Projects in Nepal

Lo Kunfen Medical School

KINOE helps to fund a medical school for traditional Tibetan Medicine in the remote area of Mustang. The school was established in 2000 with KINOE funds and is attached to the Lo Kunfen medical clinic which was set up in 1993 by Gyatso and Tenzing Bista. These brothers are highly respected and experienced practitioners of Tibetan medicine (amchis) in Mustang. Both have lectured and studied abroad, and are dedicated to the development and acceptance of Tibetan medicine in Nepal and beyond.

The Lo Kunfen School has three central purposes:

The school has 29 students who study classical Tibetan, English, Nepali, maths as well as traditional Tibetan medicine. A rigorous programme of formal study for at least five years is followed by one to two years of practical experience under the supervision of a qualified amchi.

In 2006 the school was delighted to receive approval as a Nepali government registered centre for amchi studies. Currently they are the only school in the country registered to offer this formally approved curriculum. The first eight students who sat the entrance examination for this course all passed with flying colours.

The students range in age from around 11 to 20 years. Those who live in Lo Manthang attend daily, while those from the outlying villages board. All are highly motivated, and those who do well will have the opportunity to become amchis. They will be expected to give a minimum of five years service in the district in repayment for their training. No fees are charged, but to keep school costs to a minimum, students bring their own bedding, basic foods (barley flour and butter) and firewood. Even this represents a challenge to the resources of poor families, and some are only able to make small contributions. Because of the harsh winter climate, the school runs for only seven months in Lo Manthang. During the cold winter months the students make a ten day trek to the warmer lowland town of Pokhara where they attend winter school for three months.

About Mustang

Situated at altitudes ranging from around 2,000 to over 8,000 metres, Mustang protrudes like a finger from the northern edge of Nepal into Tibet. The people speak a dialect of the Tibetan language, practise the Buddhist religion and have a Tibetan cultural heritage. The rocky landscape is virtually a mountain desert, its harsh grandeur broken only by small oases, where villages have grown up around a water source.

Mustang was once part of Tibet and although now part of Nepal, it has retained a degree of autonomy and continued spiritual and cultural allegiance to Tibet. Lo Manthang, the capital of Upper Mustang, is 8 days’ walk from a road and its geographical remoteness and restricted foreign access have protected the area from many of the influences of modern development. Mustang’s unique and precious culture, including its beautiful works of art, the Buddhist philosophies and traditions all survive.

However, the inhabitants of Mustang, in particular Upper Mustang, have received few of the benefits of modern medicines, education or economic development. For the poorest families, survival depends on a grinding round of subsistence farming and animal husbandry, in a harsh and unproductive environment. Their earnings are supplemented by the migration of younger family members who trade in India and other parts of Nepal for several months each year. Many children do not have access to formal education, or western style healthcare. Local health needs are met by practitioners of Tibetan medicine, called amchis. This ancient system of healing is still highly respected and trusted in Mustang, and other culturally Tibetan parts of Nepal.

By supporting the school, KINOE is helping to preserve this ancient form of medicine, an important part of the region’s cultural heritage.

It now costs on average £400 a year to train one student at the school. The school needs more funds to help it continue. In order for KINOE to be able to maintain its current level of support it needs to raise more money. If you would like to help in any way please contact us.

"My aim is to become a doctor because in our district in remote area of Nepal there are not many hospitals and doctors. The people are suffering from many diseases and there is no support from the government because it is too far from Nepal and it is joined with the Chinese border. I want to be a doctor to help our Upper Mustang people who have not had an education and do not know how to care for their body. If more people are educated they will not suffer from disease. If I can help I will be satisfied"

Damdhul Gurung, student

Sapta Gandaki School

KINOE sponsors five children at The Sapta Gandaki School in Kathmandu. The school provides a fee-paying education for Sherpa children living in Kathmandu and also provides a boarding facility for those further afield.

There are 20 students altogether supported under a joint project run by KINOE, the Himalayan Trust UK and the Kings School Worcester Nepal Trust. The purpose of the project is to enable children from poor families, mainly from Buddhist hill ethnic groups now living in Kathmandu, to receive an education that will enable them to move out of the cycle of poverty into which they were born.

The sponsored students are mainly Sherpas from the Everest area, with a few from other hill and mountain areas. Their families moved to Kathmandu because they were unable to find sufficient work in the villages to survive. Without help the children would also be condemned to the same harsh reality or worse. Child labour is widespread in Kathmandu, in factories or as domestic help, often under exploitative conditions. There is also a very real risk that girls may be drawn into prostitution. Many of the parents are illiterate and if the children follow this pattern they will be even more disadvantaged than their parents have been, as Nepal develops and the average education levels increase. However, with a good education, these children have a chance of better jobs, which may benefit the whole family, since it is normal in Nepal for young people with jobs to help their parents and younger siblings if needed.

About 50 percent of the fathers used to work in the trekking business, which in recent years has been severely affected by the deteriorating security situation in Nepal and resulting drop in numbers of foreign tourists. They were mostly in low paid jobs (porter, kitchen assistant, guard) and either lost their jobs or the amount of work and pay was reduced. The fathers of three of the students died, two cannot work because of health problems and two abandoned their families. Thus seven of the families lost the chief breadwinner. Most of the mothers are working in very low paid occupations. Six have at some time or are currently working in low grade restaurants, which are notorious for the associated expectations of prostitute services. Five run small local tea shops, which bring in very little income. One collects household rubbish, an extremely unpleasant occupation in Kathmandu.

This small group is only the thin edge of the wedge, and Headmaster Tshewang Lama Sherpa is constantly asked for help by more needy families in the hope that through education, the children will help their families find the strength to return to a better future.

It costs £150 per year to cover the school fees for one child. Please contact us if you would like to help.