Christmas Newsletter 2025
During 2025 we received so many soft toys in response to our request. Thank you! These will make their way to Kalimpong with visiting Trustees.
ChiChi & I planned to visit Kalimpong in 2025 (at our own expense as all Trustees do) with these toys in our luggage, however this has been put back to early in 2026. We will have a late Christmas party instead. The children will not notice it isn’t December if we don’t tell them!
Educating more children.
In 2025 Room To Learn increased the number of children we reach with your love and donations to 88. We did this by taking on a new school in a more rural location just outside Kalimpong; Bright LifeAcademy. You can find more information on Bright Life here.
Improving Government schools
Nearly all RTL Girls are gaining places at St Philomena Girls School. They have to pass entrance exams, and they are passing with flying colours! Once they are there they stay in education.
Our boys have a bigger challenge. The government assisted schools available to them are not as good as St Philomena (which is excellent). We are now engaging with the local government to seek improvements so that RTL boys, and the wider population, also have access to excellent on-going education on graduating from us.
100 children target for 2026!
In January 2026 we will increase the number of children to 100 by funding additional places at Bright Life.
However, this exceeds our annual income through donations, and we will not be able to maintain this without further regular donations.
It costs £200 per child per year to give Below Poverty Line (BPL) children a much-needed step up into education, where otherwise they would fall by the wayside. This is much less than other charities!
We provide our children with their school uniform and books, plus transport where needed, and share the same classrooms and facilities with fee paying families. Every pound raised through donations goes directly to the children’s education. We recycle clothing from year to year, replacing only items that are worn out. Remarkably these children rarely damage their uniforms, but more children = more uniforms!
Garden Party 2025
This year’s garden party was well attended with over 100 supporters. If everyone who attended donated regularly, we would nearly hit our funding requirement! Thank you to everyone who is!
Could you donate £18/month, to lift a child out of poverty and into education; or add RTL to your Will? Or both?
We have an easy way of setting up monthly giving should you wish to, and there is a section on gifting through Wills; this year saw two supporters include Room to Learn in their Will.
Could you leave a gift to the children in your Will?
Brian and Corinna welcoming guests and presenting ceremonial scarves from Kalimpong.
Chris & Connor; welcoming drinks (taken before everyone arrived):
As always, a wonderful spread & going quickly (2024. For some reason we don’t have a 2025 photo but the spread was even better this time around).
Wonderful Music.
Elliot & Connor manning the barbeque (2024). Always very popular and 2025 was no exception!
Garden Party 2026
Next year’s Garden Party will be on Saturday 8th August starting 12:00
Parking will be in a signposted field, about 80m before reaching Manor Lodge, when coming from the village.
This year we held a questions & answers session with lots of questions and some long answers!
Thank you for your support. Please invite others to join our community of people who ‘give love away’
Des Mills
Please also share this newsletter with those who you think might be interested in joining the Room To Learn community. All of this work is only possible because of YOU, our amazing and growing community of supporters!