He is the youngest brother in his family and helps to run the family business, Classic Diamond Jewellers.
Sameer went to Bangalore after he completed his School Leaving Certificate Examination. He entered the family business after he realized he was not going in the right direction where his education was concerned.[break]
“My brother Amir was handling the business in Mumbai and he asked me to join him,” he says.
GMIN was established with a group of six friends, most of whom were his schoolmates.
“We started by collecting 25 dollars from each of us. We also opened a page in Facebook,” he says. Sameer understands the importance of education and how many people in Nepal are affected by the lack of it. He says that out of everything that is happening in the country, 50 to 60% of it can be blamed on the lack of education. People are not educated, which hinders the country’s development.
“On that note, we decided to build schools, and so far, in three years, we’ve built 16 schools in villages in rural Nepal. We built 12 schools in Dang, out of which 10 schools were built from ground level and we renovated two schools. We built two schools each in Sindupalchowk and Taplejung,” he explains.
The funds, he says, have slowly started to come in. Friends have started helping out. He recounts, “One of my friends has a nine-year-old son who had been saving money in his piggy bank. He gave that money to GMIN,” he says.
The members of GMIN minimize expenses during their birthday parties and donate to their organization instead.
GMIN does not have any office, administration expenses and salary structure. It is now trying to reach more Nepalis worldwide. “We have GMIN UK and we’re working on starting GMIN Hong Kong and GMIN Australia,” he says.
The organization, he adds, just received a US$100,000 grantd from Chase Bank in the US.
“Every year, this company gives a lot of money to charity. The top ten nonprofit organizations receive one hundred thousand dollars each. We are really proud and we can build 20 more schools. We’re really excited,” he says.
Sameer’s father is his biggest inspiration. He says, “He’s the best person I know. He’s so simple and hardworking. Through him, I’cve learnt that working hard is the only way to represent yourself and to achieve any kind of respect or any kind of financial stability.”
He continues, “My wife is my best friend. She’s very supportive and never stops me from doing any social work. This makes me feel that I’m the luckiest person.”
He counts his stay in the US as the most challenging phase of his life. With constant support of his family available in Nepal and India, Sameer felt the burden when he was in the US. The fact that a huge investment was on him was unnerving. “I even cried,” he laughs.
Sameer says, “I would love to keep contributing to make a difference to our country. I want to ask everybody to help in every way heu can.”
• Maharjan was featured on “Inspirations: The Essence of Life,” a personality-based television series presented by Media Gallery and Global Exposition and Management Services, in association with Republica. The program is aired on Nepal Television every Wednesday at 10:10pm.
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