Helpers 4 Learners is not a large organization. It's purely a funding path for generous people to invest in a life. It has no office, no staff, and no overhead.
It's Bruce and Verna Ratzlaff — two Canadians with a deep affection for Nepal, a trusted partnership with an exceptional team in Kathmandu, and a small but committed community of donors who believe that education changes everything.
This is the story of how that happened.
How It Started
In 2016 Bruce and Verna travelled to Kathmandu for the first time to connect with a local humanitarian organization — Sundar Dhoka Saathi Sewa — and its founder Bikash Adhikari. On their very first day, something happened that they have never forgotten. That story is told on our Impact and Stories page. It became the seed of everything that followed. In March of 2018 they returned to Nepal for a month. During that visit, together with Bikash and his wife Bijata — a seasoned education program specialist — they held the founding meeting of what would become PEP. Bijata brought deep expertise from her previous role running a large international education sponsorship program. She designed the entire PEP strategy from the ground up — the intake process, the partnership covenant, the enrichment program, all of it. They launched with 20 children in April of 2018. A year later they added 10 more. Today PEP serves 90 children across Kathmandu — growing carefully, deliberately, and always with the child at the centre.
Who We Are
Bruce and Verna Ratzlaff are the co-founders of Helpers 4 Learners. They serve as Volunteer Directors of Nepal Ministries for International Messengers Canada Society — the registered Canadian charity that provides tax receipts for Helpers 4 Learners donors. Neither Bruce nor Verna take any compensation for their work. Every hour they invest in Helpers 4 Learners and PEP is volunteered.
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They travel to Nepal approximately every two years for in-person oversight of PEP — program audits, budget reviews, planning sessions, and time with the children and families they have come to know and love. Nepal has a permanent place in their hearts.
You can learn more about Bruce & Verna's broader work at:
Helpers 4 Learners
A Canadian donor funding initiative founded by Bruce and Verna Ratzlaff. Not a registered charity itself — but linked to International Messengers Canada Society, a registered Canadian charity that issues official tax receipts for all donations.
How It's Structured
We think donors deserve to know exactly how this works. So here it is.
A registered Canadian charity that receives and receipts all Helpers 4 Learners donations. Verna Ratzlaff serves as a board director of IMCS. 100% of donated funds flow directly to SDSS in Nepal.
A 30-year-old, 100% indigenous Nepali humanitarian organization founded by the Adhikari family. SDSS manages PEP entirely on the ground in Kathmandu — with full transparency, accountability, and a deep commitment to those they serve. PEP is one of several programs SDSS delivers across Nepal.
How Funds Are Controlled
Donations don't move automatically. Funds are held in Canada by IMCS as custodian until Bruce and Verna authorize a transfer. Each year, they review and approve PEP's full budget together with SDSS. Funds are then released to Nepal three times a year — and only after SDSS's routine financial reports have been reviewed. Any expense outside the approved budget requires individual sign-off from Bruce and Verna directly.
It's a few extra steps. But it means no dollar moves without someone checking first.
How We Oversee PEP
Being a funding partner from Canada means staying closely connected to what happens on the ground in Nepal. We do that in several ways.
DB and Suraksha provide regular field reports covering every child, every school, and every home. Bijata submits detailed program and financial reports that we review carefully. We approve the annual PEP budget and all significant spending decisions.
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And approximately every two years we travel to Kathmandu in person — to audit the program, meet with the SDSS team, visit schools and families, and see PEP at work with our own eyes.We have never had a reason to doubt what we find when we get there.
Our Helper Community
From the beginning, Helpers 4 Learners has been carried by a small, faithful group of people who believed in what PEP could do before it had proven anything. Some of our original Helpers are still with us today — quietly, consistently showing up every month or every year, year after year. We don't take that for granted.
They are the reason 90 children are in school right now.
New Helpers join when they hear the story and decide they want to be part of it. There is no membership, no obligation, and no pressure. Just people who care about children they will likely never meet — and who trust that their gift is making a real difference. It is.
Occasionally we gather our Helpers together for a good time celebration. And we have a standing offer. . . join us on our next trip, it's a culturally rich experience.Â
Thank you for taking the time to learn about
Helpers 4 Learners and PEP.
If you have questions about how we work, where the money goes, or what we have seen on the ground in Kathmandu — we would genuinely love to hear from you. This work is personal to us and we'd love to share more with you.Â