To see the sea was the biggest surprise. It’s so big I can’t catch it in my eyes!” beams 15-year-old Laxmi Napit on her first trip to Japan. The star pupil of Nepal’s Himalaya Primary School, she represents the achievements of two Japa- nese men who are attempting to reverse Nepal’s status as South Asia’s poorest country by providing free education.

According to UNICEF, more than 3,000 Nepalese children die every month, and 60 percent of those deaths are due to malnutrition.And the country’s education system is a shambles following the 1996- 2006 civil war.