Causes We Support

The Association Chantal Mauduit

Isn’t it funny how you wind your way along and meet different people!  Around the late ‘90s I was in the US and visited the MOMA in NYC and found some exciting jewellery.  I had to purchase a bracelet called ‘Chapelet’, which I wore non-stop for quite a few years.  Finally, after trading strands in Burma and many years of wear and tear, I decided I wanted another bracelet and was lucky enough to find the website of the bracelet’s maker.

Long story short, I met Pascale Blanchett, who represented Italian artist Tiziana Redavid.  We talked about the jewellery and we now distribute it in Australia to a few select accounts (see our jewellery web site: http://spiritpublishing.biz/lamollla/ for more information on this!).  However, in talking with Pascale I found out her main ‘raison d’etre’, which was the establishment and overseeing of the Association Chantal Mauduit in Kathmandu – a programme aimed at improving the lives and education of underprivileged schoolchildren.

We decided to visit Nepal in 2003 and asked to visit the school, where we met Tabita Kalalehar, whose first day happened to coincide with our visit.  Since this time spirit has been supporting Tabita and the Association Chantal Mauduit.  Diane Macdonald, our finance manager, visited the school this past October 2009 and reconnected with all the children and has taken some fantastic photos (read about Di’s trip).

Please contact spirit publishing if you have an interest in the Association Chantal Mauduit or wish to join us in some projects we have underway to help assist them with their tiny, but growing, library.

 - Mary A. Bradner, Founder & Managing Director

ASSOCIATION CHANTAL MAUDUIT NAMASTE

Visit: http://www.chantalmauduit.org

Let’s walk, ride our horses, our bikes, our flying carpets through the passes. Let’s go crimson, in love, by thought. No need for a compass, our heart will always lead us towards the infinite smiles of life. ~ Chantal Mauduit

In 1998, Chantal Mauduit, world famous mountain climber, and her Sherpa friend Ang Tsering disappeared on the slopes of the Daulaghiri, one of the highest summits in Himalayas. In order to perpetuate Chantal’s passion for Nepal, her family and friends founded a charity whose aim was to improve Nepalese children’s living conditions and especially their school education.

After several months of work to renovate a house, the Chantal Mauduit Academy started in Kathmandu in May 2001, linked by an agreement with the Nepalese Ministry of Education.

Today, it takes care of one hundred and sixty-eight children, all coming from very underprivileged or unstable families. Some of them are even in desperate situations. The Association provides the children with continuous educational support, medical care, leisure, and care for everything they need in their everyday lives.

In order to help more children, the Association Chantal Mauduit has decided to build a new school. Indeed, the one in Kathmandu is too small to accommodate new children. But the association needs money to realize this project.

Chantal, besides her love for mountains and Nepal, had a passion for all kinds of art: poetry, songs, music, painting, dance… In order to respect all that Chantal loved, we wish the children to be able to follow artistic lessons. From the beginning of the school year they have had music lessons. It’s only thanks to the generosity of all the donors they have succeeded in providing children with schooling, but they require continued funding to go on.

The Paris Chantal Mauduit Namaste Association collects money and tries to find new sponsors by mailings, private or public contacts, shows, meetings in schools, and the royalties of Chantal Mauduit’s and André Velter’s books. The money raised through these actions is 100% used for the children of Kathmandu, since all the administrative running costs are taken in charge by Eolienne, the public relations agency – one of whose directors, Mick Regnier, was also Chantal’s agent.

If you wish to join the Association so that they can go on helping these children, please do contact them via their website. You can sponsor a child, you can share the sponsorship with others, or you can give money when you wish. The Association is entirely at your disposal for further information.