Roshani Tamang

​Roshani came to us through Subash Shrestha, a teacher at the school she attends. We met Subash in a kind of roundabout way. First there was C.J. Hayden, who runs a website called “Send Girls to School.” It sounded like it was right up our alley, so Christa introduced herself to C.J. She put us in touch with Rob Rose, who runs TRIFC—The Rose International Fund for Children—which helps children with disabilities in Nepal. Robert introduced us to Subash in Nepal. Here’s what Robert said about Subash: “I can vouch for [Subash] who can help oversee the education of these two kids. Subash Shrestha is a teacher at a local school and also helps us with our food/nutritional support for a group of blind children at Sanjiwani School in Dhulikhel (about 30 minutes from Kathmandu). He is also past president of the Dhulikhel Rotaract Club (a younger version of the Rotary Club) and is overseeing a renovation of the hostel accommodations for the blind students at the Sanjiwani School with financial support from TRIFC.”

Roshani lives in a small village about 1.5 miles from Dhulikhel, a beautiful town about 30 miles to the east of Kathmandu. In his application letter to us, Subash said that she lives in a mud hut that is falling apart. Her father is never home and has no work to support the family even if he were home. Roshani’s mother works periodically in different houses as a domestic and makes only about $45 per month to pay for the expenses and food of the eight people who live in the home. We are hoping that Roshani will stay in school and do well enough to one day help her mother earn enough money to increase the standard of living of her family.

October, 2022

Roshani is studying in 12th grade. She missed some time earlier in the year, but is working hard to make up what she missed and pass her year so she can go on to University. We finally were able to get a letter from her talking a little bit about her studies.

July, 2022

Roshani has entered her last year of “10+2” school, so 12th grade. Subash says they mostly talk by phone and he can’t see her as often because she is not in the same town as he is. But he says she is doing well, and enjoying school. We are excited to hear from her personally, and are awaiting a letter when she has time to write one.

January, 2022

We learned from Subash that Roshani didn’t get into a pharmacy or nursing program, so she has decided to study management, which will allow her to manage a hotel, or a business.

She is studying in Gyankunj college at Banepa which is 5 km away from Dhulikhel, in what they call the management “stream” (path). She will study there for two years. We are providing her additional courses for her to supplement what the college provides. This includes computer and tuition classes, lunch, transportation and a library membership as well as her college tuition and facilities fees. She helps her mother after her college classes in their small shop. Once she graduates from 12th grade, we will see what her next steps are: to the university or to a job. We’ll be excited to help her no matter what she chooses.

July, 2021

Roshani passed her state exam with good marks! This means she can go on to Class 11, which is really like junior college. It’s still considered part of high school, although not all students make it to this class (you have to have high enough marks in your exams). You also end up picking a career path and studying towards that career. Roshani sent us a letter at the end of the year outlining her hopes. She hadn’t yet received her exam scores, but she is very interested in management in this letter. Since then, we have heard that she and her mother want her to study for a pharmacy path. She will be going to a different school for this, and Subash is working with her family and the school to apply. Hopefully she will be accepted and we can continue to support her!

From Subash: Roshani wants to study Diploma in Pharmacy and her mother wants that too. That’s a diploma course of 3 yrs under CTEVT (Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training). She had applied in two colleges for that near from where she live around 20 km away from Dhulikhel. Those colleges have limited seats so it is not sure whether she will be selected or not for the three years course.So now we will wait until the college publish the name list of the students and then we will discuss about the further procedure.

​We are keeping our fingers crossed that Roshani gets in to one of her colleges of choice!

August, 2020

We received a wonderful video from Roshani, in which she talks a little about the challenges of studying online. All the students are still studying online and are under quarantine because of the virus. We’re so happy to know that they are all healthy and doing as well as they can. Although Roshani struggles with her studies, and studying online is much harder, she is trying hard and we are so proud of her for that. She has just entered her last year of high school!

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January 2020

We received a lovely card from Roshani and a little video of her wishing us happy new year in English. In her card, she describes a week long educational field trip that she took with her school. She was able to visit several different cities and parks that she had never seen. We are so glad that she is having a chance to explore her own country, since it is one of the most beautiful in the world!

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September 2019

Roshani is working hard at school, and doing very well with her art and music. At the Dashain celebration, she made a collage with Bharosha, and she created a pretty cool Kaleidoscope for the science fair.

In this quick video, Roshani shows off her kaleidoscope, and at the very end, you can see Khusbu with her replica of a famous tower in Nepal, and Amrita, with her vase and flowers that she made.

April, 2019

Roshani finished her year struggling with her academics, but she loves her music and singing classes, so we are really happy about that. Her grades are stable, but lower than we’d like, but we do have some great news. She recently took her District Level Examination, which is a state exam given to all the students in the district. Although we don’t know her grade, we do know that she passed on to ninth grade, so we are very happy for her! This year was a lot of fun for her because she was able to do a lot of new activities, including participating in a day of sports competitions, and singing for Parents’ Day with all her classmates. Our contact Subash sent us some great little videos, which we have included here.

October, 2018

Roshani is loving her music class, according to our contact, Subash. We are so glad to hear that. Perhaps she will find something there to continue with throughout her life. Her grades are stable, although still lower than we’d hope, but she simply has no help at home at all. Her average this past semester was 41.8, which means she passed to the next semester. We are not sure how the grade averages work there, but it’s not the same as in the United States, where 42% would not be a passing grade. So we’re glad that she keeps trying and is moving forward with her music and her studies.

June, 2018

Roshani passed into 8th grade, even though she struggles with the material. We are paying or extra tutoring for her, since she receives no help at home at all. We’re proud that she keeps trying so hard, and we love her year-end letter to us. We asked her about what makes her laugh, to tell us a story, and also what are the qualities of a good teacher. We love that she told us the story of Robinson Crusoe from a first person perspective!

We have also decided to help Roshani with a class outside of school that she is really interested in: music. We recognize that not every student is going to be a star in the classroom, and if taking music lessons will keep her interested in studying, and exploring the world outside her home, then we are happy to help. After all, education consists of a lot more than reading, writing, and arithmetic! Roshani travels 20 minutes by bus from her home to her music classes once a week, so we are excited to see what she tells us about her extracurricular class next time we hear from her.

February, 2018

Roshani is still working hard in school and although her grades are not as good as we could hope (for her future, not for us!), she is trying hard, and as her letter to us shows, she is working at it, and that’s what we care about more than anything else.

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July, 2017

We received Roshani’s year-end letter and a couple sweet pictures of her at school with her sports uniform on. She still struggles with school, but our contact Subash says she is trying, and that’s all that matters.

May 2017

Our contact Subash reports that Roshani has improved in her studies and she passed the year. She will be entering her seventh year of school. In the pictures Subash sent, we can’t believe how tall she has gotten! There is hardly a trace of the little girl we met five years ago!

July 2016

Although Roshani is still struggling in school, her year-end grades did come up slightly, and we’re very happy to hear that. Even better, for the new year Subash is her teacher, and he has told us that he is already working with her after school doing tutoring and extra work to help her. We are very grateful to Subash for his help with Roshani. He rightly assesses the situation: she has no one to help her at home, which again emphasizes the fact that support at home is critical to a good education, for girls and boys.

July 2015

We received Roshani’s final grades for 2014-2015. She’s struggling some with school, but she is still trying, and we support her in that. We are glad she’s staying in school, especially after the devastating earthquake that has upended so many lives in that country. School can be a stabilizing force, and a way to stay occupied with something valuable and important.

January 2016

We received some wonderful photos from our contact Subash; Roshani is growing up! She is struggling in school, largely because she doesn’t really have much support for her studies at home. It’s not that they don’t support her going to school, but they can’t help her at all. So Subash is seeing about having Roshani take some after school classes to help, and we are talking to him about possibly paying for a tutor (perhaps another student in the school) to help her with her studies.

June 2014

Roshani wrote a letter to us in June of 2014. She’s learning English, and obviously loves drawing!

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October 2014

Roshani wrote us a sweet card at the middle of the term. She is struggling a bit with school, but her teachers say she is improving, so we hope she will keep trying and not get discouraged.

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