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Father is a farmer and works in the local
fields growing rice and a variety of vegetables. .
Mother is a housewife and helps her husband in the fields.
She has one younger brother and a grandmother who lives with the family
and helps in the house and fields.
The extended family lives in Thimi, 8 kilometers from Kathmandu.
She is in class four of our school. She is a nice polite girl; she is a
guide and likes games and drawing. Her favorite subjects are Maths and
Science. Her parents go to the Temple to pray every morning...
Alisha Prajapati lives in the village of Thimi which is traditionally
where pottery, mask making and farming are the main employment. Potters
have their wheels outside their homes and dry the pots in the sun; when
there are enough they surround them with straw and ash making a “
haystack”.
This is then lit and the mound smolders for three to four
days to fire the pots. Farming is another occupation; vegetables and
rice are grown in the very fertile soil and the farmers get the early
morning bus to sell their produce to the market in Kathmandu or to big
hotels. As machine pots are now sold cheaply and not so many pots are
sold, villagers are making furniture and looking for other employment.
There are two carpet factories in Thimi and the owners are doing their
best to give workers a healthy environment to live in with medical aid
when needed.
Your sponsorship allows Alisha to be educated in English, Maths, Science
and Computer Studies and enables her to stay in education until her 15th
birthday. Culturally, this is very important as sometimes in Nepal a
girl has to leave school at 12 years of age to look after other siblings
or grandparents. They, therefore, do not get the opportunity to have
successful employment or go on to further education. Some of our
sponsored students have completed their secondary education and are
studying at university to become lawyers and doctors as well as
engineers and teachers.
As well as schooling we sponsor a Goat Project. A family is given a goat
which they then mate, thus creating their own small herd of goats. They
are able to sell the milk, cheese and meat giving them an income. We are
very proud of our Nepalese culture and make sure that students
participate in religious festivals wearing their traditional dress. We
are happy that we are able to admit children with minor disabilities to
our school and we work closely with the disabled school in Thimi. We are
keen to look after our village and undertake projects like “Keep Thimi
Tidy". Our students go round the village collecting all the rubbish,
sweeping the streets and talking to people about environmental issues.
I enclose a list of donation items and scale of fees should you or your
friends be interested. Not only does this sum pay for the child’s
schooling but it also pays for a school uniform and their exercise
books.
Our school works closely with the local health centre to improve health
care and we are doing our best to improve conditions in the local carpet
factories. |