Father is a carpet weaver and works at the local carpet factory.

Mother is a housewife and also works at the carpet factory.

He has one younger sister and his grandparents live in a remote mountain village.

The family live in Thimi, 8 kilometers from Kathmandu.

He is in the Nursery class of our school; he is a nice polite boy and likes drawing and games. His favorite subjects are English and Maths. His parents go to the temple to pray every morning...

Bibek Rai 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 Bibek to be educated in English, Maths, Science and Computer Studies and enables him to stay in education until his 15th birthday. Culturally, this is very important as sometimes in Nepal a child 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 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 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 traditions 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 school 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.
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