1. 92 Venice
EAST
SIDE
STORYIt took a trip to a remote region in Nepal
to forever change John Christopher’s life.
BY MADISON FLAGER PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF JOHN CHRISTOPHER
84 Venice
ohn 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 dif-
ficult places to live on the planet. In past winters, an av-
erage 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 infrastruc-
ture. 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 al-
ways properly trained. Then came John Christopher.
After three and a half years in finance, the business-
man felt like he needed a change. A Cardinal Gibbons
alumnus, Christopher grew up steeped in community serv-
ice, 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.
The fellowship lasted six months, but Christopher
ended up staying for 10. About halfway through, he real-
ized 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 liv-
ing in Oda, where little aid was being provided. After visit-
ing Oda with a native named Karan Singh, Christopher
knew this was where he would focus his efforts. He re-
turned 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.
J

2. GLOBE-TROTTER Fort Lauderdale native
John Christopher spent 10 months in Nepal on
a nonprofit fellowship.The trip inspired him to
start his own nonprofit, OdaKids, benefiting a
rural village in Nepal.
Venice 85

3. 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.
86 Venice
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.
The foundation focuses largely on health and education, and Christopher’s im-
mediate 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.
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 work-
ing with—nobody will ever give them the time of day or an ounce of respect—is
really meaningful.”

4. Venice 87
STEP BY STEP Clockwise from top left:
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; 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; A local woman is laboring in the fields;
Some students walk 45 minutes to an hour
to attend class; Christopher’s brother, Robert,
sits with volunteer Cara Skillingstead at a cer-
emony held in the small village. Both Cara
and Robert taught in the public schools; The
hilly landscape of Oda, Nepal, a village of
roughly 2,500, centers on subsistence agri-
culture. The terraced fields are harvested by
children and adults.