After 9 Years, the Extraordinary Pam Hughes Steps Down as Sponsorship Committee Chair

This month, we are celebrating the service of Pam Hughes, a sponsor and board member who is stepping down after being at the helm of the Sponsorship Committee for the last nine years. Pam’s extraordinary dedication and service have helped Mitrata grow and thrive and has made a huge difference in how we nurture the sponsorship process. She is a natural leader who serves with energy, compassion, integrity and an ever-present focus on how the actions we take as an organization impact our service to the children we support. 

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Mitrata would not be the organization it is today without the dedication, energy and inquisitive creativity that Pam has brought to the position of Committee Chair. She has touched the lives of children in Kathmandu and the adults in the US who help support them, nurturing their bonds with her kindness and persistent optimism.

Pam (bottom center) with on a previous sponsor trip to Nepal

Over her past near-decade-long tenure, Pam has streamlined and organized the Sponsorship Committee into what it is today. She was instrumental in the development, expansion, and maintenance of a series of events and activities that helped Mitrata sponsors be informed and involved in the difference in the lives of the children our sponsors support but also in the programs they helped build and fund. Under her leadership, the Sponsorship Committee became a vibrant, focused, and creative group.

Moreover, Mitrata has enjoyed an amazing track record of sponsors who continue with our organization for many years; for this, we have not only those amazing people who choose to sponsor with us to thank but also Pam Hughes, who has truly created a community around sponsorship in our organization.  

Pam sponsors a young woman named Puja, who has a significant visual impairment that initially kept her from meeting her full potential. Pam researched an adaptive device that Puja could use to read, got one donated to Mitrata, and then hand-carried the device to Nepal on one of her trips there. Puja still uses that devise, and it has changed her life. Puja is now happy and healthy, flourishing as a university student.

Pam (right) and Puja (left), her sponsored child

Pam learned of Mitrata from her friend Toni Schmidt, became a sponsor, and soon after became involved in volunteering with us. Shortly after, she joined the Board of Directors and started serving on the Sponsorship Committee, eventually taking on the role of Chair.  After stepping down, she will remain on the committee and help guide events and policies.

Previously, Pam worked at Kirkwood High School as a guidance counselor and then with kids who had behavioral and other barriers to education, helping to guide them to better educational outcomes.  After her retirement, Pam worked as educator with the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, going into classrooms with kids of all ages offering guidance about drug abuse. She used this skill with the older kids Mitrata supports in Nepal, providing them with alcohol and drug abuse education when in Kathmandu. 

Today, Pam is also an avid cyclist and hiker, a wonderful photographer, a contra dancer, and loves to make handmade greeting cards. Anyone who knows Pam will tell you that she is among the most generous, kind, genuine, caring and warm people they have ever met. Because she is.

Pam with Puja

Danny Williger is stepping into the role as chair of the Sponsorship Committee.  If you would like to learn more about sponsorship or the work Mitrata does in Nepal, he can be reached at (314) 712-0365 or dwilliger@sbcglobal.net.

Here’s to a great year of sponsorship with Danny at the helm!