Funded by: TFWA Care
Cost: £36,000. opened: 2019
PHASE 2: KITCHEN & DINING ROOM
FUNDED BY TFWA CARE COST: £11,500
The local Education Authorities asked if we could supply funds to construct a purpose-built residence for 50 girls at the Middle School in Nyoma, Ladakh. Now complete, the girls can sleep in warmth, comfort and with dignity instead of in their previous ‘crinkly tin’ building which became unsafe.
Nyoma village is the administration centre of the Changthang Plain area of Ladakh. It is very remote, not far from the Tibetan border. Roughly 3,000 people live in the area. They are nomadic or semi nomadic tribal people who breed Yaks for their skins and milk, sheep for their wool and goats for Pashmina. Whilst five percent of the people look after the animals grazing in high pastures, many others work for Himank, the high roads builders in the Himalayas, and earn very poor wages. The environment is incredibly harsh and temperatures in the long winter months can plummet to minus 30 degrees.
The people live in 20 villages across the plain but the older children come into Nyoma to board, where there is a Middle School and Inter College. On our visit to the area, which we understand was the first by any NGO, we found that the young people needed motivation and support to help change their lives and improve opportunities. We hope the new accommodation for the girls at this school will act as a catalyst for change.
Funders TFWA Care have also generously funded a much-needed kitchen and dining room at the new hostel for which the girls are very grateful. Toilets and washing facilities were also donated by the Ladakh Hill Council.