We are proud to share another inspiring student story. Here’s some exciting news from Nepal.

Shreya started at Heartland College in 2013 when she was 11 years old. She and her sister,

Puju (8) were granted a scholarship to study there.

She had a difficult childhood. In 2010 her father was killed on a building site. By 2013 she was living on the streets of Kathmandu with her sister and mother. They had no food or permanent shelter as their mother had no formal education, no job or income (and had not had any for over a year at this stage).

In mid 2012 she and her sister had been expelled from their village school because Puja had run away from a detention that she received for borrowing a pencil from another student without asking. Detentions were reportedly brutal in physical punishment and verbal abuse. The Heartland school psychologist found that the abuse they suffered at the hands of the government school principal and teachers was significant and very traumatising.

At the time that they joined Heartland College in 2013, a local hostel provided them and their mother with temporary accommodation and food, and a local hotel provided their mother with part time cleaning work.

Shreya thrived at her new school. She became the first female in her family to progress past grade 7 and then to obtain a high school qualification (similar to Australia's HSC) scoring an impressive 84%. She also regularly represented her school playing badminton and served on the student SRC council. Shreya was an inspiration to many young girls at Heartland.

After high school, with the support of The LBW Trust Shreya entered tertiary college where she studied Management of Business and Industry. She graduated in late 2020 with an overall mark of 87%. Shreya overcame the challenges of gender, low caste and significant poverty-based adversity to become the only female in her family to achieve a tertiary level qualification and now she is about to begin the next chapter of her life as a scholarship student in Finland.

We are delighted to share with you this wonderful story of achievement made possible by the high quality education at Heartland College and the sponsorship provided by The LBW Trust. Her amazing success is a reflection of her diligence and positive work ethic however it would not have been possible without the help of donors like you.