Maggie Namjou is building a new world for neglected Nepalese youth, one child at a time. Namjou has initiated a variety of important humanitarian movements in Nepal, including the launch of a women's cooperative in 1992. Located in southern Nepal, the cooperative sells traditional Nepalese artwork, supplied by women who create the designs out of their homes, to   Fair Trade shops in the United States and Europe. Although Namjou originally began the cooperative with her own money and support (and almost no knowledge of how to run a women's cooperative, so a huge uphill learning curve!), the cooperative is now self-sustaining, supplying jobs for hundreds of women and supporting a full 50-person staff. Namjou's efforts provided Nepalese women with a source of income that relied on their unique ancestral skills, freeing them from the horrendous labor practices many poor women suffer in Nepal. and empowering them to realize they are valuable contributors to society and can make change in their own grassroots way in their home communities.<br/><br/>Namjou formed Aastha House in 1996 and The Rising Child Nepal Foundation, which funds her projects was incorporated as a 501(c)3 nonprofit in 2006, after she decided to devote her time to her own humanitarian efforts and limit her work with development organizations.  Her grassroots efforts have spread far beyond the initial small group of children she took into her own home in Nepal in<br/>1996 (later to become Aastha House). Her work now range from working with street children, an education program for women and children in the squatter settlements, the rescue of girls sold into bonded labor, and her work in helping women find sources of income, allowing them to support their families. Namjou was awarded a medal of commendation from the Asha Nepal Foundation in 2004 for her efforts to improve the lives of dalit caste women in South Asia. She has also had numerous articles written about her work in newspapers across the country, including the Burlington Free Press in Burlington, Vermon