William Brangham:
Maggie Doyne’s decision to postpone college and work with refugees in India transformed her life and the lives of many others. Her story has been captured through the lens of filmmaker and partner Jeremy Power Regimbal.
Here’s Maggie and Jeremy’s Brief But Spectacular take on family.
Maggie Doyne, Co-Founder, Kopila Valley Children’s Home and School: Growing up in New Jersey, my parents were a little bit off the beaten track with the no TV and the no Internet. I was pretty lucky. I had everything in the world, from a soccer team to play on to a really good public school to go to.
As I was graduating in 2005, everyone was going to college, college, college, college, college. And kind of at the very last minute, I signed up for a gap year. I ended up in the Northeast of India, and I was working in a refugee region.
It felt somehow easier to stay and take on something that was hard and challenging than it felt to just turn away and go back.
I moved to Nepal, learned the language, found my co-founder, Tope. OK, this is Tope. Hello.
Tope Malla, Co-Founder, Kopila Valley Children’s Home and School: I know that life — what is the hungry life, what is the freezing life, and what is the hard time.
