What an honor indeed! Lindsay Zapata (known to the children as Lindsay Sister) visited Ama Ghar in the summer of 2016 as a student at Arizona State University who was participating in a Study Abroad course. Lindsay’s major at Barrett Honors College at ASU is Non-Profit Development, with a special interest in children.
Lindsay with her professors after a successful thesis defense.
And, of course, as we all do – she fell in love with the Ama Ghar children during her visit. She was studying the effects of the 2015 earthquakes in Nepal and was interested in doing a thesis on resilience, researching why some people, particularly children, are resilient after a disaster and others are not. She set about interviewing Bonnie, Ama Ghar staff, children and even alumni to try to understand why the Ama Ghar children exhibited such resilience in the face of disaster. After comparing her own research with existing literature, she was ready to present her thesis.
She presented and defended “Resilience and Disaster-Affected Youth: A Case Study on Our Global Family Ama Ghar” on Thursday, March 22 at Arizona State University. Those who attended were fascinated by the stories of Ama Ghar and how everyone coped during the earthquake, and her professors, who included Dr. Nalini Chhetri, who had accompanied her to Ama Ghar, were very pleased.
Please join us in congratulating Lindsay Sister on this successful academic milestone – we are so happy we could help!