What is R Star? Back to the roots

R Star Foundation began by a happenstance meeting in Durber Square, Kathmandu, Nepal, between an 11-year-old boy, Rabin, and Rosalind Russell in 1988. They stayed in touch over the years, and met again 15 years later at which time the R Star Foundation began its journey and mission of ‘women helping women and children in Nepal…therefore the world’. Its purpose: to serve and educate the isolated and disempowered women and children of Nepal by connecting resources to the neediest people in remote areas and helping to bring about peace.

Thus began Rosalind’s adoption of this young boy’s family and their adoption of her. Rosalind promised to come back and returned several years later. She wanted to bring the family a gift that would help them, and decided on 2 pregnant goats. She discussed the idea with some local friends in California, and lo and behold, they each wanted to donate goats too. Two goats quickly turned into 89. The process is: 25 women are put into a group. Each woman receives 2 pregnant goats, and each group receives a male goat for breeding. Thirteen years later, and over 15,000 gifted goats, RSF has lifted these women to income generators. At the same time the goat gifting began, RSF was also able to create micro-financing seed money to further uplift these women to get small loans to help advance their own personal ventures. RSF is a 100% volunteer organization, and unique in that 100% of all funding received goes towards serving over 48 villages in the remote area of Kavre. RSF was also able to build a school in this area and the children educated there test out in the top 10% of the entire nation.

The biggest challenge facing RSF now is getting enough funding to restore some normalcy to these villagers and villages following the barrage of devastating earthquakes and aftershocks that began in April, 2015. Our focus is to get the funding so we can continue our work to help local disaster teams get food, tarps/tents, mosquito netting, temporary housing and medical care teams to these villages. Monsoon season is coming soon, and will make it even more difficult to reach these areas. Time is of the essence.

Our near future business opportunities are focused on getting things back to “normal” including: rebuilding the school as well as homes for 30,000 affected people. We will then re-focus our efforts on our original mission of women helping women (establish businesses) and children (receive an excellent education in a safe and nearby location). As a result, women and children of this region get the opportunity to thrive and experience peace.

$25,000 would greatly help RSF do a number of things. The first on the list is repairing the school. Currently the school has been reopened, albeit under a tarp! We were able to re-open on June 9th thanks to the coordination and devoted efforts of the teams in Nepal and here in the US. We need to reinforce the walls, install an iron safety railing, repair the roof and ceiling. Remaining funds will help get the necessary supplies of food and medicine to this area. Mentorship will help manage these processes while keeping the school open, as well as mentorship to leverage the remaining funds to begin rebuilding the destroyed homes.

RSF has grown by sheer will and passion. RSF is committed to ensure these remote villages and villagers get the help they need, as quickly as possible. The funding will help these villages get back on their feet to continue their journey towards peace and prosperity.