We receive money from sponsors, donations and fundraising events, which we then pay out as grants to support the education of disadvantaged children from Sikkim, NE India, which is in the Himalaya.
For UK taxpayers who sign up to Gift Aid, we recover tax they have paid from the UK government.
When we started in 2003, our sponsorships were directed towards supporting children at Sikkim Himalayan Academy (SHA) in West Sikkim. SHA is a primary school, cofounded by our Chair of Trustees and a group of Dutch volunteers.
For SHA the relationship was mostly one to one – one sponsor could support the education and board of one child.
We also organised for volunteer teachers to come from all over the world.
As children grew up, some moved to secondary education at Dr Graham’s Homes school in Kalimpong, just across the border from Sikkim in West Bengal.
For those, we collect sponsorship funds from several sponsors which together pay for school fees and board.
Typically, it takes eight sponsors to support a child at Dr Graham’s Homes.
In due course, young people move from secondary school to higher education, where the funding model is the same, although university is more expensive than secondary education. Also, students might be educated anywhere in India, and not just Sikkim.
For this we top up what support is available from the government of Sikkim. Miksim for example is at nursing college in Bengaluru. We pay her hostel and living costs, but her fees are met by the Sikkim government.
We are organised as a trust with four trustees, regulated by the Charities Commission.
We have no employees.
The trustees draw no expenses, so all the money donated goes for education.
Website hosting and development is provided at no charge by Gromedia Web Agency Ltd.
Every young person supported by the Trust has, at some time, been taught by our Chair of Trustees, Magi Finlayson, who was a volunteer teacher at SHA several times between 2003 and 2013.
We try and maintain that personal contact by visiting India every two years, taking the time to visit Dr Graham’s Homes as well as our students in their various locations.
That cycle has been interrupted by the Covid pandemic, but we have much expanded WhatsApp communication. You can read about our 2019 trip here.
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The Children of Sikkim exists to support the education of disadvantaged children from Sikkim, in the Himalaya, NE India.
We are a UK registered charity which helps such children to be educated in Sikkim and elsewhere in India, from primary school through to college or university.
We give a young person continuity of support so as to allow them to achieve their potential.