I guess majority of fellow Sajha follks are aware of the tragic case of Dolma Sherpa who was handed down a death sentence in Kuwait a year or so ago. It was quite commendable that Nepalis around the world came together to raise funds in an effort save her from execution in an exchange for the blood money provided to the victim's family. Considering the legal systems in the Arab world, I believe it was a right thing to do regardless of whether she was convicted or not. SherpaKyidug.org did more than its fair share. I am sure there are many other organizations and individuals who raised funds for this case. But it was disappointing to learn that the funds raised went unused and probably not accounted for when I saw this great news recently that Dolma's sentence has been reduced to the life sentence instead of the death. The funds actually came from other sources.

"The government of Nepal provided Rs 400,000 as seed money. An equal amount of money was provided by organizations such as Maiti Nepal. Bank accounts were opened to collect contributions. The Non-Resident Nepali Association expressed a willingness to provide up to US $50,000 in blood money. Just a month after being informed, the Sherpa Association Japan provided US $6,250 for the purpose, and Nepalese in the United States provided another US $2,201, further speeding up the contributions."

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=644

Even with this latest developments, sherpakyidug.org is still collecting funds to "save her from the death penalty" and there is no transperancy in terms of how the funds collected will help Dolma and her family. I sincerly hope they will not waste the blood money in building a Gumba.

http://www.sherpakyidug.org/SaveDolma/donate.asp

I feel like donors like myself have been taken for a ride by organizations as such. There are many people who have been donating for such causes and will unfortunately have reservations about opening up their wallets in the future due to such cases especially in an economy like this. When are we going to learn the importance of honesty, accountability and transperancy?

Yeah these donation campaigns has raised quite some issues these days amongst us residing in US especially. We all love to help as much as we can when we see some of us are going through terrible times in Nepal or some where else. There are links in nepalese website for donations with story and everything which is alright, but we usually do not get updated on what is happening currently. The amount we donated, did it actually made it to the right person?? Last time i made a donation was for some women for a Kidney transplant in Nepal. I am not even sure if the amount reached her or not, and if she had a chance for transplant operation. The last thing i would like to be is a victim of scam in US by our own nepalese friends.

Please be careful while making Donations. Make sure you get enough proofs that it will make it to the person you intend to help.

Right on Poon Bro. I think I'm gonna think hard 10 times before I shell out my hard earned money for Nepali charities...

सुन्दा मन मा अमिलो त हुन्छ नै । तर प्रचन्डो पर्धान् मुन्तरी भाको देश मा जे पनि हुनिरैछ ।