Maitreya Children's Home

(Sagarmatha Lower Secondary School)

Solu Khumbu, Nepal

Giving children from remote hills a home and an education

In the late 1970s, the Snow Lion Foundation, a charity supporting Tibetan refugees, established a school and hostel for refugee children in Nepal's Solu Khumbu region. Around the same time, Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery was founded as a spiritual home for the refugee community. Over the years, as many of the original refugee families resettled abroad, fewer Tibetan children remained to attend the school. As places opened up, children from local Sherpa families, the region's indigenous community, were welcomed into both the school and the hostel.

When the Snow Lion Foundation decided in 2011 to close its hostel, parents of the children turned to Kopan Monastery for help. As part of its community service, the monastery built a new hostel for children who no longer had anywhere to stay, and Maitreya Children's Home opened its doors in 2012. It has been administered and financially supported by Kopan Monastery ever since. Many of these families live far away, some several days' walk with no public transport, so their children have no way to attend school unless they can live at the hostel.

Life at the Maitreya Children's Home

In its first year, the new hostel welcomed 35 students. Today, Maitreya Children's Home cares for more than 195 children from remote villages across the Solu Khumbu region. The children, ranging from kindergarten to grade 10, attend Sagarmatha Secondary School; for higher secondary studies, we help them find full scholarships at other schools.

The daily program begins with morning prayers and homework. Classes run from 8:30 am to 4:10 pm. After school, there's still plenty of time for sports, exercise, and other activities.

The hostel rooms are simple, clean, and functional, each equipped with bunk beds and cabinets. Boys and girls stay in separate accommodation, each with dedicated hostel mothers caring for their daily needs. Meals for both the monks and hostel children are currently prepared in the monastery kitchen and shared in the monastery dining hall — but as student numbers grow each year, the kitchen and dining hall will need to expand.

Every contribution, big or small, helps build a brighter future for these children through education, stability, and hope.

Give these children a better chance at education

You can sponsor any of the following needs.

General Fund

Make a general donation towards the hostel's running costs and maintenance.

Scholarship for Higher Secondary

Study per year/per student US$ 800 / Yearly.

Students Sponsorship - US$30 / month

Sponsor living costs of the Hostel US$ 30 / Month.

Education Donation

Sponsor the education of the students.

Food Fund

Donate to the student's food and help secure the food supply for the Hostel.

Medical fund

Donate to the Dophenling clinic to cover the costs of medicines, medical treatment and the wages of the clinic.