#LeosKids
—: Thank you to some of our recent donors :—
This recent donor list is longer than normal since it’s from the Annual Benefit and donors from the last half of February.
Tsering Bhuchung -:- Manuel Brisida -:- Kari Bharucha -:- Juha-Pekka Aaltonen -:- Shiva Krishnan -:- Liz Van Der Lit -:- Prabin Silwal -:- Gunnar Myklebust -:- Vijay Vaidya -:- Minda Gomez -:- Anju Gurung -:- Adam Young -:- Bishow Dhunghana & Marta Crothers -:- Ann Nicholson -:- Annie Crothers -:- Tim Schachler -:- Mani & Anita Rana -:- Francis Apikotoa -:- Naresh & Traci Gurung -:- Luis Recio -:- Sanjay & Srijan Joshi -:- William Glanville -:- Andrea & Jared Porter -:- Bronwyn Vincent -:- Greg & Jennifer Wisher -:- Stuart Glenwright -:- Melody & Erik Johnson -:- Joel Valdovinos -:- Shawn & Becky Winters -:- Zilvinas Pikelis -:- Mark & Emily Cruz -:- Gyula Sandor -:- Larry Fitzgerald Sr -:- Bethany Hanke -:- Otis & Stephanie Courtney -:- Gaylen Mills -:- Tammie & Dean Junkans -:- Jody Waldemar -:- Lisa Camp
We are grateful to each person who came out for our first blood drive in Kathmandu and to all the groups who made this important event possible.
At our annual benefit a month ago we introduced our vision for expanding the reach of the Leonardo Edward Shrestha Foundation to dozens more children and families than we have served so far.
When we were put in touch with our first families, they were already well into their child’s cancer treatment and had depleted all their personal resources and many had borrowed heavily from friends and family to keep treatment going. Since we met these children when their families were already in a desperate situation, we needed to urgently come alongside them with living expenses as well as costly medical treatment. In the past 3 1/2 months, we have spent around $5,000 US per month on average taking care of these precious children with your generous help.
Now we have the opportunity to reach far more families for this same price. When we meet families shortly after their child’s diagnosis, we are able to come alongside them with housing near the hospital and groceries for their family so all their living expenses are taken care of while they have the funds provided by the Nepalese government to cover medical testing and treatment. This means all their savings and income can be set aside for future medical costs after the government funds run out.
We have been able to expand our Leo’s Kids Flats and other housing arrangements to include not just our current 6 Leo’s Kids and their families, but also an additional 6 children and their families. The average cost per family for housing rental is roughly $50 per month and groceries for each family is roughly $50 per month. This means that we are able to feed and house 12 families for about $1,200 US per month!
This is where you as part of Team Leo’s Kids can help. If we have several people willing to commit to monthly donations of $10, $15, $20, or $25, we can easily cover the ongoing cost of housing and feeding these families and still have funds available to occasionally help cover some of the costlier medical treatments as they come up.
We can also increase our housing capacity to include dozens more families with a goal of being able to support up to 40 families by the end of the year. We have estimated the cost of living expenses for all 40 families will be around $5,000 per month which is roughly the same as we have spent on helping just 3-6 families per month so far.
Thank you again to Tsering and the SOH Student Club for their generous gifts to Leo’s Kids!
Thank you for joining us this week and please leave any questions or comments below so we can address them in our next video log. We invite you to share our foundation with friends and family that would love the opportunity to know about or be involved in what we are doing. Until next time, be well and reach out to us even if you just want to say hello while we are all staying home. You matter to us and together we are making a difference!