Tuesday's A+ Award of the Day

Today’s A+ Award goes to Olga Murray. Olga is 83 years old and lives in Nepal.

Many years ago, Olga Murray had a big plan. She had been volunteering in Nepal for several years when she found out that in a nearby area, poor farmers would sell their daughters as slaves to wealthier families at the cost of $35-$75. The families of the would-be slaves felt they had no alternative–without selling their daughters, they might starve or worse yet, die.

Olga Murray knew she had to come up with a solution quickly. As she looked around the country, she recognized the importance of pork in the communities. She quickly realized that a pig could easily fetch the amount of money that the families needed to survive.

In 1989, Olga began going door to door, offering the poor family free piglets in exchange for keeping their daughters safe and at home. In addition, she offered to pay for the girl’s education. Out of 37 Nepalese families she approached, 32 took the offer.

Now, 19 years later, Olga Murray and her organization have continued their offer. As a result, more than 3,000 girls have been given the opportunity to remain at home with their families as well as flourishing in a solid educational program.

Som Paneru, Olga’s business partner said, “The local schools are full of former kamlaris (girl slaves) and the size of the classrooms are swollen, and girls are outnumbering boys. We’ve already built over 35 new classrooms, but the need is still not fully met.”

Olga said, “At rallies, or on the radio, the grown women promise out loud that their little sisters will never, ever go through what they did, and that’s when you start to cry.”

The chances are slim to none that Olga Murray will read this blog! That doesn’t matter! Olga Murray deserves the A+ Award for the Day!

And, I think all of us who do read these words need to take a few minutes to search our souls for what contributions we are making to improve our world.

A+ Olga Murray. A+.