Mission

The mission of Wide Open Vistas (WOV) is to help support the educational and health needs of disadvantaged children in Nepal.

What We Do

We help 20 children attend school in Kathmandu. We do this through tuition, uniform, book, and nutrition subsidies. Parents also pay a portion and we check up on attendance and grades. We are focusing on girls in secondary education but we also fund boys. We fund every child in a family unit so no one is marginalized. We also support a girls running program and various ad-hoc projects ranging from rebuilding a girls bathroom after the earthquake to helping a vision clinic purchase pediatric vision screening tools.

Why We Are Unique

We have almost no administrative overhead and the vast majority of donations go directly to the projects. We invite you to come and visit and lend a hand if you want. Unlike large organization, we can show you exactly where your money is going and we can respond in a timely manner with deep connections to the communities where we work.

Our Story

Wide Open Vistas was co-founded by Dorjee Sherpa and Seth Wolpin  in 2011. During an Everest expedition they found a common interest in trying to help the ‘plight of the porter’.  Many of the porters were doing backbreaking jobs at high altitude to help their children attend school in Kathmandu. Wanting to help these children further, and not trusting other organization, they chose to start their own charity.  On December 19th, 2011, Wide Open Vistas was registered as a non-profit in Washington State (UBI 603166667). In 2012, Seth ran across the USA – covering 3,384 miles in 107 days and raising a few thousand dollars which was enough to support 9 children  for a couple years without any fundraising. When the money was on the edge of running out, Seth joined John Fiddler and Kathleen Egan for a  1,200 mile traverse across the Himalayas. They were able to raise over $4,000 in donations. After the traverse, we established a board with Kathleen as founding member and gained recognition as a formal non-profit with 501(c)(3) status (EIN 46-4952663). With the help of board member Dr. Tania Gavidia – we formalized our educational plan  during the Spring of 2015. On April 25th, a devastating earthquake shook Nepal and we went to work helping deliver tarps, conducting community assessments and helping with a bamboo housing project. We used the donations that were received to build a girls bathroom at a school in northern Kathmandu where we sponsor some of the students.  2016 has found us busy with finishing the bathroom project developing a girls running program. Please check our blog for recent updates. You can also one page flyer (pdf)