Namaste, Friends and Supporters of dZi,

New DVD, Brochures, and Fall Mailing

We are waiting for our new brochures and the second edition of our DVD to arrive for our fall mailing. We try to be careful and not inundate you with multiple mailings, like most organizations. We only send one major mailing a year - our fall fund-raising campaign. If you have not received a letter from us in the past, have moved, or just want to make certain we have your correct contact information, please e-mail us at info@dzifoundation.org.

If you viewed our original DVD produced in 2004, you know what a powerful connection it gave you to the amazing work of the dZi. Our new video effort accurately represents the growth and evolution of our projects, as well as the dedication and passion of our international staff. We are fortunate to have one of our most dedicated advocates completely underwrite the new DVD edition.

In the new edition, we highlight three of our many programs: Revitalize a Village in Nepal, where we are working with Village Development Communities (VDC - similar to counties) helping thousands with educational infrastructure; Primary Education Sponsorship Program in Sikkim, India, where we help fulfill the dreams of many of the impoverished road workers by providing a basic education for their children; and finally, our Vision Program in Ladakh, India, where we examine children's eyesight, measure the refraction of their eyes, and then build prescription glasses on the spot, for children in need.

Thanks to Our Friends at Marmot

We want to acknowledge our friends at Marmot, our corporate causal partner, for their continued support of the dZi. As part of their People, Products, Planet advertising campaign, they featured the dZi Foundation in the ads scheduled to run in the September/October issues of the following publications: Backpacker, Backcountry, Climbing, Gear Trends, Gripped, Explore, Outside, Powder, Rock and Ice, and Women's Adventure. The dZi could never afford to place these ads on our own, nor would we spend donors' dollars to do it, so this valuable partnership allows us to expand our reach and awareness to a much larger audience.

Outside Magazine

Along those lines, keep an eye out for another dZi Foundation ad in the November issue of Outside. As part of Marmot's media buy, they received a bonus full-page ad that they gave to the dZi Foundation. The ad highlights our Revitalize A Village program, and features one of our strongest advocates, local visionary and community mobilizer Eka Bahadur.

Wish List

As you know, we increased our domestic staff to four this year: myself, Associate Director Garry Schalla, Controller Kara Mueller, and Marketing/PR Director Joanne Kneafsey. We need one more computer for Joanne (to date she has been using her very temperamental personal laptop that is not compatible with the other computers in the office). We found a refurbished Mac desktop for $1,000. If you think you might be able to help us out with this, let us know. As always, we greatly appreciate all of your support.

All the best.

Jim Nowak
Executive Director

Mountain-2-Mountain Nominates The dZi Foundation as the 2008 Grant Recipient

We are thrilled to announce The dZi Foundation has been chosen as the 2008 grant recipient of Mountain-2-Mountain (M2M) - a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting education and community development in remote mountain communities. Last year, M2M raised funds for the Central Asia Institute (CAI) to build schools in remote villages in Pakistan. Our partnership, in 2008, will support the Revitalize A Village program in Gudel - one of the most impoverished, remote villages in eastern Nepal. The focus will be to raise funds for educational initiatives centered-around building schools, teacher trainings, and healthcare.

The dZi/M2M partnership is scheduled to be announced - and begin - on Tuesday, September 25. M2M will host a "free movie night" that evening at The Speakeasy Theatre in Breckenridge, CO. The event will feature three shorts: Rita: A True Himalayan Adventure, which was shown in the 2007 Breckenridge Film Festival; and both the old and new dZi Foundation DVDs. The new DVD will have a section highlighting Revitalize A Village.

In addition, M2M will also host Mountainfilm on Mondays. On the first Monday of every month - January thru March - M2M will present Telluride Mountainfilm at the Speakeasy Theatre in Breckenridge. A dZi representative will begin the evening with a brief presentation and segments from the new DVD. All profits will go to the dZi Foundation.

Other events are also in the works: dZi presentations at the new REI in Boulder; a dZi orientation in Breckenridge; a Nepali-themed photography exhibit; a snowshoe race in January; and the second annual M2M trail race. These are only a few of the M2M fundraising efforts for the dZi. We will be sure to keep you posted on all of the activities. Shannon Galpin, M2M Executive Director, and Tara Dugan Kusumoto, M2M PR Director, are wonderful to work with and are very excited to support the dZi Foundation.

Primary Education Sponsorship Program

We started this pilot program in Charmile, Sikkim, India in 2004, targeting primary school-aged children - grades one thru six. The families of these children are mostly Nepalese, and work for the Border Roads Organization (BRO) - a division of the Indian Army. The BRO paves and maintains high altitude roads in India, close to the Tibetan border. The workers are paid $1.00-per-day for work below 10,000 feet; $1.40-per-day for work above that altitude.

We initiated this program by working with the local school officials, ensuring them that the present school system would not be over-burdened with the additional students. We then provided the uniforms, shoes, schoolbags, textbooks and stationary required for children to be allowed to attend school; not being able to afford these items is a major reason why many of the children are not in school.

In addition to providing the necessary supplies, we also address their learning and academic needs since many of these children are far behind their peers. We built two separate classrooms for two hours of tutoring each day after school.

Also addressed are their nutritional needs with a daily hot lunch (see photo, children receiving hot milk, bread and an egg). Without this service, the children would not have anything to eat while their parents work all day on the roads.

Karma Bhutia, a well-respected Charmile community leader, oversees this entire project along with two teachers and one cook. All of this is accomplished for $75.00-per-child, per-year.

Using the Charmile program as the model, we then replicated it at the Assam Lindsey School, and will do the same in the Bushuk/Pol Bazaar community in Fall 2007.

The Charmile Primary Education Sponsorship program reached 400 children; the Assam Lindsay program 400 children; and we anticipate reaching over 240 children in the Bushuk/Pol Bazaar community.