MAGGIE DOYNE | BLINKNOW FOUNDATION
Seeing And Believing
Maggie Doyne is all about vision—seeing the world as it is and envisioning how it can be.
“There’s so much to do everywhere around us if we just open our eyes and start to see it.”
Five years ago, as a new high school graduate, she deferred college for a year to travel and see the world. What she saw in the foothills of the Himalayas sent her in an unexpected direction and she has never looked backed.
“I thought, ‘what have we done as a human family that children are living this way.’”
It was witnessing the plight of dozens of orphans in a remote, war-ravaged village of Nepal that stopped Maggie in her tracks and inspired a vision of how she could transform their lives.
“My goal was to build a home for the children who had lost their families and didn’t have anywhere to live. Children everywhere are the same. They want love and education and friendship.”
That was a tall order for a young woman of 19, but starting out with the money she had saved from years of babysitting in her New Jersey neighborhood, Maggie built her vision step by step.
“If we don’t like the things we see anywhere, we can change them.”
Today, just four years later, she is the co-founder of the Kopila Valley Children’s Home and School. The home is legal guardian to 44 children. The school, which opened in 2010, now serves 350 students and is rated top in the region. The school has classes from kindergarten through sixth grade, as well as a library, a cafeteria and an outdoor auditorium. Maggie’s plan is to expand it one year at a time until it is a high school as well.
“There are 80 million children in the world right now who are orphaned and don’t even have enough food to eat. In my lifetime I would like to see all of them have their basic human needs met.”
With her initial vision now a reality, Maggie has created the BlinkNow Foundation to sustain, grow and support Kopila Valley Children’s Home and School and to serve as a vehicle to share her ideas with others, especially young people in the U.S.
“In the blink of an eye, we can all make a difference. Hope and change is happening right before my eyes. And I see that in the faces of my children.”
At just 23 years old, Maggie is showing what is possible if you find your passion and make it work for the world.
“We all have something really special to give and now it’s my obligation to teach young people they can do the same thing. I believe our generation is really going to change things and create a world we really want to live in.”
