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 Photo Courtesy Of Odfl
St. Francis student Katie Troxell, center, visits with children in the village of Dalsinghe, Nepal. The One Dollar For Life organization traveled to Dalsinghe to help build a school for the village. One year ago students in the village of Dalsinghe in Nepal went to school underneath a tree. Today, because of funds raised by the One Dollar For Life (ODFL) movement, the students attend school in a three-room building decorated with murals.
The non-profit organization was founded to address Third-World poverty by collecting one dollar from each of millions of U.S. high school students and channeling those funds into small-scale infrastructure projects in developing countries. Los Altos High School instructor Robert Freeman and his students developed the initial concept for ODFL.
In late 2007, representatives from ODFL met with the Nepal Youth Opportunity Foundation (NYOF), a nongovernmental organization, to discuss building a school in that area. The foundation has been active in Nepal since 1991, has built more than 50 schools and has provided reading materials to thousands of Nepali children.
The groups agreed that the village of Dalsinghe, approximately 50 miles west of the capital city of Kathmandu, would be a good location for a school. The village enfolds eight smaller, surrounding villages, none with a school. The nearest school was more than an hour’s walk, making it difficult for the Dalsinghe children to attend.
There are 84 children of primary school age in the area around Dalsinghe. The government agreed to supply two trained teachers if the community could provide a school building.
“In remote areas, education isn’t as valued as it is in other countries,” wrote Lisa Bolton, the Los Altos High science teacher who led a trip to Dalsinghe for ODFL students, in an e-mail. “Small projects like this can bring pride to a community and bring to light the importance of educating every child.”
ODFL agreed to fund and NYOF to build a three-room school, a set of toilets and a playground, and furnish it with desks for 72 students. The project would cost slightly more than $10,000. ODFL raised the money through fundraisers at six schools in Colorado, Missouri, Ohio and California, including local schools Los Altos and Gunn.
In mid-June, 14 local students traveled to Nepal with Bolton to celebrate the school’s completion. Each of the ODFL students had participated in a fundraiser at his or her school and paid his or her own way.
The students stayed with families of students who would attend the school. The American students painted the outside of the building and the unique murals on the inside walls.
Katie Troxell, a senior at St. Francis High School, said her favorite part of the trip was hanging out with the local children.
“They were completely amazing and so open to us,” she said. “They became so attached to us, it was so hard to leave. We just became so close.”
Troxell said she appreciated the way of life in Dalsinghe.
“Their life is pure simplicity,” Troxell said. “They don’t need all the TV and entertainment we need to have fun. They just want to know about our lives. They aren’t caught up in anything else except for pure human connection.”
Bolton said that although there was a language barrier, the emotional connections made with host families were strong.
“My Nepali host grandmother was crying and gave me a huge hug when we left. A gesture not usually given to another adult, as public affection is looked down upon,” Bolton said. “I did not have one conversation with her because she didn’t speak English, but her emotion moved me to tears. It’s hard to predict the impact one will have on a village of strangers – it was evident our work was of great importance to them.”
Reflecting on the success of the trip, Troxell said she hopes she can encourage others to become involved with ODFL.
“I think everyone should get involved,” she said. “The biggest impact it had on me was actually going on the trip. Going on the trip showed me what the dollars did. Even if you can’t go (on one of the missions), we have many pictures that show how each dollar really makes a difference.”
For more information or to view trip photos, visit www.odfl.org.
Contact Traci Newell at
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