Spring 2022 Newsletter
Please download the Spring 2022 Newsletter here.
Audited Financial Statements for December 31 2021
Please download the Audited Financial Statements for December 31 2021 here.
Fall 2021 Newsletter
Please download the Fall 2021 Newsletter here.
Audited Financial Statements for December 31 2020
Please download the Audited Financial Statements for December 31 2020 here.
FALL 2020
FALL 2020
Happy Thanksgiving during this most unusual time. My 100 Percent’s mission is to relieve poverty in developing nations by providing the necessities of life, including food, clean water, clothing, education and/or shelter to children and families who are underprivileged while nsuring 100% of your contributions are sent to those in need.
PROJECTS WE SUPPORT
We currently support two programs in South Asia. We are a supporter of the Jhamtse Gatsal Children’s Community located in Arunachal Pradesh, India. This Community supports almost 100 children in the Monpa region of North Eastern India.
Our second program is the Stay-in-School Nepal education support program for schoolgirls in remote Eastern Nepal in partnership with two Nepalese NGOs. We achieved our target for this program with 100 girls supported just before Nepal entered its own COVID-19 lock down. We highlight the success of this program in Current Stories.
New students from Saraswoti Primary school above and Shri Mavi Middle School students below cheer after being added.
CURRENT STORIES
Stay-in-School Nepal update
Given the unusual time we are collectively in around the world we wanted to provide an update to the Stay-in-School program that was started almost 3 years ago. Currently we are sponsoring 100 girls in the Municipality of Sundar Haraicha in Province #1 in Nepal. The original pilot project of 20 girls have entered their 3rd year of support. An additional 40 girls were added to the program more than a year ago. Juna Limbu’s cousin was added to the program after Juna’s death from leukemia. Forty girls were just added recently during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown currently in place in Nepal. The rise in pandemic cases has resulted in the closing of Nepal schools, like in Canada, 6 months ago.
Historically, girls in rural Nepal from ages 10 to 15 drop out of school at a rate of 10% per annum. As a result of the attrition roughly 50% of eligible girls take the national aptitude tests in grade 10. This dropout rate reinforced the traps of low-wage child labour and teenage brides. Many studies have shown the most effective way to reduce poverty in a region is to educate girls.
Our original goal was to fight the very high dropout rate amongst girls in rural regions of Nepal through relieving of the financial stress for lower income families. We support two NGOs in Nepal to foster the idea that we could convince girls and their families to keep them in school. InReach Nepal carried out the original pilot project for 20 girls and Civic Independence Development (CID) manages the pilot along with the remaining 80 students.
Our commitment to the girls and their families is simple. We will support their school costs through the direct purchase of uniforms, supplies and other materials for five years so long as the girls attend school regularly. The NGOs that support the program chose a rural municipality of Sundar Haraicha where family poverty was high. We chose our sponsored students from families who could least afford the additional burden of school costs.
The defraying of slight costs, long-term commitment and constant follow-up and support has made a difference in several surprising ways. First and foremost, none of the students have dropped out thus far. This is a dramatic improvement from an expected 10 students that historically would have. Secondly, the girls’ attendance has increased dramatically to more than 90 percent. The increased attendance has two very positive results. The schoolteachers have noticed a better and more engaged attitude from the girls which was contagious with other students in their classes. The girls’ marks are rising annually on average and rising dramatically for some.
In the academic year just ended in April 2020 the students in the Stay-in-School program achieved the following increases in grade point averages over the prior year:
| Students | Years in Program | Average Mark Increase | |
| Initial Pilot | 20 | 2 | 11.1 |
| Second Cohort | 40 | 1 | 6.7 |
Our first congratulations are to the girls for believing in themselves and making the additional effort. Our second round of applause is for Arjun Guragain who has led the creation and deployment of the program from its inception. Arjun has become the “life coach” for 100
young teenagers and their families. He is encouraging and coaxing the girls to work harder at school. He is also managing the families’ expectations and traditions to allow the girls to stay in school and take the national test.
Arjun’s challenges have increased with COVID-19 induced school shutdowns. Currently the schools are locked down with lessons being taught via television, online and radio. Most of our students have no internet and few have televisions. We supplied 100 radios for our families to
access the lessons. This will be a new test of resilience for the students and Arjun. We hope that the success of the Stay-in-School program continues through these challenging times and thank you for supporting it.
JHAMTSE GATSAL FCRA REGISTRATION
On September 23, 2020 we received notice from Lobsang Phuntsok that Jhamtse Gatsal had achieved its registration under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) to receive donations for other countries. They had been working on this registration for many years since their agent’s registration became inactive.
We will be summarizing donor’s wishes for Jhamtse Gatsal currently in our accounts and will transfer the previous donations that had been trapped when the prior agent’s registration became inactive.
We anticipate this contribution to be over $25,000. This final payment will complete our commitment to this cause with over $135,000 donated since 2015. Future donations can be made through Jhamtse International at http://jhamtseinternational.org.
JUST SINGIN’ ROUND
This year’s Just Singin Round event for October was postponed due to the pandemic. The organizers are working on a virtual musical celebration. We hope to share details of the new event with you shortly and will make an appeal for virtual tickets and table donations.
DIWALI DHAMAAL
Similar pandemic fate occurred in Mississauga with the cancelling of the 4th annual Diwali Dhamaal this fall. Our appreciation again goes to the organizers for working on such a fun children-focused festival event. We trust that Canada and the world will be in a better place next year to hold such events.
DIRECTORS
We have a volunteer Board of Directors that meets periodically to review information, approve the audited financial statements and help plan activities. The Board of My 100 Percent includes Linda Bertoldi, Mark Foley, Adarsh Mehta and Jeff Jenner.
DONATIONS & VOLUNTEERS
We have a small group of volunteers in Vancouver and Mississauga who organize successful events for the charity every year. We would like to reach other potential volunteers to support these events or plan a new event in the Greater Toronto Area. If you are interested, please email Adarsh Mehta at adarsh@my100percent.org or telephone us at 905-990-2464.
Donations are always welcome. Please check out our new website (http://my100percent.org/donate/). We thank you for your continued support and trust.
Fall 2020 Newsletter
Please download the Fall 2020 Newsletter here.
Summer 2020 Newsletter
Please download the Summer 2020 Newsletter here.
Spring 2020 Newsletter
SPRING 2020
Welcome to our semi-annual newsletter. Our mission is to relieve poverty in developing nations by providing the necessities of life, including food, clean water, clothing, education and/or shelter to children and families who are underprivileged.
PROJECTS WE SUPPORT
We currently support two programs in South Asia. We are a supporter of the Jhamtse Gatsal Children’s Community located in Arunachal Pradesh, India. This Community supports almost 100 children in the Monpa region of North Eastern India.
Our second program is the Stay-in-School Nepal education support program for school girls in remote Eastern Nepal in partnership with two Nepalese NGOs. This program was initiated in late 2017 for the new school year. We currently sponsor 60 girls whose families would not otherwise be able to afford the local school expenses such as school uniforms, supplies and books. The support commitment is for 5 years to allow the girls to reach grade 10 and the standard country wide aptitude testing. We have reduced the expected drop-out rates and increased the likelihood of children graduating high school. Our target for this program is to have 100 girls being supported by next year.
Excited new students added to our Stay-in-School program
The full cost of the program for the 100 students is expected to be $25,000 per year or $250 per student. Your support of one or more of the students in this program will be greatly appreciated. Please email Adarsh at amehta@my100percent.org if you want further information about this new sponsorship opportunity.
New student girls receive their annual school supplies
CURRENT STORIES
When we created Jhamtse Canada in 2014 we took on a broad mandate to support multiple programs that we thought would be worthy of your and our support. With the creation of our second long-term international program we completed the process of renaming the charity to My 100 Percent to better reflect this broad mandate. Nothing will change in terms of how we operate. We (Jeff and Adarsh) have committed to fund all the administration costs with our donations. One hundred percent (100%) of your contributions will go to the worthwhile projects of your choosing. We will continue to support Jhamtse Gatsal and the Nepal Stay-in-School programs.
We wanted the new charity name to reflect our multi- program mandate for self-sustaining development and how we operate. We will continue as a volunteer-based organization and keep administration costs as low as possible and personally funded to ensure that 100% of your funds are sent where you want them to go.
Volunteers in Vancouver had another great Just Singin’ Round event in conjunction with the Synergy Collective. The event was held on October 1st at the Vancouver Rowing Club in Stanley Park. The date for next year’s event is October 6th so mark the date and don’t delay in buying your tables and tickets. If you purchase your tables and tickets this year before December 31 you would receive another charitable donation in 2019.
Jeff will be visiting Nepal in November 2019 to meet with the 60 students we support, their families and the schools. We are planning a field trip for the girls to take them to a university neares their village. We want the girls to be introduced to and understand there are great opportunities beyond Grade 10 for those who wish to apply themselves.