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Feature Story
An Unlikely Warrior:
83-Year-Old American Woman Changes
the Lives of Thousands of Children
by Janis Olson
“Nothing rekindles hope in the human condition more than witnessing the transformation of a child.”
This is Olga Murray’s adage—and she knows it first hand, as she has devoted her retirement to helping children more than 10,000 miles away from her home in Sausalito, California.
At age 83, she has more energy than a person a quarter of her age. She laughs when she explains how her retirement is the biggest failure in her life. “I work harder now than I ever did in my profession. I am not earning a penny, but I have never been happier.”
This journey began while Murray was trekking in Nepal—a trip that would forever change her life. She broke her ankle and had to be carried down the mountain, in a basket, on the back of a Sherpa! She recalls how it was extremely frightening, as the trails were so narrow that often the basket she was sitting inside would be tilting over the edge of a cliff. She decided that she could either panic or just sit back and enjoy the view. Murray, always exemplifying the positive approach, chose the latter.
When she finally arrived in the valley, she was taken to a hospital for treatment. She commented to the doctor on how bright the children were. The doctor responded, “yes, and it is such a pity that they will never receive an education.” Murray was aghast. “What do you mean?” she asked. The doctor explained that their families could never afford the $40 it would cost a year to send them to school.
Many of us visit impoverished countries and promise to do something to help. Olga Murray actually did.
She realized that for the cost of a dinner out in the United States, you could make such a difference in a child’s life. She began by giving scholarships to the five children she encountered in the hospital. This simple act of kindness began a 21-year legacy of caring for Nepal’s desperately impoverished children.
Upon returning to the United States, Murray told her family and friends about the Nepalese people, explaining how they were truly captivating, both strong and courageous in spite of shocking poverty. She further explained that Nepal was one of the poorest countries in the world. The average annual family income is only $200. Only 15 percent of 26 million Nepalese have electricity, and there are only 1,200 miles of paved road.
There is virtually no government funding available in Nepal for the destitute—and no social programs. Two-thirds of the population is illiterate, the majority of them women. About 40 percent are married by arrangement before they are 14 years old, and boys get preference in education and nourishment. The disabled are cast out or hidden.
Olga Murray has always been a champion for the underprivileged. In 1954, she faced discrimination as one of few female attorneys. For 37 years, she served as law clerk to the Chief Justices of the California Supreme Court, where she helped to write important decisions on civil rights and women’s rights.
Murray realizes that the children’s only hope to rise out of poverty is an education. This is especially important for girls, who, once educated, take better care of their families and are more likely to educate their own children. As the number of scholarships that Murray provided grew, she decided to start a foundation that would help these children in an organized way.
In 1990, at age 65, Murray founded the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation (NYOF). The scope of her work in Nepal is enormous. She organizes, oversees, and helps run all NYOF’s programs. Olga Murray and NYOF are synonymous. She currently serves as president, and is still intimately involved in all of NYOF’s programs.
The NYOF scholarship programs have grown significantly over the years. Last year, over 4,000 children from kindergarten through medical school received an education as a result of NYOF’s support. Murray and NYOF have built schools, as well as instructed and trained teachers. In some villages, the children had been sitting in open cow sheds or on rice bags under a tree. Nepal experiences extreme weather conditions, from severely cold winters to excessively hot summers. Often the schools in the villages are so inadequate that some children, desperate for an education, stand outside and literally press their faces against bars on the windows, trying to hear the teacher’s instruction.
Many of the children educated under NYOF’s auspices have gone on to contribute to Nepali society. One of the young men, who received a college education through NYOF, is now our Executive Director in Nepal. Another young man received his law degree and worked on creating the law that made it illegal in Nepal to sell children. There is also a young blind woman who now works for the United Nations in Nepal. Many NYOF graduates have started their own programs to make a difference.
When Murray saw children living on the streets, abandoned by their families who could not afford to feed them, and children living with their parents in jail, or cast away because they were disabled, she built two homes in Kathmandu: J House (for boys) and K house (for girls). These children are the most vulnerable among those NYOF helps. NYOF showers them with love and attention and provides them with what should be every child’s birthright: education, housing, and medical care. NYOF commits to these children through college and gives them what is usually the first real sense of security in their lives.
In Nepal, Murray visits with these children daily, providing them with a sense of love and caring. They adore her, and call her “Olga Didi,” meaning “older sister.” Last year she celebrated the children’s birthdays with a communal birthday party replete with a magician and a cupcake-sized birthday cake for each child. She also takes them out on little trips where they learn about their culture with a sense of pride.
NYOF’s Nutritional Rehabilitation Homes (NRH) were created when Murray heard that Nepali children were being sent home from hospitals, cured of the disease for which they were admitted, only to then die of malnutrition. She read a United Nations Children’s Fund report which stated that malnourishment was the leading cause of death for Nepalese children under age five, and knew she must do something to stop this from happening.
The NRHs take in severely malnourished children and their mothers and in six weeks’ time, perform miracles. The child is transformed into a healthy being, while the mother learns how to provide proper child care. She is taught to feed her family on locally grown foods and the importance of good hygiene. Both mother and child become healthy through this process.
This program is self-perpetuating as these mothers are trained in how to instruct and share this information with the other mothers in their village. NYOF has field workers who follow up by visiting the rural villages and ensure that both the child and mother are continuing to thrive.
Recently a 22-month-old boy who weighed only 12 pounds was admitted to an NRH. He was so emaciated it seemed hard to imagine that he had the strength to breathe. In 42 days, he was restored to his proper weight, and is now a fine example of a healthy toddler. This treatment would not have been possible without NYOF’s intervention.
NYOF currently operates six NRHs in Nepal. The flagship NRH is located in Kathmandu, and the remaining centers are built on the grounds of government hospitals. NYOF builds the facility and pays for its operation for the first four years. In the fifth year, the hospital pays for one half the expenses, and in the sixth year they begin paying all of the operational costs, thus making this program self-sustaining. It is NYOF’s goal to have an NRH connected with a hospital in each of the 12 zonal communities of Nepal.
In late 1999, Murray learned that in parts of Western Nepal, many families unable to make ends meet were being forced into a desperate trade—selling their daughters to work in faraway cities as bonded servants. Some of these little girls are as young as six! The situation is tailor-made for abuse. Some of the girls never return home. The lucky ones get to work from dawn to dusk. The fathers receive an average of $50 a year for their daughters’ services, and the girls get nothing. These families don’t want to sell their daughters, but they can’t feed the rest of their children without the money they receive for their girls.
NYOF provides a humane alternative. Working closely with local communities, the organization helps parents bring their daughters home from the city and provides a tiny piglet or goat—much valued in this culture—which the families can raise and sell for the same amount their daughters would have earned. NYOF then pays all expenses for the girls to attend the local school. The girls in the Indentured Daughters Program are usually the first females in their families to receive an education! Over 3,500 girls, newly free and empowered, now attend school under NYOF’s patronage. There are thousands more whom Murray plans to help.
Murray travels pro bono to spend half of every year in Nepal, working directly with NYOF’s Nepalese staff and overseeing the programs she created. She spends the remainder of the year fundraising for NYOF’s programs from her home. “I’m not that different than I was 25 years ago,” she says. “I have stayed active and interested in life. A lot of aging is in your mind.” She adds, “One thing I’ve learned: compassion, a sense of caring, [and] thinking about the welfare of others—that sort of mental attitude makes you happy so you don’t get absorbed in your own problems.”
Under Murray’s leadership, NYOF continues to grow. NYOF’s programs now help children in more profound ways than ever before. Murray recently initiated a unique Counseling and Vocational Center that focuses on helping children who have suffered emotional trauma. Many children are physically abused to make them seem more pathetic when begging. Others have been literally discarded by families that cannot afford to feed them, while children who suffer from disabilities are left to die. NYOF’s center is helping these poor children by utilizing innovative counseling programs such as sand tray therapy, a method of play used to help children express themselves. This place is also a training center for counselors who will provide therapy to needy children throughout Nepal.
As more of NYOF’s programs become self-sustaining, Murray will continue to implement additional unique and creative methods for helping Nepalese children. She is an amazing and motivating woman whose vision and commitment inspires us all to a higher level.
Impoverished Nepalese turn to NYOF and Olga Murray for help. Whether providing critical medical procedures, emergency funds for destitute families, or job training for unemployed and despairing young people, Murray stands ready to offer assistance. She has directly benefited the lives of thousands of children in Nepal. The indirect benefits of NYOF’s programs for other children, families, and entire communities are immeasurable.
Olga Murray has been honored with several prestigious awards for her accomplishments with the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation, including a medal from the King of Nepal and the Unsung Heroes of Compassion Award from the Dalai Lama.
In recognition of its good governance, NYOF has been awarded four stars, the highest rating possible, by Charity Navigator, the largest independent evaluator of nonprofits in America.
The resiliency Murray has seen in Nepalese youth is astonishing. Whether impoverished, disabled, or abandoned, these children have an enormous capacity for happiness and success. Olga Murray and NYOF help them to blossom and grow into active, happy, healthy kids who are able to give back to society, proving that it is possible to change the world…one child at a time.
To help Olga Murray with her efforts to make our world a better place, please visit NYOF’s website at www.nyof.org. You may also send donations directly to NYOF at 3030 Bridgeway, Suite 123, Sausalito, CA 94965 or call NYOF’s toll-free number at 1.866.FOR.NYOF (367.6963). Janis Olson is the U.S. Executive Director for NYOF and has been working in the non-profit sector for the past 30 years.