Meet the Students.....

Chiran Jeevi Poudel

Chiran is our most talkative student and is also fast becoming known for his legendary rice-eating abilities, (five plates of rice in one sitting!). He comes from a large family in which 5 of 9 children are blind as a result of severe malnutrition so we suspect he is making up for lost time. His family comes from a very poor area but he was lucky enough to win a scholarship (from the Nepal Association of the Blind) to study English at the school in Pokhara. Now 23, Chiran holds a Bachelor level degree in English but as he so eloquently puts it himself; “education is nothing without opportunity”. Without this course, Chiran would have extremely limited job prospects. He says he wants to learn to heal people with his hands and change attitudes about the blind in society.

Anita Gawali

Anita was a late admission, but despite missing the first few classes, she has shown an amazing aptitude for learning anatomy. At 19 she is quite small but surprisingly strong and certainly one of the most confident partially sighted girls we have met. Her mother and father are both sighted but she receives no financial help from them whatsoever – they are too poor. She is determined in her studies and says that one day she hopes to help support them. Anita speaks good English and recognises that this course is “[her] best opportunity for a bright future”

Laxman Subedi

At 27, Laxman is our oldest (and most serious!) student. As the student with the best sight, he has taken on the role of carer and does a fantastic job of safely guiding students to and from lessons. Sadly a simple operation in childhood could have saved his sight but his parents were poor and illiterate and did not know. He is now married to Sita (who is also partially-sighted) and they have a 2 month old baby boy who is sighted, called Prajwal (which means ‘light’ in Nepali). He desperately needs this training so he can get a job and support his new family.

Sarita Acharya

Sarita is 20 and although totally blind, often wears glasses to pretend she is not. Both her parents died when she was in her teens and she now lives with her brother, who cannot support her financially because he has his own family to feed. Despite lacking the others’ advanced English skills, confidence (and volume!), she is quietly and doggedly learning everything we teach. She can also use a computer quite proficiently and has a lovely polite, respectful manner. She says she longs to be self-dependent and have employment of her own.