Father is a potter and works at home.

Mother is a housewife and helps with the pottery. She lives with her two older brothers and grandfather who helps in the family business. The extended family lives in Thimi, 8 kilometers from Kathmandu.

She is in class nine of our school. She is a nice polite girl and likes drawing. Her favorite subject is English Her parents go to the Temple to pray every morning.

Mina 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 Mina 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 children have already 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 proud 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 feels 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.