This year will mark my second year as Mitrata’s Board President. We had a great year for 2021: beginning with a successful virtual Trivia Night in March, an amazing second year of Miles for Mitrata Kids in the summer, and ending with an overwhelmingly successful Holiday Bazaar and end of the year appeal, where we surpassed our fundraising goal by over $17,000! Click on the links to read our blogs about each event.

Our Young Professionals Board also hosted a brand new fundraising opportunity for us multiple times throughout the year at the Tower Grove Park Farmer’s Market in St. Louis. We are always looking for new ways to spread the word about our mission and are blown away by the creativity and innovation we see from our amazing board members.

The funds raised in 2021 covered many vital expenses for our organization, including housing supplies for our children who relocated to Kathmandu for school from their home villages last year, supplies for our Contact Center, much-needed COVID-19 relief supplies for our families, supplies for the new school year, a used SUV, comprehensive auto insurance, annual government taxes, maintenance, and an annual salary for an on-call driver starting this year. Because of your tremendous support in 2021, we were able to continue to support, above all, the continuation of our programs with proper sanitation, social distancing, small group classes and homework help, and all other measures needed in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and strict lockdowns in Nepal. It has been a great joy to reflect on all that we have accomplished over this past year with our amazing supporters and partner staff in Nepal.

*A big accomplishment: BSF moved to a new building at the end of 2021*

Our board held its strategic planning meeting in September 2021. As the board planned for this year, our primary goal revolved around getting ready for opening a second Contact Center in Kathmandu by 2024. Over 2022, we’ll be developing a five-year budget with firm estimates for the costs associated with opening and maintaining the new Contact Center. We are also putting in place plans to recruit the additional sponsors that will be required by the new center, for which we will be: (1) developing a new video focusing on the mission of the Contact Center and how it helps children prepare to attend school and become part of Mitrata’s sponsorship program; and (2) producing a Sponsor Handbook that will be provided to every sponsor with information on Mitrata, our Nepali partner BSF, and what to expect in sponsorship.

*Conducting classes for our young children during the COVID-19 pandemic*

Further, in order to better communicate our mission, programs, history, and vision for Nepal, we are making substantive changes to the Mitrata.org website this year. We will be reorganizing and revamping all of our webpages, including posting new content to better tell Mitrata’s story, setting up a volunteer-specific section to better communicate with current volunteers and grow our volunteer base, and updating our photos, videos, and statistics.

Another major step for Mitrata in 2022 will be hiring our first full-time employee. When I joined the board in 2012, Mitrata had just hired a part-time development director. As Mitrata has grown, we have added additional part-time staff, and now ten years after hiring our first employee, we will be bringing on a full-time administrative assistant. Adding a full-time team member will help us continue the robust growth we’ve experienced over the past decade and prepare us for supporting the new Contact Center, more fundraising events, and other program expansions.

We also looking forward to returning to Nepal on our annual fall sponsor trip this year. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have not traveled to Nepal since my and Board Vice President Rick Hendin’s trip in early March 2020. We sorely miss our friends and partners in this work at BSF as well as the children we support. We are thrilled to be returning this year. Look out for more information on this in the coming weeks! For now, our main upcoming focus will be our annual Trivia Night, with a save the date coming out soon.

Our founder, Dr. Christine Schutz, at the 2021 Trivia Night

Thank you for your continued support. We have a lot to look forward to this year and in the next few years as we continue progressing through our aggressive goals in our five-year strategic plan. And, as we work towards these objectives, we are keeping our ultimate mission and vision in mind: to lift the children we serve out of the terrible cycle of poverty under which they suffer and enable them to reach their unique potential as productive Nepali citizens. Our passion and love for what we do will continue to govern our work, and we aim to only be able to serve more children and build our capacity to touch more lives while continuing to work one child at a time to make a difference. We hope to see you at our upcoming Trivia Night and other events in 2022 and will continue to keep you informed as we buy an SUV for BSF, make steps towards opening out second Contact Center, and fulfilling our other strategic goals.

— Jim Craig, Mitrata Board President

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