By Madison Flager
Photographs courtesy of John Christopher
John Christopher sleeps on a wooden plank. He’s been doing this for the better part of a year without complaint. The setting is radically different than his life three years ago, when the Fort Lauderdale native was working at a financial consulting firm in Washington, D.C., traveling frequently and spending many nights in cushy Marriott beds. These days, he runs a nonprofit called OdaKids in Nepal. His salary? Nonexistent.
The change seems drastic, even to Christopher. “A couple of years ago, if you had said this is what I’d be doing, it would have come as a huge surprise to me,” the 27-year-old says.
What he’s doing is improving the lives of families in Oda, a town of about 2,500 in the Kalikot District of Nepal, which is, by most standards, one of the most difficult places to live on the planet. In past winters, an average of 40 people died from avoidable illnesses. Still recovering from a civil war that ended in 2006, the town lacks paved roads and there is little economic infrastructure. Most families subsist on remittances from sons working in India. Not too long ago, Oda residents had to walk two days to receive substandard medical care—medicine was often expired, priced well above what most could afford, and doled out by doctors who were not always properly trained. Then came John Christopher.
After three and a half years in finance, the businessman felt like he needed a change. A Cardinal Gibbons alumnus, Christopher grew up steeped in community service, participating in Big Brothers Big Sisters and coaching young wrestlers. He studied abroad in Ireland while at Washington and Lee University, but had never visited a developing country. On a whim, he applied to a fellowship for a nonprofit in the Surkhet District, a region south of Oda reached by a 10-hour car ride and two-hour walk. When he was accepted, he left his job in D.C. and began the adventure that would shape his life.
IT TAKES A VILLAGE: OdaKids’ primary goals are enhancing health and education. Photographed here are children from one of the two local schools Christopher partnered with to bolster teacher engagement and student attendance.
The fellowship lasted six months, but Christopher ended up staying for 10. About halfway through, he realized his life was changing. Visiting the house of a local girl named Sunita, he saw how far limited resources would go in her life—he now sponsors her for just $25 a month, which allows her to attend school, something she otherwise would probably not get to do.
“It was a really touching thing to see how challenging their lives can be, but how much hope there is for their future with really a modest amount of help and a boost in the right direction,” Christopher says.
He says it was at that moment, seeing the beat-up shack roughly the size of a small car that housed Sunita and her four family members, that he knew he had to do something. “I knew that I wouldn’t feel right or fulfilled going back to my life as a consultant,” Christopher says.
Many of the people he met in Surkhet had family living in Oda, where little aid was being provided. After visiting Oda with a native named Karan Singh, Christopher knew this was where he would focus his efforts. He returned to the U.S., and for two and a half months fundraised and developed the OdaKids foundation. In September of 2013, he flew back to Nepal. With the help of Singh, who now serves as a translator and community-outreach liaison for OdaKids, Christopher was welcomed into the community with open arms.
Caroline Porter, a volunteer, cradles a local child outside the OdaKids clinic. The baby’s mother is an 18-year-old named Uja, who grew up an orphan along with her four other siblings.
In December, Christopher and Singh opened a clinic in a renovated cowshed on Singh’s mother’s property. Christopher hired five Nepali staffers, including a highly respected doctor and nurse. A handful of visitors, including Christopher’s brother, have also traveled to Oda to volunteer their time. Since opening, the clinic has seen more than 3,600 patients from Oda and nearby villages.
Within a week of the clinic’s opening, Christopher witnessed a young girl brought in on her father’s back from three hours away, dehydrated and suffering from severe diarrhea. The Oda Clinic doctor said there was little chance she would survive. The next day, after being given $1.03 worth of medication, she walked out on her own two feet.
“We spent $20,000 in the first year, and even if it was just that one girl who walked out—to have that happen with her was amazing,” Christopher says.
Suzanne Gross is a volunteer English teacher from Germany who came to OdaKids to help rework the curriculum in early 2014. Here, she stands at a typical classroom in Oda.
The foundation focuses largely on health and education, and Christopher’s immediate goal is to move the clinic into a stand-alone facility. Community members have donated land to be used for the new clinic, and those without land to donate have offered their labor.
“That’s a big thing, it’s being met halfway,” Christopher says. “We’re not going to give handouts, we’re going to give hand ups.”
In the long term, the foundation hopes to build a community center alongside the clinic, with space for private tutors.
“Kids are so curious and want to learn, and to have no outlet for that is really, really frustrating,” he admits.
OdaKids has worked with other organizations to distribute birthing kits and reusable maxi pads; the latter to allow girls to avoid missing school each month. The foundation also works with the local government schools, motivating teachers and students to improve literacy and teacher engagement.
Some students walk 45 minutes to an hour to attend class.
Christopher’s progress stems largely from Fort Lauderdale support. He says the fundraisers held here last summer enabled him to get the project going. A board of directors and advisory board continue fundraising efforts from the United States when Christopher is in Nepal. He doesn’t take a salary or stipend, so he can sincerely tell donors that every dollar they give is helping the people of Oda. And, it is—according to villagers, only one person died last winter of an avoidable illness.
Christopher is now back in Nepal, facilitating the clinic’s move and focusing on improving education for kids across the community.
“To be able to go there and to work with these kids that nobody else is working with—nobody will ever give them the time of day or an ounce of respect—is really meaningful.”
Originally appeared in the Fall 2014 issue.
