Olga Murray

2006 Winner – Social Category
2007 Judge
Age: 81
Hometown: Sausalito, California

See how she used her award money

Olga Murray has always been a champion for the underprivileged, and eager to fight discrimination. For 37 years, she served as a law clerk to the Chief Justices of the California Supreme Court. Upon retirement, Murray took a trip to Nepal that would change her life forever. While visiting the Himalayan Mountains, she discovered a world of overwhelming poverty and injustice. The children she encountered were poor beyond anything she had ever experienced and she was determined to find a way to help them.

She started by aiding disabled children who had no way of getting to school in their villages and could only attend boarding schools in Kathmandu. The number of scholarships that Murray provided grew, and she decided to start a foundation that would help these children in an organized manner.

In 1990, at the age of 65, Murray founded the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation (www.nyof.org) to give these children what should be every child’s birthright – education, housing, food, medical care and loving support. The organization currently sustains multiple orphanages that provide poor, blind and handicapped children with education and a loving and healthy environment; an Indentured Daughters Program that rescues young girls as young as six from bonded servitude; six Nutrititional Rehabilitation Homes that treat serverly malnourished children and mothers; scholarships for more than 2,700 children from kindergarten through medical school; a Counseling and Vocational School for children who have suffered traumatic hardships; and an Educational Program that builds schools and trains teachers in rural areas.

Murray’s compassionate and inspirational leadership has directly benefited the lives of more than 225,000 destitute Nepalese children over the course of her commitment to the people of Nepal. The indirect benefits of her programs for other children, families and entire communities are immeasurable. She knows what it means to “Stand On A Better World” and Mannington is honored to recognize her as the winner in the Social Category.

Olga Murray does not directly or indirectly endorse Mannington Mills, Inc. or its products or services.

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