CSUMB's Barbara Sayad takes Carmel children to Nepal

Barbara Sayad, a lecturer in the Health, Human Services and Public Policy Department at CSUMB, took sixth graders at Carmel Middle School on a virtual tour of Nepal on Monday, when she shared her experiences from a trip she took to the Asian country.

Language arts teacher Shelly Glennon had recently assigned "The Homeless Bird", a novel by Gloria Whelan which narrates the life of a 13-year-old girl in India who's sold into marriage. The book,  music, art and stories of life in south Asia had so moved the Carmel students that they went into the community to raise funds for Empower Nepali Girls, a non-profit that gives out scholarship to needy girls in Nepal.

The students raised $5,700, according to Sayad, enough to send 57 girls to school for a year. Sayad will give the money to a professor at CSU Fullerton, the organizer of the CSU's yearly trek to Nepal, who will be bringing the money along with a backpack full pen-pal letters to the rural Himalayan villages this month.