Aarya Tara Pre School
Our local partner
The Aarya Tara Association is a non-governmental organization with which we have established a kindergarten for children from disadvantaged families, mainly single mothers. The main teachers are young Buddhist nuns trained in early childhood education and the Montessori approach.
Objectives
1. To provide children with an education in a safe and secure environment.
2. To enable single mothers and disadvantaged families to have the opportunity to work and earn a living with confidence.
3. To encourage young women and especially young nuns to study and become active and compassionate professionals.
How
Quality education, adapted to children so that they can enter primary education well prepared
Extracurricular activities like yoga, art, music etc.
Nutritious and balanced meals with seasonal fruits and fresh vegetables
Hygiene training
Medical check up
Scholarships to their next schools, if necessary and possible
Homework help every day in our small school
Regular trainings for parents and our teachers: nutrition, hygiene, first aid, earthquake safety etc.
Longer term vision
• Financial self-sufficiency: open admission to children whose parents can pay normal school fees to fund those who cannot.
• Train teachers: Provide practical training and a home for more nuns, who can then return to their monasteries or villages to provide quality education and care for small children.
Our team, school and home
Ani Kunchok, our manager
Ani Dolkar and Ani Tsering Kunzum, our teachers
We started by renting a house in Tinchuli, near Boudhanath and are now in a new house in Mahankal. Our two teachers and three other young nuns, who study traditional Tibetan medicine (amchi), live there. So the house is used 24 hours a day: on the one hand as a school during the day and on the other hand as a home for these five young women.
In 2019 Ani Kunchok decided to leave the nun’s robe and go to study management at Bangalore University in India. Ani Dolkar and Ani Kunzum have taken over and are managing – while teaching – our project masterfully.
Ani Choying Drolma
Ani Choying is a Nepalese Buddhist nun with an extraordinary voice, giving concerts all over the world to finance her numerous social projects through her “Nun Welfare Foundation”. (http://www.choying.com)
Ani Choying has always believed that nuns have a great desire and potential to make the world a better place, if only they are given equal opportunities. The Aarya Tara School, opened in 2000, aims to train nuns to help and serve their communities in a professional and humanitarian manner. With a fully developed and realized potential, she believes that her nuns will be able to not only help themselves, but also help others. In short, the Aarya Tara School aims to help young nuns realize their compassion in an active, effective, competent and meaningful way. According to Ani Choying, women’s education is traditionally neglected in Asia. Most of the girls in my convent/school come from rural Tibet, India, or Nepal, patriarchal cultures where women are expected to cook, clean, and care for children. Even in the nunnery, they are taught to read classical Tibetan so they can do religious practice, but many cannot write their own names. Her school teaches them literacy, math, science, basic medical and nursing skills, and Buddhist philosophy.
Ani Kunchok, our first manager, Ani Tsering and Ani Dolkar, our teachers, have graduated from the Aarya Tara School. Also Ani Pema, Ani Tsultrim and Ani Tsewang, who are studying to become amchi (traditional Tibetan doctor) and who live with us at the school.