Current AD: Toronto, Canada.

My name is Dawki Lepcha, and I was born in Sikkim, the land of rice. Even now I don’t know on which day I was born, and neither does my mother. I am from an ordinary family, dependent on agriculture. Though we didn’t have any physical facilities, we were pleased with what we had in our family.

Living in a remote area of eastern Sikkim, our village had minimal access to the world outside and almost all the villagers there are illiterate and do not know anything about modern education and technological advancement. Since our culture is deeply rooted in the teachings of Buddhism, people have a good understanding of human feelings and compassion.

It was during my final year in primary school when my younger sister told me how desperately she wanted to go to school and that our parents would not agree to it because of the financial strains. I had a strong sense of guilt and pity on my sister, and I promised her that I would make her dream come true at any cost. By the time, I began to know that education is free in Christian schools in India irrespective of age. Then I had a hard time convincing my family to let her go and study in India. They were afraid that we might get lost or caught in prominent societies.

In Darjeeling, Dr Graham’s Homes accepted us, and we both studied there till high school. There I had the opportunity to study up to High school, and through all those years I got to participate and organise various academic and non-academic activities. I actively involved in multiple debates and elocutions too. I did work as an editor of a book entitled “We are still alive” which is a collection of articles of my batch mates. I had been an editorial member of the school magazine “Lens” for two years.

I participated in various essay writing competitions as well. Apart from academic activities, I have been involved in community activities like environmental cleaning and global warming awareness programs. Without the help of “the Himalayan Initiative”, it is impossible for me to study abroad for free, for a student like me, I can’t even dream of study out of this country. However, the “Himalayan Initiative” helped me to materialise this dream and changed my life forever. So, I am very grateful for this incredible programme, which is a life-changing path for many young dreamers.