grew slowly to 30 children by 2002. That same year the Himalayan Youth Foundation, Inc (HYF) was created in the USA as a tax exempt non-profit corporation (501C3) in order to raise funds needed to further its impact. In addition, HYF established a partnership with the Choki Traditional Arts School in Bhutan.
The founders first project started in Kathmandu, Nepal, with HCF and the Kailash Hostel. The Kailash Hostel is operated by Himalayan Children’s Foundation (H.C.F.), a Nepali NGO founded in 1997. This organization offers poor and illiterate children a chance for a formal education, along with food, clothing, shelter, psychological well-being and medical care. Through individual sponsorship and donations children as young as 6 years old are given a home at the Kailash Hostel where they will stay until graduation from high School. HYF provides these youngsters with the learning skills necessary to pursue self-sustaining livelihoods, thereby enhancing the quality of life for themselves, their families and the communities in which they live.
In the Kingdom of Bhutan, HYF has made donations to support the Choki Traditional Arts School (CTAS). Founded in 1999 by the former head of the Painting Division of Bhutan’s National Painting school, CTAS offers free education and housing to poor mountain children. In addition to training in the Bhutanese arts and crafts, CTAS students, who are between 12-19 years of age, receive lessons in such fundamentals as math, English and their native language, Dzonka.
Today, HYF cares for over 200 children in Nepal and Bhutan and has been able to finance the construction of new facilities at each location, with the help of its generous sponsors. HYF is a well-run foundation concentrating on providing a quality home and educational experience for the children. Our hostel in Kathmandu is home to 100 children and our school in Bhutan currently has 150 children enrolled. At present, the current focus for HYF is to enrich our programs for the students by strengthening the quality of education and expanding our extracurricular activities.
By 2010 HYF had grown so much that the founders felt the need to partner with other foundations to guarantee the future of the foundation and the children. Mountaineers for Himalayas (www.mount4him.org) and the Fontana Foundation (www.fontana-foundation.org) accepted the challenge and have helped strengthen both projects. In the same year we created a new non-profit organization in England, HYF-UK, in response to increased interest from English donors.
