Meet Tulasha - recipient of the first Roshani's Award

Roshani

In March 2014, the children of Nepal got a new angel to watch over them. Roshani Balika died at Bal Mandir, Naxal, aged 4. Roshani was a gorgeous, energetic, inquisitive young lady who unfortunately had a minor mental disability which meant she was treated differently. We were not able to protect Roshani but we vowed to ensure that her spirit lived on and that her death was not meaningless.

Roshani's Award

In Roshani’s memory, Mitrataa created “Roshani’s Award”. This scholarship would be awarded to a very special young woman who had faced discrimination due to her disabilities. When we met Tulasha Poudel in her village in a remote part of Dolakha, we knew she was the perfect recipient for the first Roshani’s Award.

Meet Tulasha

Tulasha has Down’s Syndrome. She is approximately 20 years old. Her mother and sister were killed when she was about 6 years old when their house collapsed in a landslide. Her father is hearing impaired and cannot care for her. She lived with her neighbour and just sat idle at home with no support, interactions or care.

We spoke with Tulasha’s father and the community and discussed the possibility of bringing Tulasha to Kathmandu to teach her some life skills and independence so she can take care of herself in future. They agreed.

Tulasha visits Kathmandu

Initially, we brought Tulasha to Kathmandu in April 2014 for a health check-up and to see how she liked it. She came with her uncle and father. After a successful health check-up, we gave her a bath, bought her some new clothes and gave her some good meals. We sent them back to the village while we worked on a solution for accommodation and support in Kathmandu.

In May 2014, Pushpa and Asbini went back to Dolakha to check on Tulasha. The village’s attitude towards her had changed and they were now caring for her more actively although she still needed a lot more care and teaching to become independent.

Finding a solution for Tulasha in Kathmandu

Tulasha with Bec and Ranju

We needed to find a supportive, caring and creative environment for Tulasha in Kathmandu to achieve the aims of her scholarship – independence for her in future. We explored options in hostels in Special Needs Schools and in the Downs Syndrome Society of Nepal. Unfortunately, we were not confident in their ability to be able to deliver our stretching objectives.

This process took a long time but became particularly urgent after the earthquake in April 2015 when Tulasha’s house was destroyed and her family had nothing left. We finally found the perfect solution – one of our Mitrataa girl’s mother was looking for a job and she is a natural working with disabled students. Her house had collapsed in the earthquake and she had nowhere to stay with her 2 young children and no job. We organised a new room for her to live in and offered to pay her rent and a salary if she would take care of Tulasha and teach her the skills she needed to move towards independence. We are very grateful that Babita agreed and Ashwini went to Dolakha to bring Tulasha to Kathmandu. She will visit her family in Dolakha a few times a year to maintain contact with them and ensure she can return to her community in future.

Tulasha’s journey towards independence begins

Three months have passed and Tulasha has settled in incredibly well with Babita and her family. She has learned to bath herself, wash her dishes and her clothes, to say her name and where she is from as well as to greet people.

People with Down’s Syndrome are generally left in a corner of a home with no support or opportunities in Nepal. Disabilities here are not well understood or respected and Tulasha has been great at teaching people that she has wonderful passion for life, an ability to learn and a huge heart. Not only has she learned a lot, but she has taught all members of the Mitrataa family about tolerance and understanding and we have already seen this message being passed on to others in the extended Mitrataa family.

The road towards independence for Tulasha is long and full of twists and turns. But she has started her journey and embraced it completely. With Babita by her side, we are confident that in a few years, Tulasha will be able to live independently with a support network around her.

Huge thanks to Ashwini, Bandana, and of course Babita for their support and passion for Tulasha. We know that Roshani would be smiling knowing that her memory lives on and has given Tulasha the opportunity for a better future.

Dream Catchers Scholarships Monthly Meeting - Bringing girls together

Introductions of new friends

I love our monthly Dream Catchers Meetings. The energy of having the girls together and sharing their stories, dramas, learnings, always inspires me. This month’s meeting was extra special for several reasons. 

Generally, we hold 2 separate meetings – one for our Kathmandu Dream Catchers (college scholarships) and one for our Bhaktapur, Panauti and Sanga group. Each month, we cover a different theme – leadership, cheer squads of support, cybercrime and online safely have been our recent topics. The girls prepare and lead the meetings. This month we decided to do something different. We combined both groups of girls for a total of around 50 and held our meeting at Riviera, our model school. It was great to see the 2 groups getting to know each other and expanding their support networks. 



Sorting values, projects and team details

The topic was Mitrataa. The girls decided that they needed to improve their knowledge of Mitrataa’s values, history and activities. We explored Mitrataa’s beginnings in 2000, our projects along the way which gave the girls an opportunity to share their experiences with Mitrataa since they have all come to this group through different projects and journeys – the Project Snow Leopard photography group, the Riviera group, the Passion for Life group, Rabindra’s group, the ex-Bal Mandir group. We then discussed Mitrataa’s Values and our Dream Recipe which underpins all of the work we do.
For me, it was the first monthly meeting I have attended since returning to Nepal so I loved catching up with all the girls, seeing how much they have grown over the last few months. Sharing more of Mitrataa’s history with the girls was also an opportunity to celebrate their progress over the last several years. We celebrated Sangita who was one of our first scholarship girls under our new programs in 2007. Back then, she was a shy class 6 student. Now she is a very confident class 12 Travel and Tourism student with big dreams. We celebrated the Passion for Life girls who were in our first batch of Dream Centre girls in Baneshwor and are now in class 11 at Texas College. We celebrated Ashmita’s progress from government school in Panauti to top of her class in class 9 at an English medium school. 



Sangita sharing her journey with Mitrataa

Each girl has an amazing story. Knowing that Mitrataa has played a small role in their stories and their confidence gave me a very warm fuzzy feeling. I am really proud of them and grateful for the opportunity to be a part of their lives. Every single one of them is amazing and I can’t wait to see where their dreams take them.


Ashmita - first in her class in class 9