I fly to Nepal In October!

Expressive Arts Nepal:  The Good Work Continues Exponentially!

An update: We have raised $2,000.00 of our funds for this years goals!
I(Mary) will fly to Nepal in October to teach EXA Therapy: Healing the Wounds of Trauma
and Community Art: Community Healing in Traumatic Environments!

Dear Friends,

Expressive Arts Nepal is a project I am involved with to support the development of healing work and community peace building through Expressive Arts Therapy and Community Art Practice in Nepal.

Many stories of the work can be found on my blog at: http://hoperisingamidst.blogspot.com/

My role in this project as a volunteer is as a teacher/trainer and project development facilitator.  I go to Nepal bi-annually to teach Expressive Arts Therapy to therapists, social workers, teachers and community care providers.  As a work grounded in justice, my role is to empower Nepali people to establish an organization of their own which is highly credible and professionally effective and ethical.

Funds raised are applied to two primary functions.

1-    Increasing educational, internship and supervision experiences of budding professionals in Nepal from a culturally relevant and respectful posture.

2-    To guide the development and application of Expressive Arts Therapy and Community Art for people in need by Nepali practitioners.

Below you will find a description of how we are doing and the progress we have made in this project as well as the goals we have for the coming year.

I may be contacted at walkinggently@gmail.com if you would like more information on the project.

Good News!

Sadhana Thapa and I are thankful to announce Expressive Arts Nepal is now a partner with The Blue Butterfly Foundation a US based non-profit whose mission is to power those in need focusing on the impoverished country of Nepal and victims of child labor, trafficking, and enslavement.

We are so Grateful to Lauren Yanks of Blue Butterfly for welcoming us!

Please check out The Blue Butterfly Foundation website: http://www.bluebutterflyfoundation.org/

Your tax deductible donations to Expressive Arts Nepal can be made right on the Blue Butterfly page above!

Over the past 4 years, through the generosity of our donors:

EXA Nepal has facilitated:

·      1,124 hrs of Expressive Arts Therapy/Community Art with children in need

·      Provided 378 hrs of Expressive Arts therapy with Seniors

·      Provided 200 hrs of EXA therapy with the LGTBQ community

·      Provided 478 hrs of EXA Therapy with Trafficking survivors

·      Provided Sadhana Thapa with 2 out of 3 years of her Masters studies in Expressive Arts Therapy

·      Provided for Mary Putera(LMHC, CAGS, PhD candidate) to travel to Nepal every year for up to 6 weeks to provide training and ongoing supervision and support of Expressive Arts Nepal via internet consultation.

·      Provided 3 years of EXA Therapy Level 1 Masterslevel classes for 77 Nepali professionals and students across the fields of Psychology, Education and Social Work

·      Provided 2 years of Level ll EXA Therapy trainings and Community Art for 27 Nepali professionals and students

·      Provided ongoing supervision for EXA and Community Art students

·      Sadhana Thapa’s work to teach Introductory Masters level courses in Expressive Arts and Creative Arts Therapy in 2 Nepali universities.

·      Provided Sadhana Thapa with 2 of 3 years of economic support to achieve her Masters in Expressive Arts Therapy.

Truly, through the generous help of donors, Expressive Arts Nepal is growing!

Next Steps:

In the coming year, we have some very critical hurdles to leap together.

Sadhana Thapa needs to complete her final year of Masters work at European Graduate School: The costs include

·      Tuition, thesis advisor and editor fees, travel expenses and graduation fees totaling $10,000.

Support for a second Nepali national to begin studies at European Graduate School

·      Tuition and travel $8,000

Travel expenses for Mary Putera to teach in Nepal.(all work is done as a volunteer)

·      $2,500

Provision of ongoing Expressive Arts therapy for Blue Butterfly Foundations Trauma Informed Programs, Nepali Seniors, Trafficking survivors and street children:

·      $3,000

Income streams:

Expressive Arts Nepal: Sadhana Thapa and Bipin Thapa will raise $2,000 towards tuition costs

Mary Putera: Will offer international Masters level EXA students cross-cultural academic and internship opportunities with all funds beyond expenses directly supporting EXA Nepal’s budget. $2,000

Donations and Sponsor development: $19,000

Ways to Contribute:

Donations:

·      Donate directly at The Blue Butterfly Foundation: http://www.bluebutterflyfoundation.org (designating funds for EXA Nepal) monthly, quarterly, yearly…

·      If your Employer(or previous employer if you are retired)participates in Benevity (www.benevity.com) you can designate your employee giving and corporate match funds to Blue Butterfly and the Expressive Arts Nepal project.

·      Watch for our Giving Tuesday event in November!

All contributions are gratefully received!

A letter for tax purposes will be sent to all donors before January 30^th.

In 2019-2020 as a partner with Blue Butterfly Foundation:

Expressive Arts Nepal will bring Expressive Arts therapeutic support for the children and staff of Blue Butterfly Foundations newly forming school for children. This school is designed around a trauma informed curriculum for children whom suffer environmental and personal trauma. We are so excited for this project.

Rev. Mary Putera LMHC, CAGS, MDiv. PhD candidate.

Email: walkinggently@gmail.com; Phone 401-239-7981