St. Devi's Academy

Imagine sending your child to school in a 3-sided shed. A building with a corrugated tin roof held down with a few large rocks and where the front wall was simply gates, painted green, woven from bamboo. A structure with a dirt floor which turned to mire during monsoons, causing school closures. A place where your child would nearly freeze in the winter yet in the summer the little 3 room school would heat up like an oven, and in the monsoons there would be nothing to keep the water out. It isn't necessary to imagine such a school because it was a real place, the humble beginning of St. Devi's Academy.

Four short years later St. Devi's Academy is a proud 4-story building which shelters more than 55 orphan children. It is a combination children's home and school with the school enrolling 250 children. St. Devi's Academy is an oasis in the midst of filth, confusion, poverty and Hindu superstition. Devi Tamsang, the administrator, is a courageous woman who has battled against the fear of Maoists burning the school, persecution by the government because she is a Christian and the reality of never having enough money to finish projects or sponsors to support the orphans.

The children who call St. Devi's home were rescued from a life of labor, begging on the streets, being sold into prostitution, living in a leper colony or other desperate situations. These children who were once the dregs of society have won awards for poetry, art and sports. They were finalists in a regional academic contest. More importantly they sing songs of praise to God, quote Bible verses and have learned to love the Lord.