Photojournalist Bikram Rauniyar to Receive Camera on November 9

We announce with pride that the fundraising campaigns to buy a new camera for the photojournalist Bikram Rauniyar has been successful. One campaign was run by Madhesi Youth on Life Indiegogo and another jointly by Code for Nepal (CFN), and Story South Asia (SSA) on Fund Dreamer. The camera, a voucher for a photography training course, and additional cash will be handed over to Bikram during a press conference in Kathmandu on November 9, 2015.

At a time when Nepalis appear polarized due to the unrest in Tarai and a nation-wide fuel shortage, the wide spectrum in ethnicity of donors is a testament that we are all still united for supporting a just cause. We are overwhelmed by the love and support you have shown for Bikram Rauniyar. After Madhesi Youth informed him of the fundraiser we had started, he wrote to us,

धन्यवाद , बिश्वास लागी रहेको छैन् , मेरो लागी पनी साथीहरुले क्याम्पेन सुरु गर्नुभएछ । यसले म मा काम गर्ने थप उत्साह र सहास जुटेको छ । एक पटक यहाँहरु सबैलाई हृदय देखि नै धन्यवाद । Translation: Thank you. I can’t believe friends have started a campaign for me. This has instilled further enthusiasm and courage in me.

See below for the details of the camera that we will be handing over to Bikram Rauniyar.

When we showed Bikram the photo of the actual camera (see below), he wrote to us,

यो फोटाे हेरेर एउटा खुशीको आशु झर्यो । सबै जनालाई धेरै धेरै धन्यवाद ।यो फोटाे आमालाइ देखाए , आमाले सबैजनालाई शुभ आशीर्वाद भन्नुभएको छ । म भन्दा धेरै खुशी चै आमा हुनुभ्यो । Translation: After seeing this, tears of joy welled up in my eyes. Thank You very very much to everyone. I showed this photo to my mother and she sends her blessings to everyone. She is happier than I am.

Bikram’s camera was broken by Nepal Police, read the story we had published, “Help Photojournalist Bikram Rauniyar Replace his Camera Broken by Nepal Police“. We also continued to provide live updates on funds collected by Madhesi Youth via another post “Fundraising Campaign For Journalist Bikram Rauniyar’s Camera“.

Madhesi Youth, Code for Nepal, and Story South Asia would like to sincerely thank all the donors for trusting us with their funds. Below are the detailed updates on the total funds collected and spent.

The campaigns by Madhesi Youth, and CCN & SSA aimed to raise USD $700 and USD $1000 respectively to replace Bikram’s original Canon EOS 700D. Madhesi Youth raised a sum of $543 (NRs. 54300) using Life Indiegogo and $188 (Rs. 18,800) though cash donations & pledges. $100 of the cash donations have been received so far and the remaining $88 pledged remains to be received. Similarly, Code for Nepal and Story South Asia jointly raised $580 (Rs. 58,000) using Fund Dreamer and the remaining $420 will be donated by Mrs. Surabhi  Chaudhary of Chaudhary Group to bring the total to $1000 as aimed. Both campaigns met their fundraising goals.

Since Life Indiegogo charges a 3% + $0.30 per transaction fee, a net total raised from Indiegogo is $521.31. Similarly, the net total raised through Fund Dreamer is $530. See below for a breakdown of total funds raised via both campaigns.

Puru Shah, the founder of Madhesi Youth bought the camera from Amazon for $613.44. Ravi Kumar, a co-founder of Code for Nepal will take the camera with him during his trip to Nepal this week.

Bikram also expressed interest in taking a photography training course, in line with his passion for photography. Roshan Ghimire is finalizing the details about a two-week photography workshop with Sailendra Kharel that Bikram is interested in.  The workshop which costs about $200 (Rs. 20,000) will involve visual story-telling and the attendee will produce an investigative story at the end. We wish Bikram all the best for this workshop and hope to see some of his work soon.

The chart below shows the funds used to buy a camera, pay for a photography workshop and the remaining cash that will be handed over to Bikram.

The spreadsheet below shows a summary of total funds raised, funds used to buy a camera and remaining cash that will be handed over to Bikram.

The donors outside Nepal contributed via Life Indiegogo and Fund dreamer, crowdfunded online platforms. Similarly, donors in Nepal contributed cash donations and made pledges for cash donations to Praveen Yadav of Madhesi Youth.

For a list of donors who contributed and pledged funds to Madhesi Youth, see “Fundraising Campaign For Journalist Bikram Rauniyar’s Camera“. Similarly, for a list of donors who contributed to Code for Nepal and Story South Asia, see the list on Fund Dreamer.

Puru Shah and Praveen Kumar Yadav managed the campaign for Madhesi Youth from USA  and Nepal respectively. Similarly, Ravi Kumar and Roshan Ghimire managed the campaign for Code for Nepal and Story South Asia from USA as well. We decided to merge our funds to procure a shiny new camera for Bikram Rauniyar and use the remaining funds to pay for a photography training for Bikram and hand over the rest of the cash to him.

While our support can not stop the deplorable acts of human rights violations against journalists, it will bring back smile to a hardworking journalist who lost his five years worth of savings for simply doing his job. This is perhaps the silver lining in the current violence and human rights violations in Nepal. A big heartfelt Thank You to all our donors and supporters for making this happen.

If you would like to meet journalist Bikram Rauniyar, Ravi Kumar or attend the press conference in Kathmandu, please contact Praveen Kumar Yadav via social media or email: praveen@madhesiyouth.com.

See below for a short description of all three organizations involved in the two fundraisers.

Madhesi Youth	Code For Nepal	Story South Asia
Promotes justice, equality, equitable development, and youth empowerment in Nepal.	Works to increase digital literacy & use of open data in Nepal	Delivers daily news highlights from South Asia.
Twitter: @madhesiyouth	Twitter: @codefornepal	Twitter: @storysouthasia