Maggie Namjou

About Me

Maggie Namjou’s life changed with just one voyage to Nepal in 1984 after graduating from Boston University. Although surrounded by the country’s beautiful snow-capped Himalayas and lush green terraced hillsides, Maggie Namjou witnessed a darker side of poverty and economic struggle that she could not ignore. Maggie Namjou saw that Nepalese children in slum areas and remote regions of the country lacked proper food, clothing, medicine, and water. After almost 14 years of working in Nepal in development and as a teacher, occasional trek leader, travel writer, and volunteer, Maggie Namjou discovered how she could help. Maggie Namjou opened Aastha House (House of Hope) to provide many of the most destitute of these abused, neglected, and poverty-stricken children, often orphans, with a better future.

Through Aastha House, Maggie Namjou and fellow volunteers provide abused, neglected, and poverty-stricken children with basic needs like clean water, healthy food, education, and shelter. Maggie Namjou further extends Aastha House’s purpose to provide a safe and loving home with house parents and committed helpers. Aastha House was completely funded by Maggie Namjou until she established its non-profit organization status in 2006.

Maggie Namjou founded The Rising Child Nepal Foundation to support Aastha House and other rescue missions. The Rising Child Nepal Foundation’s fundraising efforts allow Maggie Namjou to serve 100 children every day with free lunches and educational programs, as well as provide scholarships to Dalit children of the Kalimati slum area of Kathmandu. Her work also takes her to districts of Nepal where girls are often sold by their parents into servitude, destined to work as servants from a young age in order to support their family. These girls, some as young as the age of six, are sent to work far from home, and a small amount of the income they earn goes to the girl's family. By providing an alternative means of earning income, such as providing livestock, Maggie Namjou is working to support several other Nepali organizations involved in this area, enabling many girls to remain at home and, most importantly, to get an education in a country where the majority of young women are illiterate; this is a huge achievement, and the reason her efforts focus so intently on helping girls and young women in Nepal remain in school.

Maggie Namjou started her charitable efforts in Nepal in 1992 after helping establish a women’s cooperative in southern Nepal near the border with India, which enabled these women to market and sell their traditional artwork in free trade shops in the United States and Europe. As an Asha-Nepal board member, Maggie Namjou fights to help educate and provide job training for young girls and women who might otherwise be trafficked to India. Additionally, Maggie Namjou supports organizations in Nepal that are dedicated to the humane management of the street dog population in Katmandu and of educating about animal welfare. Maggie Namjou earned her B.A. and M.A. in Anthropology from Boston University and became part of the American Association of Anthropology. She regularly attends TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conferences in California, an invite-only forum of the most amazing minds in the world (www.ted.com).

Education

University, The School for International Training
anthropology, international development
BA and MA
Boston, MA USA
1978 — 1984

Work

Rising Child Nepal Foundation
Founder and Director
nonprofit
Williston, VT 05495
1997 — Present