Our First Trip

Nepal June 2015

TKA for Tripur Kinder Academy Buckets used with the Sawyer water filters so families could have clean drinking water. — TKA for Tripur Kinder Academy
Buckets used with the Sawyer water filters so families could have clean drinking water.

During the dry season, we discovered that half of the Tharu (indigenous) community’s only water source was out of a nearby river.

Govinda’s home & the school right beside it. (Later an addition would be added to the school)

owc travels abroad

Open World’s first trip was in June 2015. We went to meet Govinda (director of the school) and see Tripur Kinder Academy first hand. After years of supporting the school, the team, donors, and the staff of Tri KA all looked forward to this trip and legitimizing our partnership and forming deeper connections.

The trip almost didn’t happen. Weeks before our trip, an earthquake hit Nepal that devastated the country. Though at first we weren’t sure if we should still travel, we found that the area of Narayanpur, where Tri KA was located, was mostly unaffected and we were able to continue as planned. With everything ready, we set out to survey the school, provide Sawyer water filters to families, work in the classrooms, and learn more about the culture. Our goal was to help leave a long-term impact for the Narayanpur community. The team ended up falling in love with Nepal. We learned so much from our first trip that has been invaluable to our trips in following years.

This trip was monumental for our organization. It was on this trip that we established our lunch program with the school. After surveying parents in the community and doing house visits, we found that in order to support families better, and to get more students to attend, they needed a meal during the school day. After visiting the local market and crunching numbers, we found a way to sustain their lunch program and have continued doing so ever since.

Traveling to the location of the school helped us connect with the community and assess their needs more appropriately. Since this trip, we have traveled to Kenya to visit a school we supported from 2015-2019, and back to Nepal in 2019 to provide support as their numbers had grown from 25-95 students. Scroll down to learn more about our first Open World trip!

3 years earlier: Ben and Connor kick off the campaign to build Tri KA.

3 years later: we got to see that very school in person.