NAMLO International

History

Founded in 1999, Namlo International was started by Magda King, the first woman from Spain to reach the summit of an 8000m peak. In appreciation for the help she received from the Sherpa people during her expeditions, she wanted to give something back and chose education as the best gift.

To make that gift a reality, Magda traveled throughout the US, talking about her experiences as a climber and her dream of improving the lives of the Nepali people. Her presentations raised $10,000 in donations, enough at that time to build an elementary school. After spending 3 months in rural Nepal helping the community of Yarmasing build a school, she returned to Denver and co-founded Namlo International with her husband, Dr. Hugh King.

Based on their experiences in Nepal, Magda and Hugh saw that the key to success was helping communities take responsibility for their schools -- including participating in their construction, developing income generating projects to support their school, and working together to provide governance and support for good teaching and learning. Their goal was not just to build schools, but also to make them self-sustaining. They also saw an opportunity to connect American school children with Namlo schools, so that US students could experience the joy of making a difference.

They developed 5 interrelated programs to help empower communities to obtain the economic and social resources they need to keep their schools running smoothly, even after Namlo's 10-year commitment to each community expires. Those programs are: school construction, school improvement, sustainable community development, scholarships, and sister schools.

Board of Directors for Namlo International

Dale Rademacher (Board Chairman)

Dale Rademacher is a 4th generation resident of the St. Vrain Valley in Northern Colorado and was raised on the family farm east of Longmont. He has been involved in water and land stewardship issues since his early child hood summers which were spent irrigating crops on the farm. Dale graduated from Colorado State University with a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering in 1982.

He is a registered professional engineer and started work at the City of Longmont in 1984 and is currently Director of Public Works and Natural Resources for the City of Longmont.

Dale is a charter member of the Mead Rotary Club and co-chair of the Nicaragua Water Committee which is working to provide clean water and sanitation facilities for three villages in Nicaragua where Namlo has previously built schools: Los Pinares, Barrio Nuevo, and Miraflor.

Dale and his wife Karen have four children, Kyle, Jeff, Greg and Katie.

Rob McGough (Vice Chairman)

Rob McGough is an attorney in Denver, Colorado. Rob has over fifteen years of complex commercial litigation experience, and currently volunteers as pro bono counsel with Metro Volunteer Lawyers. Rob has a BA in International Relations and Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia, a JD, cum laude, from Catholic University Columbus School of Law, and an MA in International Studies from the University of Denver's Korbel School of International Studies. Rob and his wife, Dr. Mana Amir, a pulmonologist in Denver, celebrated the birth of their daughter, Leila, in March of 2011.

Hugh King (Cofounder/Board Secretary)

Hugh King has worked as a systems engineer at Bell Laboratories, as a computer consultant, practiced clinical medicine and for the last twelve years has taught mathematics, computer science, electrical engineering and biology courses at the Colorado School of Mines. He has a BS degree from Iowa State University, an MS degree from the Courant Institute of New York University, a PhD degree from the University of Colorado at Denver and an MD degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He has been elected “CSM’s Favorite Professor” by the students and “Best Teacher” by the CSM IEEE. He has been named “Outstanding Teacher” at CSM by the Alumni Association and in 2002 received the Burton Jones Award from the Mathematical Association of America for distinguished university teaching.

Mike Block

Mike Block has 30 years of diverse real estate experience with an emphasis on distressed assets, turnaround services and revenue enhancement. He has served as a court appointed Receiver for numerous commercial assets of all sizes and has consulted on distressed or under performing assets. He is a licensed Real Estate Broker in Colorado and has been the President of WLM Hospitatlity Management Corporation and Controller of Sage Hospitality.

Gene Dionne, Colonel (Retired) USAF

Gene Dionne is a retired aerospace engineering and program management executive. He graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and earned an MBA from Auburn University. Gene spent 26 years as a research and development engineer in the US Air Force, retiring in 1994 as a Colonel and Director of the Air Force’s Research Laboratory (AFRL) responsible for space and missiles technologies. In addition to technologies, his specialties in the AF were in systems engineering, space systems acquisition and project management.

The next phase of his career was at Lockheed Martin (LM) Space Systems Company in Denver where he was a Program Director, Vice President of a classified product area and Vice President for Engineering and Operations for LM’s national security space line-of-business. Since retiring from LM in 2005, Gene has served as 1/4 time consultant for them and several other aerospace companies.

His introduction to Namlo International was in 2010 as part of a volunteer team to refurbish a school building in the remote village of Sabhung, Nepal. He and his friends helped the villagers rebuild the two room structure in one week as well as raising the funds for construction material and some skilled local laborers. He enjoyed the involvement with Namlo and being able to directly help these communities and hopes to continue this involvement through the Board of Directors as well as more hand-on projects.

Gene and his wife Peggy have one son Jeremy. His personal interests tend towards outdoor activities such as long distance cycling, skiing, trekking, mountain climbing and adventure travel.

Blanche Kapushion

Blanche Kapushion has been in the field of education since 1983. With a MA in Curriculum and Instruction and a Ph.D in Educational Policy and Administration, Dr. Kapushion has been a classroom teacher, instructional coach, program coordinator, assistant principal and principal in Jefferson County Public Schools. Currently, Dr. Kapushion is the Director of Gifted and Talented programming in Jeffco and serves as the President of the Colorado Association of Gifted and Talented. A passion of assuring all children have access to edcation led Dr. Kapushion to NAMLO six years ago when she led a Sister School project with NAMLO's Barrio Nuevo school in Nicaragua. Blanche is a Colorado native and loves to travel the world to learn about new cultures, their educational systems and traditions.

John Rehl

John Rehl is a self-employed management consultant residing in Castle Rock, Colorado. He has over thirty years of professional experience in the technology industry, including time in executive positions with Google, DoubleClick, Sybase, and IBM. He also has experience as an entrepreneur founding Computer Education Services early on in the home PC revolution, which provided which has become one of the top five children's hospitals in the country. He earned a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Rhode Island, as well as a M.S. in Telecommunications from the University of Colorado. He enjoys spending time with his wife Lesia, son John IV, and daughter Dominique; as well as traveling, bicycling, hiking, skiing, and golf.

Magda King (Founder/ED)

Magda King, originally from Barcelona, Spain was US National Sales Manager for an export company until 1989 when she became the 1st woman from Spain to reach the summit of an 8,000 meter peak (Cho-Oyu 26,907 ft.). During her professional climbing career, she has climbed on seven of the only fourteen peaks in the world that exceed 26,000 ft. and organized many climbs to smaller peaks around the world. She has been recognized by Sports Women of Colorado, and received awards from the Mayor of Barcelona, the Olympic Committee, the President of the Catalan Government and many other organizations for her achievements in mountaineering. As a professional speaker, she motivates audiences to pursue their goals and make a difference in the world.

In appreciation for the help that she received from the Sherpa people during her expeditions, she wanted to give something back and chose education as the best gift. During 1998 she traveled through the United States doing slide shows and collecting the $10,000 in donations necessary to build an elementary school. After spending three months in a remote area of Nepal helping the locals build their school, she returned to Denver and in 1999 started Namlo International.

Volunteers

Thank you for supporting our work. Namlo International loves to connect volunteers with the children, teachers, and parents in our schools and communities. Below are some ways you can help make our programs come to life. Contact us for other volunteer needs (office help, fundraising events, etc.)

Read about our current volunteers.

Volunteer Opportunities

School construction

Travel to one of our schools to help with construction.

School improvement

Record books on tape (English or Spanish).

Travel to one of our schools to help train teachers in how to use donated books and materials.

Sustainable community development

Volunteer or partner with us to share your expertise in community building, small business operation, fair trade, crafts, potable water, renewable energy, health or hygiene.

Travel to one of our schools to help with a project.

Scholarships

Travel to one of our schools to tutor students in English.

Sister schools

Travel as individuals or a class to meet your sister school classmates and help them and their community.

For details about travel dates and costs, call (303-399-3649), or visit our contact page to reach us.