Who we are

The Laxmi Support Foundation was founded in 2006 by Samantha Wagenaar. Our legal name is Stichting Laxmi Support. We are a small but effective volunteer organization fully dependent on donations from sponsors. We also sell handmade key rings and second-hand toys and clothing at summer- and Christmas markets in England.

Members of the Laxmi Support Foundation are:
– Samantha Wagenaar (founder and director),
– Geke Kegelaar (treasurer),
– Sylvia Nielen (secretary),
– Ram Thapa (volunteer in Nepal)
– Alex Salmon (volunteer).

WE KEEP YOU INFORMED

We believe feedback to our sponsors is very important. Our actions are guaranteed to be completed and never get stuck halfway. After completion of each project, we send a newsletter to our sponsors containing the highlights of the projects. If you would also like to stay informed, send an email to: laxmi.support@hotmail.com.

On our website we write an extensive report of each project accompanied by photos. An overview of our most recent projects can be found here. We also maintain a Facebook page with project information and general news from Nepal. In addition, each year we make a short video containing highlights of that year. All videos are on YouTube. Watch the 2023 video below:

EXPENDITURE

Laxmi Support handles the expenditure of donations with great care. Donations are spent as directly and effectively as possible. We carry out our actions based on five golden rules and we keep our fixed costs to a minimum. Read more →

STRATEGY

Our plan is to continue to provide support to the Hopeful Home children’s home in the coming years. Together with Gopini Wosti, the manager of the children’s home, we discuss which project can best be supported. This could be sponsoring a Hindu festival, renovating the house or clothes for the children. We do not transfer money to the children’s home but spend the donations ourselves.

In addition, we will focus our actions for the coming years on the Nuwakot district, where we provide support to eight schools. We have built up good contacts in this region and have visited the schools several times. Our actions are aimed at bringing writing materials, school clothing and winter coats for the colder months. In the longer term and if our budget allows it, we want to see whether it is feasible to improve the level of education by offering extra support to the teachers. This can be in the form of a teacher training course and additional educational materials.

Hulp na de aardbeving van 2015: golfplaten kopen voor een noodgebouw voor de Chakersur Primary School in Nuwakot. Hier zijn Ram en Alex in het midden met daaromheen de leraren van de school.

We will also continue to support poor communities and disabled people in this area. Sometimes we are contacted with special requests for help. Where possible, we offer provide the support. For example, in 2022 we distributed food parcels to 10 poor families and handed out 5 pairs of crutches to villagers who have difficulty walking. Read more → In 2023 we organized a Free Health Camp with great success. The goal is to organize a second Free Health Camp in 2025. Read more →

Since 2023, we have sponsored two brothers from Chitwan with school fees, school uniform, books and writing materials. The aim is to continue this until the boys have completed their education. Read more →

EXPANSION OF THE LAXMI SUPPORT TEAM

After the disastrous earthquakes of 2015, we started working closely with Ram Thapa, born in Nuwakot, and member of the ErAid Nepal organization. Ram grew up in the Hopeful Home children’s home and that’s also where Samantha and Ram met in 2004. Samantha remembers fondly helping Ram with his homework during her volunteer work period in 2005 and 2006. Ram currently works as a pharmacist in a hospital in Kalanki in Kathmandu and is married to Saraswati Upreti and together they have a daughter Prastuti.

HOW IT ALL STARTED


It all started in 2004 when Samantha traveled to Nepal for three months to volunteer at the Hopeful Home children’s home in Kathmandu. This was such an overwhelming experience that a return to Nepal was inevitable.

The following year, Samantha returned to Hopeful Home for a month and afterwards taught English at the Annapurna Primary School in Pokhara for two months. The building of the Annapurna Primary School was in a poor condition and therefore it was necessary to renovate the school and the immediate surroundings. That’s how it all started. During this first renovation project we have, among other things, plastered and painted the entire school, built new toilets, placed nets filled with stones behind the school to protect the school grounds from the river and constructed a playing field. In the meantime we have conducted several projects for this school.

Under the motto “It just gets under your skin!” and after this huge renovation project for the Annapurna Primary School the Laxmi Support Foundation had officially taken off. Once back in the Netherlands, it was a matter of recruiting members, arranging the legally required paperwork for the foundation and setting up its own website and Facebook page.

Since then we have successfully completed more than 70 projects for schools in the Nuwakot area and for Hopeful Home. For an overview of all our projects, read here: