Since making the film, we have set up an NGO to support the children. Visit Snowland Journeys to find out more.
You can help support the children and school in the film by donating or shopping or trekking.
The children in the film and their families have had to make a painful sacrifice: To lose contact for many years for the chance of an education.
For many people (including ourselves) the idea of total separation from family for twelve years would be unthinkable, but Nima, Tsering Deki and Jeewan's stories in the film are not unusual in Nepal and beyond: There are 25 similar schools in Kathmandu alone and in every one of those there will be children who are bravely attending city school while their families are out of all contact in the mountains. Similar situations exist in the Indian Himalayas and elsewhere: globally an estimated 6 million children live away from family in schools and institutions, despite having a living parent. (Source: Unicef & Lumos). Nepal is the sixth poorest country in the world.
As Joanna Lumley said: "Imagine being away from your family for 12 years!"
So the aims of Children of the Snow Land are:
- To show a global audience what some young people have to do for an education - and allow the Children of the Snow Land to inspire people around the world with their tenacity, grace, courage and wisdom.
- To increase awareness and help improve the lives of Himalayan children attending school far from home by helping them to stay connected with their families, to support the school, and to ensure the children make full use of the education for which they have made such a sacrifice. The film has already inspired donations of over $40,000 to directly help the children.
Since making the film, we have started a non-profit organisation, Snowland Journeys, to help the children, school and communities featured in the film for the long-term, with these aims:
- To make the children's journey home funding sustainable, by offering people the chance to go on the treks featured in the documentary. Trekkers will be directly helping to fund the children to make the journey home and will travel with them, supported by experienced expedition leaders and child development experts. The first treks will be in April 2021.
- To support the children and school featured in the film.
- To encourage development of the Himalayan villages so that eventually children won’t have to be separated from their families to achieve an education.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP?
By raising awareness about the film and screening it far and wide, you can help build a support network for the children of the Himalayas. If you can’t see the film at a cinema near you, then we can help you organise your own screening.
If you’d like to contribute directly to the children at the school, you can do so via a donation to our non-profit organisation Snowland Journeys.
Snowland Journeys provides direct, practical support in the form of guided ‘Journey Home’ treks to reconnect children with their families and also ongoing education support, mentoring and life skills training for Snow Land School children and graduates. Snowland Journeys also helps build sustainable livelihoods for the remote mountain villages of western Nepal.