centre Funded by: cbd charitable foundation
Cost: £21,000. Opened: 2016
Skills centre workshop funded by: the funding network cost: £14,ooo. opened 2017
hostel accommodation funded by: Winchester college cost: £60,000. opened 2019
instructors’ accommodation & disabled toilet block funded by: delhi duty free
cost: £36,000. opening 2022
There are 3,000 neglected adults and children with Special Needs living in the Himalayan country of Ladakh. But there are very few facilities for those with Special Needs here, with one exception being a small initiative at Saboo Ayu which was used as a meeting place. The building consisted of a small, dilapidated single room with a couple of storage sheds.
The Lotus Flower Trust was approached by supporters of the initiative, asking if we would fund the construction of a Skills Centre, much like the one at our groundbreaking JSR Residential School and Home in Uttrakhand, where products can be made to create a small income and the children taught how to craft them. As the only facility of its kind in Ladakh, the Trust hopes the new PAGIR (People's Action Group for Inclusion and Rights) Special Needs Centre will act as a catalyst to improve the situation for these neglected adults and children who have been denied any kind of education.
Funded by CBD Charitable Foundation, the building has been built to the Ecodesign principle using a Rammed Earth Technique which maximises on the local conditions where temperatures drop to -30 degrees in the long winters, whilst the sun shines most of the time. The building is now complete.
Following the completion of the Centre, the Ladakh Hill Council kindly donated funds to purchase a Recycling Machine. With the support of The Funding Network, LFT are providing a Skills Centre Workshop in which to house the machinery pictured below. With the paper made by recycling rags, many amazing products are created and sold by its users, providing an income for the Centre. After visiting in 2017 and being very moved by the project, boys from Winchester College began fundraising for Hostel Accommodation to be used by the residents, carers and visitors.
The Skills Centre Workshop is now complete and the Hostel Accommodation, Instructors’ Accommodation and new Toilet Block is under construction.
