The Mountain Fund Newsletter

Dechristo · December 31, 2006

Greetings!

Tis the season to be jolly and tis the season to get your 2006 tax deduction by donating to The Mountain Fund, too! Take a look inside at all the things we have been doing in 2006 and a few of the things we are lining up for 2007.

Our home for rescued girls is open in Nepal. The Mountain Fund Volunteer Visitor Center opens this month in Kathmandu. We are now working with several new partners in Nepal and Peru. We had a successful fund raising trip to Peru in September and will be returning at least twice this year to Peru. Plans are underway for our Medical Camps in Nepal next fall as well as our school rebuilding project. Things just get busier and busier here and we thank all of you for making it possible.

Enjoy this month's newsletter and thanks for your support.

Partnership is Power

by Mountain Fund Poverty, a puzzle with many pieces.

Partnership is power. This axiom is the underlying principle behind all we do at Mountain Fund. Village issues in any of the mountain areas where we work are multi-faceted and require a multidisciplinary approach to succeed.

Introducing health care, for example, to an area may lead to lower infant and maternal mortality rates which in turn means that more pressure is put upon the natural resources of the area to support the increased population.

Healthcare systems alone cannot remedy underlying health issues from the environment i.e. unsafe water supplies, unhealthy indoor air quality. Those issues require engineering expertise to resolve. Also, public health education is critical to reduce transmission of disease. Assuming that local health conditions improve and mortality rates decline, new issues will be faced by the village, such as, how to feed the extra mouths, how to educate the additional children, how to find fuel for cooking without further degradation of the natural environment and how to create sustainable agriculture in areas with limited growing seasons.

Tinkering with any part of the balance will result in unintended consequences. That's why Mountain Fund has so many partners with such a diversity of skills and backgrounds.

In 2006, together with our partner organizations, we have made tremendous progress and incredible accomplishments. Here are some brief highlights of our work in 2006.

Porters Rights. We formed the Mountain Porter Concern Group in Kathmandu. Comprised of representatives from Porter's Progress, International Porter Protection Group (IPPG) and International Mountain Explorers, this group meets monthly to discuss ways that they can cooperate and collaborate on projects to help create better conditions for porters in Nepal. This group represents a real step forward in cooperation between these porter advocacy groups. The meetings are organized by Mountain Fund staff working in Kathmandu. We also helped Community Action Nepal (CAN) and IPPG with the Machermo Hut for porters this year by making a donation toward the cost of a solar system for the hut. In 2007 we'll be working with CAN to realize the dream of another hut at Gorak Shep.

Economic Progress for Peru. In September we organized and lead a high Andes trek as a fund raising event for Aynikuy, our micro-finance program in Peru. Five guests from all over the US joined us and made this trek a huge success.

Healthcare. Working with Dan Mazur's Summitclimb we helped to make possible a trip that established a new clinic at Patale, the "wrong side" of Everest. The medical team treated over 100 patients during this trip, some of whom walked over two days to reach the clinic.

Women's Programs. We organized attendance at a NOLS course for Oksana Polonskaya from Bishkek and now she is back teaching other youth about first aid and the Leave No Trace ethics she learned during that course. NOLS and Mountain Fund will be partnering again in 2007 to help bolster the outdoor leadership program run by EWN in Pokhara, Nepal. We'll also be working with ClimbHigh Foundation in Africa. See stories in this issue.

Youth Programs. Working with our partner Empowering Women of Nepal we opened Himalaya House in Pokhara this year. Himalaya House provides a safe home and education to young girls who were sold into servitude, often by their own families. Himalaya House is now home to 15 such girls who have a home environment that is safe and supportive. They are all attending school now too.

These are just a few of the 2006 highlights. We continue everyday to support health programs, schools, women's training, youth programs, porters programs and environmental programs in mountainous regions throughout the world. Thanks for your help in making this possible.

See more in our 2006 newsletters.

Mountain Fund Projects for 2007

by MF Please give them your support. visitor signage

Nepal - Everest Region. Mountain Fund will sponsor a research project in the Everest region that will document and examine the impact of tourism and provide guidance to the local populations on how to manage resources for the future. The research team of A. Lew, K. Tatsugawa, and G. Nyaupane will begin work in January of 2007.

Nepal - Gerku School. In November 2007 Mountain Fund will host a work team for the reconstruction of the school in the village of Gerkhu. The school serves approximately 100 children in the area but has fallen into serious disrepair. Mountain Fund work teams will spend two weeks bringing the buildings back to useable and safe conditions.

Peru - Medical Assistance. Not far from Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley, Mountain Fund partner Reach out Children's Fund has been key in improving education and educational facilities to the 250 student attending the Huilloc school. Recently we were informed of the dire medical needs of these children. The following message was sent to us by the Reach Out Children's Fund.

The biggest battle for us is health care. The children never see a doctor and have yet to see a dentist. The biggest issues in the village are: dysentery, broken bones, infected teeth, cataracts and frostbite due to the high altitude.

In July 2007 Mountain Fund will host a trip to Peru to offer medical care and assistance to these children. The 16 day trip will include a tour of the Inka sites, including Machu Pichuu.

Nepal - Volunteers. The Mountain Fund Volunteer Visitor Center is now open in Kathmandu. This provides the only central source of information for anyone looking to do volunteer work in Nepal. Volunteering contributes an incredible 5% of GNP to Nepal. With peace at last in Nepal, more people than ever are trying to find out volunteer opportunities. The Mountain Fund Volunteer Visitor Center is a veritable one-stop shopping experience for volunteer opportunities in Nepal.

Peru - Microfinance. In September 2007 Mountain Fund will repeat the popular Ausangate Trek Fund Raiser for our micro finance program in Cusco. Last year we had five guests and great time. All profits go to Ainkuy, the street vendor loan program we have in Peru.

Nepal - Moving Medical Clinic. In October 2007 Mountain Fund is hosting a two-week moving medical clinic in the remote Rasuwa district of Nepal. Starting at the Karing for Kids clinic in Goljung, we'll trek the entire Tamang Heritage Trail and stop every other day to set up a health clinic. A medical staff of fifteen will spend the entire day treating anyone that comes in the door. Then we pack up and repeat the clinic in the next village up the trail. Mountain Hardwear generously provided us the with tents needed for this clinic including the main portable clinic itself, a giant Mountain Hardwear Space Station.

Nepal- Early Childhood Education. Mountain Fund has made a commitment to our partner Maya Foundation to help establish a pilot program for early childhood education in Nepal.

In 1990, 155 countries drafted the World Declaration on Education for All (EFA). Almost two decades ago, the importance of early childhood education was already stated. Unfortunately, in the rural areas of Nepal, not much was really done about it.

It wasn’t until the beginning of 2006 that UNESCO, through its daughter organization IIEP, finally gave full attention to it.

If the vicious cycle of inequality is to be broken, then child care and education have to start very early, before primary school. In most developing countries, early childhood education is restricted to urban middle-class children. Children from rural areas and low-income families not only are denied access to this kind of education, but they enter primary school later than other children. If inequalities are to be reduced, and if education is to benefit disadvantaged children, much more attention has to be given to providing early childhood care and education--- for the poor.

Peru - Enthnomusicology. The Q’eros people in the southern Perúvian Andes have maintained indigenous traditions, such as music, weaving and spiritual practices, that many other Andean communities have lost.

Holly Wissler has been an adventure travel guide in the Andes of Peru since 1982 and Himalayas of Nepal since 1987. She holds double masters degrees from the University of Idaho in Flute Performance and Music History. She is the producer of the 1998 video documentary Qoyllur Ri’ti: A Woman’s Journey, about the large pilgrimage festival in Peru known as Qoyllur Rit’i and her inside role as mayordoma (sponsor) of a dance group. She is currently on a Fulbright-Hays grant conducting doctoral dissertation research on the musical traditions and modernization of the isolated Quechua community of Q’eros in the southern Andes of Peru. During her fieldwork Holly has video-taped over thirty hours of rare and unique video footage of Q’eros musical rituals and is fund-raising to produce a video documentary about Q’eros’ traditional music. This is the first in a series of on-going documentation projects about Q’eros music, to include CD recordings and an on-line digital archive.

Mountain Fund is proud to be helping Holly create the video and document this fast vanishing way of life.

Uganda - Women's Employment Program. Working with our new partner and uber-energy person, Alison Levine, founder of ClimbHigh Foundation we hope to increase employment opportunities for women in nontraditional roles, such as guiding and portering in the climbing industry.

ClimbHigh needs immediate donations of clean, synthetic sleeping bags for women it now has employed in the Rwenzori Mountains. Learn more here.

Ongoing Projects. In addition to some of our new projects we continue to work with and support dozens of programs being run by small, local organizations in Peru, Nepal and Central Asia. We will continue to support and help these organizations grow and prosper in 2007.

In some cases the support from The Mountain Fund has been the lifeline that keeps these projects open and running. The Karing for Kids clinic in Goljung, Nepal is one example of a project that depends almost entirely on our help to keep the clinic open.

In 2006, The Mountain Fund made grants totaling nearly $18,000 to programs like Karing for Kids. In 2007 we hope to raise that amount to $25,000. With your help, we will reach that goal.

Please Support Our Work

Burning and Freezing on the Spine of the Americas.

by Scott Arrerios, Street Vendors and other tales from Peru

At nearly 16,000 feet in the Andes the sun is relentless. Moments after it sets the temperature plunges, the stars come out and the cold Andean night begins. Five Mountain Fund supporters have just returned from this land of contrast and a successful circumnavigation of the beautiful Nevado Ausangate massif.

Southeast of Cuzco, the awesome Cordillera Vilcanota includes a number of peaks of which Ausangate is the highest at 20,945 feet (6,384 meters). On a clear day, the peak is visible from Cuzco. The snow-capped peaks of this area offer spectacular mountain scenery, hot springs, turquoise lakes, glaciers, herds of llamas and alpacas, picturesque villages and traditionally dressed Indians. The seven day circular trek starts and finishes at the small Andean village of Tinqui and takes you around the massif of Ausangate and over three high passes (two of them over 5000m).

Prior to undertaking the trek of Ausangate, we spent one week touring the major Inca sites that populate the Sacred Valley and the city of Cuzsco. All of us marveled at the craftsmanship of the Inca builders in Pisac, Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu. In the week preceding the trek we also got to know our guide, Freddie. We came to appreciate his knowledge of the culture from which he has descended as well as his pride in the history of his country.

The people that live in the high Andean landscape are tough; there is just no other way to put it. The extremes of landscape and temperatures demand it of them. Our ‘arrerios’, for example, are some of the hardest working and most rugged people I have ever had the pleasure to know. ‘Arrerios’ are the horsemen who rise every morning, long before us we trekkers , and greet us with hot drinks and hot water for washing. They leave camp after we do and in spite of the fact they have to take down the tents and pack everything on the horses and prepare a lunch for us to take with us, they appear, as if by magic, at the next night’s camp ahead of us. We see them setting up the tents in the distance and by the time we arrive our dining tent is up and hot drinks and a snack are waiting. I really have yet to figure out how they do it.

The arrerios aren’t just tough, they are also very caring and compassionate - rugged and gentle at the same time. About the third or perhaps it was the fourth day on the trek I came down with an illness that I’ll delicately refer to as Inca revenge. By the third day without food I was becoming very cold as we approached our final pass over the 15,000 feet mark. Even though I was wearing a down jacket and my insulated belay pants, my body had nothing to create heat with. I staggered behind Jose, old Jose that is, (his son, young Jose was with us as well) rumored to be anywhere from 60-70 depending on who you asked. I was just about to complain of the cold when I noticed that Jose was wearing the classic rubber sandals of this regions, with no socks, had no gloves on and was wearing only the light rain jacket I had given him at the start of the trip. Even in my diminished state it was clear that to complain of cold to a man with bare feet and a windbreaker would have been a cowardly act on my part. Jose speaks Quechua, and I don’t, so the language barrier may have saved me from making any remarks as well. Jose had been walking with me for three days now to make certain that if I became too sick to walk, I could ride the horse he was leading. Every half an hour or so he’d stop and point at the horse, a gesture that clearly meant that as far as he was concerned I ought to be riding it and not trying be macho about things.

Less than twelve hours later I had recovered enough to share a few beers with these guys while soaking in some hot springs. That evening we dined together on a feast they had prepared in the tradition of the high Andes, Pachamanca. This important part of Peruvian cuisine , has existed since the time of the Incan Empire. Preparation begins with the heating of stones over a fire, and the meat (typically lamb) is then placed on top. The fire is covered with grass and earth, and the resulting oven is opened up after a couple of hours and the feast is served!

We had a great trip, even with the illness I loved it. As one participant noted, after every pass the scenery would open into another valley that was always, if such is possible, even more beautiful than the one before. Several members of our group tried out inflatable kayaks in a glacial lake at 15,000 feet. The arrerios were enthralled with the whole kayak business and each took a turn paddling the lake with huge smiles on their faces. I think for me personally, the moments of care and compassion shown by our arrerios will always stay with me as the true high point of this trip. Mountains are indeed beautiful places, magical places too. I don’t think anything is more magical and beautiful, though, than the friendships I have with these arrerios -, my proud, tough and kind kings of these mountains.

I think all of us felt good knowing that our trip had raised much needed money that will be used as micro- loans to help people in Peru start small business, purchase a street-vending cart and inventory. These are fine, hardworking people. Access to capital is very difficult and yet even a modest amount can make all the difference in the world for them. Our program, called Aynikuy, is making small loans available at terms that are within the reach of the people needing them. Peru gave all of us on this trip wonderful times, hospitality and friendship. It’s great to be giving something back to Peru.

Join us on a trip to Nepal or Peru this year !

NOLS and Mountain Fund

by Lea Weston another nols

In an article in the last issue of this newsletter we told the story of Oksana Polonskaya, a former orphan from Bishkek, and her quest to lead others like herself on trips to the mountains of Kyrgisthan. We complete that story in this issue with a note of gratitude we've received from Oksana. That isn’t the real end of this story, however. NOLS, or National Outdoor Leadership School, the countries premier school for outdoor leadership skills and Mountain Fund have a commitment to each other for continuing programs. We are presently discussing the possibility of having an NOLS instructor assist with one of the outdoor courses run by Empowering Women of Nepal as well as looking at future exchanges of young men and women from both Central Asia and Nepal and having them attend outdoor leadership courses at NOLS.

Attending NOLS courses is a superb way to positively impact the future of hiking and trekking in these regions of the world. For tourism to succeed in the long run, it has to be sustainable and protective of the natural resources that tourists are going to admire. NOLS courses are a great way for sustainable tourism practices to be taught to young guides just starting out. We are confident that over time our partnership with NOLS will have lasting positive impact on the tourism practices in mountain regions.

In her online journal, Oksana Polonskaya shares how the NOLS experience has influenced her outdoor leadership abilities and practices.

Trip of My Dreams

The first time I heard about NOLS was from an American friend of mine, Molly Loomis, a NOLS instructor . . . This wilderness leadership course sounded like a lot of fun to me. I knew that a lot of people were proud of me because they knew I was trying very hard, especially since I was a girl who grew up in a Kyrgyz children’s home. I got a lot of new skills and now I am happy to be back home to continue working with the Alpine Fund and share my new experience with the kids.

For example, I have never heard anything about “Leave No Trace Principles” but they are very important. The kids have never heard about these principles either. So, I decided this would be something really good for the kids to know about.

I planned the lesson on the seven principles of Leave No Trace as taught to me at NOLS. [The kids] gave me examples of seeing a lot of people leaving trash after camping, making fires, and being disrespectful to the environment. They understood that this is not good and might cause a lot of problems in the future . . . It was uplifting to see that having gained an appreciation for the wonders of the wilderness, the children were eager to care for these wild places as well.

I learned a lot on my NOLS semester last summer. There are all kinds of interesting and useful things that I want to teach the kids now.

Oksana Polonskaya

The Mountain Fund is looking forward to a long and beneficial relationship with NOLS. We are deeply grateful for the opportunity provided Oksana.

See pictures from Oksana here

Horan Fund Issues Challenge Grant

by MF Make your donation go further himalaya house girl

The Tessa Marie Horan Fund has awarded us with three challenge grants. Please take up the challenge and help us match them.

* $5000 to operate the Volunteer Visitor Center in Nepal

* $1800 to sponsor a women's outdoor education program in Nepal

* $780 to sponsor one girl for one year at the Himalaya House in Pokhara Nepal

With your help we can make these generous grants go further. Please match them today.

Tessa Marie Horan died on February 1,2006 on the island of Va’vau in the Kingdom of Tonga. She was killed in a shark attack. Tessa was in Tonga as a Peace Corp volunteer.

Learn more about Tessa here

Couriers Needed - Nepal and Tanzania

by IMEC Porter Gear Stuck in the US

Carry clothing to Nepal or Tanzania: The Porter project is always looking for people and companies who will carry clothing to Nepal and Africa, please contact us if you know anyone who can help. You will be met at the airport by a representative - and gain a ride to your hotel into the bargain.

For more details email info@hec.org.

Visit IMEC

Building a Better Playground for All

by John Antos Social responsibility can be natural for outdoor enthusiasts

As an outdoor enthusiast you understand the strong connection between humans and nature. Outdoor enthusiasts also recognize the undeniable connection between the impoverished people living in the world’s mountainous regions and what a thriving outdoor industry can do to help these people continue to survive.

The mountains are our playground, and the care of the people and environment that make up that playground is our direct concern. Just as many outdoor enthusiasts are sensitive to environmental threats to the mountainous regions that we enjoy, so to must they be sensitive to doing business with socially responsible companies when it comes to the improvement of the lives of the local populations in these areas.

To be sure, the outdoor industry has been both responsible for some of the problems as well as potentially being a large part of the solution for bringing help to these impoverished mountain people.

For example, tens-of-thousands of men and women are employed as porters in the trekking industry in Peru, Nepal and Tanzania. Currently, neither the large international aid organizations nor the global donor community recognize the issue of these porters’ working conditions. Many outdoor enthusiasts have come into direct contact with these porters during their journeys. While the providing of employment is a plus, the poor conditions under which they work cannot be overlooked by outdoor enthusiasts who have trekked with them. With so many other problems in the world, decades may pass before the treatment of trekking porters makes it on to the agendas of the international community.

Making a Difference.This is your chance to make a difference and improve the mountain playground you enjoy for yourself, the environment, and the impoverished people who live there. The companies that support The Mountain Fund recognize that their success and the success of the mountain community are linked. They further recognize that they can, through their support of The Mountain Fund have direct impact on the plight of porters and other key issues facing the mountainous regions of our world. Our supporters also have discovered some powerful business reasons for becoming involved with the work of The Mountain Fund.

* 8 in 10 Americans say that corporate support of causes winds their trust in a company. That number is up 21% since 1997, proof that customers are paying attention

* 86% of Americans say that they are likely to switch from one brand to another that is about the same price and quality if the other brand is associated with a cause. Proof that customers are loyal to companies they see as responsible.

* 72% of employed Americans would choose to work for a company that supports charitable causes when deciding between two otherwise comparable job offers.

* Spending on cause related marketing is up 20% from 2005 and will reach $1.3 billion in 2006. The companies spending that kind of money on cause related marketing read the first three statements and clearly saw the trend.

Call to Action – Make a Difference Today.Basic corporate support of The Mountain Fund starts at only $250 a year. To understand the magnitude of this gift: Our volunteers spend more than $250 buying outdoor equipment for a single Mountain Fund trek; that same $250 can make a substantial improvement in many impoverished mountain areas. We appreciate these generous gifts and we support these companies who support us by wearing their logos on our volunteer trips. It’s not just about doing the right thing. It’s about inspiring social change while inspiring consumer consumption. Good deeds and good companies, more than ever, just naturally go together. Contact us for more information on becoming a supporter.

Learn More Here

New Staff in Kathmandu

by Mountain Fund Sudhir Lama to run Mountain Fund Center and IMEC sudhir

Please welcome Sudhir Lama to The Mountain Fund staff. Sudhir has been working for the porter project in Nepal and will now also be the director of Mountain Fund's Volunteer Visitor Center in Kathmandu.

Learn More about the Visitor Center

Education in Nepal

by Rene Voss Maya Foundation gerkhu kids

I came to Nepal for the first time in 2003. I discovered a beautiful country with lovely people. However, my enchantment turned into despair when I came into contact with the Nepali educational system in a small rural community in the foothills of the Annapurnas. I volunteered to teach at the local primary school and after a year I started the Maya Foundation to promote help to the Nepalese schoolchildren at a truly grassroots level. Three years later, I still live in the same community.

The government in Nepal has only been active in the field of education for the past 50 years. Its focus is still on school buildings. Teachers, supplies and the quality of teaching are completely outside the scope of the government’s policy. In Nepal, education in the rural areas still and foremost takes the form of rote learning. The teacher talks (usually with a load voice; therefore to scream better describes the vocal activity of a Nepali teacher) and the children listen. The teachers try to drill knowledge into young brains, with the help of a bamboo stick if needed. There are no teaching materials whatsoever; there is no learning through playing or learning through doing; there are no activities, neither single nor in small groups; there is no stage in the learning process of practicing or producing anything with the knowledge acquired. Today, in rural Nepal, the approach is clearly teacher oriented.

Our vision, at the Maya Foundation, is child oriented; we look at education through the eyes of the child. Children need an affectionate and inspiring environment in which they can develop fully and become who they really are—beautiful children of Mother Earth.

Global context of the need for Early Childhood Education In 1990, 155 countries drafted the World Declaration on Education for All (EFA). Almost two decades ago, the importance of early childhood education was already stated. Unfortunately, in the rural areas of Nepal, not much was really done about it. It wasn’t until the beginning of 2006 that UNESCO, through its daughter organization IIEP, finally gave full attention to it. If the vicious cycle of inequality is to be broken, then child care and education have to start very early, before primary school. In most developing countries, early childhood education is restricted to urban middle-class children. Children from rural areas and low-income families not only are denied access to this kind of education, but they enter primary school later than other children. If inequalities are to be reduced, and if education is to benefit disadvantaged children, much more attention has to be given to providing early childhood care and education for the poor. And while it is great to finally have recognition for it, what children really need in rural Nepal today is the actual early childhood center, free of charge, with the actual teachers and the actual teaching materials to bring it into their daily lives and to make it all happen. Talking is fine for policy makers, but children living under poor conditions need actions, not words.

Actions: The Maya Foundation The Maya Foundation is doing just that: opening up early childhood centers in rural Nepal. In 2004 it opened its first center in a small village in the foothills of the Annapurnas. As it was very popular with the local people from the start, it has welcomed many preschool children. In 2005 it received an honorable mention from the Nepali Ministry of Education. In the same year we opened up a workshop where local people craft educational materials that otherwise we would not be able to get hold of in Nepal. Obviously we are on the right track. All we want now is to continue constructing and equipping more early childhood centers, training more nursery class teachers, instructing more locals how to create high quality educational materials. Because these children deserve our care and attention. To be able to do this, however, we need your help! Please donate towards the future of the children of Nepal. Together with the Maya Foundation you can make the difference!

The Maya Foundation is a partner of The Mountain Fund for positive change in Nepal. To support them please make a donation today to Youth and Children's Programs at The Mountain Fund.

donate here...

Machermo Open

by Community Action Nepal Gorak Shep is Next machermo

The porter's shelter and rescue post at Machermo had an official grand opening in October. Mountain Fund is supporting the efforts of Community Action Nepal to build another facility at Gorak Shep.

To help build the Gorak Shep shelter, please make a donation today to the Mountain Fund under the category of Human Rights Programs.

Help build the Gorak Shep here

News from Shantidhara

Maria Jojayya Addagatla Educating India's Poor

The academic year 2005-2006 ended very successfully in May and after the annual examinations, the children went to their villages to spend their month long summer holidays. But for the staff, the holidays amounted to very few days indeed, as they continued their work of preparing and gathering the necessary things for the coming academic year such as tamarind, mango and tomato pickles

As you all know, up to May of this year we had only 14 children at the hostel. Clara Gari (PILLALU Association), was supporting 9 children while another 5 children were being supported by Noor Gillani (PYAR Foundation). During Clara and Enrique's visit January 2006, Clara made an agreement with Shantidhara to support a further 10 children and also to support the further education of Sharuna (more about Sharuna's exam success below!). Every project has its ups and downs, and ours is no different. Unfortunately two children were forced to discontinue their studies because of irreparable family problems but on the other hand, Nikhil, whose parents withdrew him last year from the hostel, thankfully decided to send him back for this academic year and we are delighted to welcome him again.

Though Shantidhara receives many applications for admission to the hostel, we have personally visited all the applicant families and finally selected 12 very deserving poor children to fill the new places and the places vacated. We have also tried our best to maintain a good balance between girls and boys (13 boys and 11 Girls).

It was very difficult for the new children leaving their favorite village-squares and it took two weeks for all of us to accustom them to the life of the hostel and school, and to get them looked after properly with a lot of work such as haircuts, daily intensive baths, doctor's check ups and medications, nourishing food, teaching them new games etc., and now everyone is now very happy with life in the hostel.

Thank you dear friends.

Maria Jojayya Addagatla

Director

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