On May 29 and 30, ANSWER’s Board president and two more Board members attended the 30th Annual Meeting of the ANMF in Chicago. The mission of ANMF is to create and support projects that improve health care and disease prevention in Nepal, primarily through education. Over 200 Nepali doctors and medical professionals attended the event, which culminated in a celebration of ANMF’s health care projects in Nepal. ANSWER’s Board President, Doug Donnell, addressed the attendees during the main presentations at the conference and shared the history of ANSWER, its mission to educate poor and low caste students in Nepal, and the impact ANSWER has had by educating over 1750 students over our 25-year history.
As one of the conference sponsors, ANSWER set up a table where we provided information about ANSWER, how it works, the numerous professional fields our students have pursued, how students can be sponsored by an individual or family, the personal relationships that are formed and the concept of “pay it forward,” with ANSWER graduates later sponsoring students of their own. As Nepali doctors are highly regarded in Nepal, their sponsorships serve as important role models for our ANSWER graduates. Six attendees chose to sponsor one or more students. Based on follow up communications, others have indicated they will sponsor too.
One important benefit of attending the conference was our Board members meeting the president and board members of ANMF. Given our common focus on education, the opportunity to collaborate with ANSWER was enthusiastically welcomed by ANMF’s leadership, and future meetings are being planned to explore how our mutual interests may be served acting together.
