Holiday Wishes from Nepal

NYF President Som Paneru sends his holiday wishes to you! This letter was featured in an email sent to NYF supporters on December 23, 2024. If you’d like to receive messages like this in the mail, please subscribe to our email list here. 

Dear NYF Community,

After your love and generosity during Nepal’s festival season at Dashain and Tihar, it is now our turn to send warm holiday wishes to all of you.

When we ask our graduates about their experiences with NYF, most of them mention holiday celebrations. Of course, they are tremendously grateful for the opportunity to receive a good education, for excellent healthcare, for nutritious meals, and for a safe, stable home. But happy festival memories bound them together as a family.

Our late founder, Olga Murray, always understood intuitively that alongside our wonderful programming, the children in our care needed these joyful traditions. These special times bring us together, creating a shared sense of belonging.

This is our first holiday season since Olga’s passing. It is a bittersweet occasion. The holidays are not the same without her mischief and laughter.

But even this is part of what makes these occasions important. Cherished festival traditions provide opportunities to remember those who came before us, to remember everything they made possible. 

This holiday season, I am tremendously grateful for all the years we spent with Olga—and for all the ways she showed her love for Nepal’s children. I am grateful that her work introduced us to all of you, our generous supporters. And I am so moved by the way you have embraced Olga’s promise to the children of Nepal, and made it into Our Shared Promise.

Thank you all for sharing this remarkable year with us, and for your loving commitment to our shared promise. We wish you and yours a warm and joyful holiday season, and love and prosperity in 2025.

Som Paneru, President
Nepal Youth Foundation