Children Who Need Sponsors: Sponsor a Day Student
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D813 Anil Nepali Boy 4 years Class: Nursery
Anil Nepali is from Thulo Siruwari village, which lies in the Eastern region of Nepal in Sindupalchowk district, touching the border of Tibet. His village is not very far from the Kathmandu valley; it only takes 3 hours by bus to reach the village.
Thulo Siruwari is undeveloped and many facilities are not available. Sanitation and health care are non-existent and many villagers have no knowledge of nutrition. Most of the villagers are subsistence farmers so they live extremely simple lives.
Anil Nepali’s father is a member of the support staff at SMD. He has been working in the school full time since 2002 as a tailor. His mother still in the village, farming. |
D814 Suman Gole Boy 6 years Class: Nursery
Suman Gole is from Taraybershi village, which lies in the Central
region of Nepal in the Bagmati zone. The village is on the outskirts of the Kathmandu valley, situated in the surrounding hills. It takes 2 hours by bus and then a one-hour trek to reach Suman’s village.
Even though Taraybershi is near the capital, Kathmandu, it is still undeveloped. People do not have access to hospitals or schools
and there is no sanitation. The villagers are uneducated, so they
know nothing about hygiene and nutrition. Most of people in the
village still depend on traditional farming.
Suman is from a very poor family. They are farming on a very small piece of land, which cannot produce enough to feed the family. Suman’s father could not find a job here in Kathmandu, so he was forced to find work abroad. Like hundreds of thousands of uneducated Nepalis, he put up the family’s land as collateral and was cheated. The family lost everything. He then had to return home, and after receiving some support from his relatives went abroad again. He is currently working in Qatar under poor conditions. |
D817 Tseten Dolma Girl 9 years Class: 3
Tseten Dolma is from Tatopani, a part of Nepal that lies to the north of Kathmandu, high in the Himalayas, right on the border of occupied Tibet. Tatopani has none of the services provided by governments that people in more developed countries take for granted: education, health, telecommunications and transportation. Most Himalayan villages have no running water, electricity or sanitation.
Tseten Dolma’s parents are illiterate, as most Himalayan villagers are. The family’s difficulties are compounded by the fact that Tseten Dolma’s mother is lame and has serious psychological problems so that at times, she cannot provide proper care for her daughter. The family couldn’t access education because they are so poor. Although Tseten Dolma’s father works hard they live hand to mouth so it has been impossible for the family to send her Tseten Dolma to school. Tseten Dolma and her sister were put into a local Tibetan school, but the family had to pull the girls out of school…
they simply don’t have enough income to pay costs associated with
schooling: textbooks, uniform, etc. |
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D818 Chonzom Tsering Girl Age: 6 years Class: UKG
Chonzom is from Dolakha, which is one of the poorest districts of Nepal. Like all the rural districts, Dolakha doesn’t have modern facilities, including hospitals and schools. Though there are communication and transportation facilities in the village, Chonzom’s family has not been able to access them due to their poverty.
Chonzom was attending a government school, but as with all
government schools, the teachers are ill-trained and often absent for
months on end (still collecting their wages). The average class size
in public schools ranges up to 90 students. Classes run without
equipment, textbooks and supplies. Most Nepalese cannot afford the
small user fees needed to pay for public education (uniforms, shoes,
etc.) After grade two, Chonzom had to leave school to help her mother
in the fields and look after her younger siblings. |
D824 Phurbu Sangmo Lama Girl 10 years Class: 3
Phurbu Sangmo was born in Gorkha district, which is situated in
the western part of Nepal on the border of Tibet. Phurbu Sangmo is
from Nubri, a region in the north of Gorkha. It is very high altitude
(well above 10,000 feet). Phurbu Sangmo’s village has seen little
development. The people are extremely poor and, except for Buddhist nuns and monks are uneducated. There are many social problems due which elders and children are being suffered.
Phurbu Sangmo has one brother and one sister. Their mother is
chronically ill and unable to look after the three children, so they’ve been raised by their father who is unable to generate enough income to feed the family and to educate the children.
One of our monks, Lama Tenzin Dorje (years ago, the Principal of
SMD) requested that we take Phurbu Sangmo, the family will find it easier to survive. |
D825 Ngawang Gyamtso Lama Boy 8 years Class: 2
Ngawang Gyamtso is from a village an area called Nubri in Gorkha district in the north of Nepal. Lying well above 10,000 feet (3000 metres). Nubri is extremely rugged and has heavy snowfall in winter.
Most of the people here are seasonal nomads. They augment their living through subsistence farming, but the combination of altitude, weather extremes and the poor soil mean that the only crops that grow are barley and potatoes. |
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D828 Kusum Dolma Girl 13 years
Class: 5
Kusum Dolma is from Tatopani, a part of Nepal that lies to the north of Kathmandu, high in the Himalayas, right on the border of occupied Tibet. Tatopani has none of the services provided by governments that people in developed countries take for granted like education, health care, telecommunications and transportation. Most Himalayan villages have no running water, electricity or sanitation.
Like millions of Nepalis, Kusum’s father, driven by poverty, took a desperate gamble: he paid a local broker to get him out of the country (probably on false documents). He was told he was going to Malaysia but the family has had no word from him. He may have ended up in the Gulf, where nearly 1000 Illegal workers from Nepal die every year.
The tragedy of these all-too-common stories is that illegal workers from Nepal are sold into a modern-day form of slavery. They put up their land as collateral (one of the reasons for these scams is to cheat uneducated Nepalis of their birthright). This leaves the family nothing to survive on. This school year (April 2008) we’ve heard this story more than half a dozen times among the children we’ve admitted. It is a national and international scandal, which is going unnoticed.
Kusum is joining us this year and will be attending the school as a day student. She has an elder sister at SMD who is a boarder. SMD will provide Kusum with all the facilities, which she needs for school life: a hot midday meal, textbooks, dental care, and two uniforms.
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D829 Chodron Nun 11 years
Class: L.K.G.
Ani Chodron (“ani” is a respectful way to address a nun) comes from one of the least developed places in Nepal, and area called Tsum (or Dzum). It’s in the northernmost reaches of Gorkha district, right on the border of Tibet. Tsum has nothing in terms of development. The people are seasonal nomads who survive by doing subsistence farming. Still, they experience seasonal famine most years. Tsum is extremely high altitude and subject to weather extremes. Some years, the yaks suffocate from heavy snowfall.
Life in Tsum is lived as it has been for centuries, without running water, electricity, sanitation or health care. There are not schools, so many people try to get their children into monasteries and nunneries; that way, the children will have enough to eat and they will be education.
Ani Chodron came to the Kathmandu valley to become a nun in Lama Sherab Rinpoche’s nunnery. Lama Sherab is supporting many nunneries in the mountains, but not every monastery or nunnery can afford modern schooling facilities like Thrangu Rinpoche have given his disciples, so Lama Sherab Rinpoche requested to admit this little nun into our school so she could get a modern education along with learning the teachings of the Buddha. Since Ani Chodron is not one of our own nuns, she has a Day scholar’s Admission number, “D829”, rather than “N829”.
PS Ani Chodron is from the same nunnery where Sangay Dolma D014 comes from.
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