Kaza is a Tibetan village perched in the Himalayan Mountains in northern India, about 40 miles from the Tibetan border. It is rarely found on maps as it is extremely remote. Kaza is a village of about 1,500 people and many of the village’s traditions and ways of living are thousands of years old. Tibetan people have been working and living on this land for generations and continue to create an area that many claim to be one of the last truly Tibetan villages thriving since China’s take-over of Tibet in the 1950s.

 

This is truly a unique and wonderful corner of the world.

 

The people of Kaza have expressed a strong desire to enrich their lives through education. Highlander School is an answer to this cry.

 

Highlander is a small non-government school organized and operated by a group of dedicated Indian staff members. The school is relatively small and is run on a very tight budget. Teachers here truly must have the hearts of servants, as most of them have had to leave their families in order to teach in this remote Himalayan village.  Many challenges face the teachers and administrators yet they endure the extreme weather conditions, common-place power outages, loss of contact with the outside world, and limited food and staples supplies.

 

Though the staff hails from many walks of life and various religious backgrounds, they are united in their cause for education. Villagers desire literacy and thinking skills that will allow them access to their rights, knowledge of laws, and decrease their susceptibility to be taken advantage of. Basic health skills are also an essential aspect of education in this area of the world. The staff at Highlander strives towards a higher level of education- regardless of class or creed.

 

A Wiser World has partnered with Highlander school to better train teachers and provide the resources needed to run a successful school. As well as providing resources and education, AWW strives to extend educational opportunities to children who live outside of the village and into even more remote rural mountainous terrain.