Every single penny that she collected and later spent for community service has led Maggie Doyne, an American national, to be nominated as one of the CNN Heroes, the annual award given away by the American Television CNN.
The 28-year-old American lady has been nominated a CNN Hero for her social service not in her country, but in Nepal.
On Thursday, a list of 25 nominees, including Maggie, was released acknowledging their extraordinary social service across the world.
Maggie Doyne, who hails from New Jersey in the US, visited Nepal ten years ago and she had opened a school in Surkhet district of western Nepal for the orphans and children from the poor families.
The decade-long civil war waged by the Maoists had just ended when she visited the country. She was an eyewitness to the sufferings of Nepali women and children in the western part of the country during her two-year-long stay here. In her own words, the war-affected people's struggle to survive inspired her to help Nepali children.
After her trip in India, Maggie visited Nepal in 2005, with just $5,000 that she had earned from babysitting. She did not have a big dream, but she wanted to help the children affected by the civil war, especially with their education.
After purchasing a land in Surkhet district, Maggie worked for two years with the local community to build Kopila Valley Children's Home in western Nepal for conflict-affected children. It is now home to about 50 orphans.
"There were just five to seven children when I started. I didn't have sufficient money then," said she. "After I extended the social work, children getting enrolled there are overcrowded."
In 2010, she opened Kopila Valley School in Birendranagar, which today educates 400 students. The school that runs till grade 10 provides free education to the students.
She started the BlinkNow Foundation to help expand her initiatives.
Maggie, who mostly lives in Nepal, travels to the U.S. a few times a year to generate money for the school through BlinkNow Foundation.
The first orphan she met in the country is Nisha Gharti, who appeared in this year's SLC Examinations. She studied in a private school of Birendranagar with Maggie's support. "My happiness knew no bounds to learn about Nisha's success," she said.
Expressing her happiness with Republica upon her nomination, Maggie said that she has now a big dream to open a residential school for children in Surkhet valley with cost of Rs around 60 million rupees.
"I hope with due support of Nepalis, I would be able to turn my dream into reality," she said.
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