I am excited to begin my second year as President of Mitrata’s Board. Reflecting on the events of 2020, both expected and unexpected, I am thankful for the efforts of the Mitrata’s board and operations team and the tremendous support from all of our child sponsors and donors. We overcame many challenges, while adding on new events and translating our existing events online and while supporting our children and staff in Nepal through their hardships.

Early in 2020, Rick Hendin, Mitrata’s Vice President, and I travelled to Nepal. It was an amazing trip. We met with the leadership, staff members, and board of BSF, our NGO partner in Nepal. We carried letters to the children from their sponsors and hand delivered them to the children, taking pictures and filming short videos. Seeing the children’s faces light up when they opened their letters was truly special. Nepal is rich with USESCO World Heritage Sites, which are amazing, but meeting with the children we sponsor is always the most special part of a visit to Nepal for me. Our trip was cut short because airports were closing due to the pandemic, and the annual sponsor trip in November had to be cancelled as well, but we hope to resume our visits to Nepal later on this year as long as it is safe to travel.

Despite all of the unexpected challenges, Mitrata is well-positioned ourselves well to resume work in 2021 on our five-year strategic plan. Christine, all of the Mitrata Board members and staff, and I have been hard at work updating our plans to resume implementing our five-year strategic plan. In 2020, we were able to develop and strengthen our board, and we formed the Young Professionals Board. In 2021, we will focus on developing our advisory board. Our advisory board is already a powerful resource, and as we seek to diversify our Board’s skills and expertise, advisory members can serve an even more important role.

We are going to continue to welcome new child sponsors this year. Last year, we exceeded our sponsorship goals and every school child now has a sponsor. In 2020, we were not able to add any additional school children because of the pandemic lock down in Nepal. As things return to normal in Nepal and while many families are in even more dire situations as a result of job loss from the pandemic, we hope to add several children in 2021. We continue to provide updates to our child sponsors on the health and welfare of their children and have now received new photos from Nepal that we will be sending out later this month. As part of keeping our children safe and healthy, we will also be working with BSF to provide health checkups for all children again this year.

One of our responses to the pandemic here in the US was to take our events virtual. Our first virtual trivia night was a huge success, and we are looking forward to our second annual virtual trivia night on March 20! Moreover, our Miles for Mitrata Kids event, a completely new event last year, was also a huge success. This year, we are hoping to expand this event even further! The 2020 Holiday Bazaar marked the first time Mitrata made our unique hand crafted Nepali good available for online purchase. We will continue offering goods online this year, however, we are also hoping to have an in-person holiday bazaar this December.

We hope to see all of your smiling faces again soon!

Our Contact Center project was delayed last year. We hope to resume work on it this year when things return to normal in Nepal. In the spring, we hope to transition our Contact Center graduates to two new schools and will match them with new sponsors. We will also resume taking full advantage of the wonderful data collection system for the Contact Center set up by our volunteers, Taylor and Lauren. We know from seeing our kids grow and succeed in jobs and higher education that our programs are successful, but this data is vital to understanding how we can make the biggest impact and for lending to our credibility as an education-focused nonprofit. Identifying a new location in Kathmandu for our existing Contact Center has taken on new importance and we hope to continue work on that this year. This move will provide our children and staff with a much-needed increase in space. Our Contact Center is our early education program that increases our kids’ school-readiness as well as their health and wellbeing through multiple nutritious meals, a stable, secure school environment, and through counseling services. Investing in our Contact Center allows us to better serve these underprivileged children and better establish our uniquely successful program in Nepal. The Contact Center children are Mitrata’s future and our legacy.

Lauren and Taylor with Contact Center children

We may have been delayed but we are still committed to achieving Mitrata’s five-year strategic plan to double the size of both Mitrata’s operations in the U.S. and in Nepal in order to add more services for each one of our children. Resuming our progress toward our strategic goals will be very challenging this year and will require hard work from our staff, board, and NGO partner, BSF. It will also require the continued support of our amazing donors and sponsors. However, fulfilling Mitrata’s mission and holding true to our values of helping our children flourish and reach their unique potential makes all the hard work worthwhile.

— Jim Craig, Board President and child sponsor

Goals for the New Year

Sending Letters to Nepal

Christmas and New Year in Nepal