New Students! We are delighted to announce we have taken on 3 new students, their names are Santosh Sapkota, Sagar Subedi and Deepak Pradhan (pictured below) All are totally blind and purely coincidentally, all of them are also 24 years old!

Santosh comes from Goldhungha district near Kathmandu and has 7 siblings, his blindness is a result of medicine that should not have been prescribed to his mother during pregnancy (we’re not sure what). Until recently, he was receiving a scholarship to study at Bachelor level but it was cut after he failed his 2nd year. He says he is not a natural academic but really enjoys learning English, and wants to do something more practical with his hands.   He plays the guitar well and clearly has good dexterity so we think a hands on profession like massage will be ideal for him. Santosh is recently married and like many other blinds here, plays cricket in his spare time.

Sagar comes from Syangja district.  He was partially blind from birth due to nerve damage, but then lost his sight completely following a failed operation in his teenage years to correct the damage.  He is the only son in his family and so desperately wants to earn a living to support his parents, but even though he is studying for a bachelor, his job prospects are extremely limited because of his blindness.  Sagar says he’s been interested in learning the skill of massage for a long time now (this was his fourth attempt to get on our course!) – and is delighted to get the opportunity to train in something that can actually lead to a job. He also plays cricket in his spare time and says he loves to swim when he gets the chance.

Deepak comes from Ramechaap district and is currently living in a rented room in Koteshwor on the outskirts of Kathmandu. Like Sagar, he was partially sighted from birth but became totally blind following a bungled eye operation when he was 9. Somehow he has managed to survive on meagre handouts from the government and his family for the past few years while completing a bachelor in Education at the local campus. He is clearly academically bright but is also realistic about his future job prospects, knowing that even if he goes on to complete a Masters his chances of finding paid work are very slim.  Deepak is positive and motivated with a very enquiring mind, he describes himself as athletic and says he thoroughly enjoys physical training. He also loves to play chess (when he can get his hands on an adapted board) and modestly says he is ‘quite good’ at it.