AHF Family

The one and only Paula Canny has been a dear friend of AHF since 1994 after attending an AHF event in Los Angeles. Paula is one of California’s premier defense lawyers and fell in love with the Himalayas, where she is a frequent visitor. She just came back from a trip to Everest Base Camp last fall. Having seen firsthand how difficult life can be for ordinary Nepalese, Paula was inspired to call on her friends and family to support AHF's STOP Girl Trafficking program with a small gathering at her home. The love, support and respect she has in her community was evident in the amazing support she received. Go Paula!

I fell in love with the idea of Nepal in 1990 when I attended my first American Himalayan Foundation event. The event was in Los Angeles. There were movie stars, monks, Tibetans, Sherpas, and people like me in attendance. The Dalai Lama spoke. The night was magic. So began my relationship with AHF.

I went to Nepal for the first time in 1994. I trekked through the Khumbu.  The Mani Rimdu Festival was going on at Tengboche Monastery. I stood in line with the many Sherpas and received a long life pill from the Rempoche. Clearly the pill is working as I am still here. I have survived advanced stage breast cancer. I work as a criminal defense attorney (that may be more challenging than breast cancer). I go to Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet whenever I can. I have trekked throughout all those countries, and circumambulated Mount Kailas and swum in Lake Manaswar. I have gone ten times and each time I go I feel as if I am coming home.

Nepal is complicated. It is rich in beauty and splendor in the majesty of the Himalayas. It is also challenged by the lack of resources that most of the west takes for granted, like electricity and heat, indoor plumbing, hot showers and the like. Each time I attend an AHF event and each time I go to Nepal I learn something about the place and people and God, which makes it just about the perfect experience.

My favorite AHF Program is the Stop Girl Trafficking Program. Dr. Aruna Uprety is its founder. I love Dr. Uprety’s optimism in action in the form of the Stop Girl Trafficking Program. $100 is all it takes to pay for a Nepali girl to go to school for one year and keep her from being sold into the life of a sex slave. $100 saves a life.

Think about what we use $100 for here - 2 tanks of gas, 12 fancy coffee drinks, a gram of cocaine (that’s the criminal defense lawyer in me - I have to know things like that), two tickets to a professional baseball game - the list goes on and on. But $100 in Nepal changes a girl’s life, and that of her family. Helping one person at a time at the rate of $100 seems like a very good use of resources.

A contribution of so little that makes so much of a difference in one person’s life makes me feel like I have made a big difference and that makes me feel good. This past fall my partner, Woody Simmons, and I held a Stop Girl Trafficking Raffle. $100 bought a ticket. $100 saved a girl’s life. We sold about 200 tickets, raising roughly $20,000. That means 200 girls for a year will be saved from life as a sex slave and further be educated and hopefully go on to have a wonderful life.

Everyone at AHF is being of service, helping the people of the Himalayas and all of us to learn compassion and understanding and to practice generosity in all our affairs. The Stop Girl Trafficking Program is one of the most concrete examples of putting these ideals into practice. I am grateful to be of service. It is an awesome experience and one that I hope everyone can experience. Participating in the American Himalayan Foundation makes that possible.

AHF is great and Stop Girl Trafficking!