"Silvia comes from a small community on the Inca Trail leading to Machu Picchu. Her community is in a beautiful natural area, but unfortunately suffers from challenges like alcoholism, domestic violence and poverty. There is also no option to access secondary education in near her home, so in order to attend secondary school she was chosen to participate in the Sacred Valley Project in the town of Ollantaytambo. Sacred Valley Project provides housing and leadership programming to girls like Silvia. Silvia dreams of one day owning her own restaurant and opening a shelter for abandoned children from in and around her community. To accomplish these dreams she applied and was accepted to Mosqoy. She just began her studies in Hotel and Business Administration and continues to build her leadership skills. We are excited to see Silvia develop into a leader for positive change in her community. “Si te caes, levántate y seguir viendo tu futuro.” “If you fall down, get up and continue to look towards the future.”

Manju is the only sister of her 6 brothers. Manju is a part of the Swabhiman program and in school her favorite subject is Hindi. One of her favorite things to do is read books.

Eline’s family works hard on their subsistence farm to make ends meet, but often lack the additional resources to pay for school fees. Eline has two siblings: a younger brother and an older sister. While attending secondary school in Form IV, Eline’s sister became pregnant. Eline’s family supported her through the pregnancy and now, Eline’s sister is back attending secondary school. Eline and her siblings are very thankful that their family supports their education despite obstacles. Eline is very close with her family and hopes to create a new future for them through her secondary education.

Class Rank: 2/55 My goal is to become a pilot. What I have learned from my own experience is that if our parents have little education, it is hard for them to support their children to fulfill their dream. So when I started my studies, I did very good to make sure I passed all the exams. The most difficult experience I had in my life is my father left my mother and I when I was very young. But my mother works hard to send me to school. I want to thank TSF for supporting me while I work to reach my goal.

I want to be an engineer. It is my favorite job. I know that I must study hard, especially science subjects. I look for materials that will help me in my studies and I also learn about engineering from people who are already engineers or want to be engineers like me. I believe that one day I will achieve my goal. I am happy when I am studying, playing with my friends, or when I'm with my friends and parents. They make me feel happy because they do many things for me. They correct me if I am wrong and they give me hope in my studies. They also give me respect, love and support to achieve my goal.

Quiet, enthusiastic and neat, Tanu is a good student to have. Her work is always on time and well done. Academically she is at the upper percentile in class. She takes a lot of pride in doing her work well and does not like to be criticised. She is slowly learning to understand that constructive feedback can help her do even better.

There are 8 people in Johnny's household: his mother and father, five brothers and sisters, and himself. Johnny calls himself number four - he has three older and two younger siblings. They all live in a large village in the mountains in a house with three small rooms and a patio. His father, mother and older brothers earn a living locally in agriculture, but the work is seasonal and insecure. Johnny has been doing well at school. He's particularly keen on maths but likes anything technical. His dream is to be able to qualify as an electrical engineer. When he's not at school or helping at home, he likes to play the guitar.

I am the second born of five children. We live with our parents, my father and mother. It is a happy family and our parents do everything they can to keep us going. We all depend on my father's meager income and sometimes it becomes difficult to support my older sister in school. I have great ambitions of making it in life and I believe I can achieve my greatest goals with a good education. I have always committed to see this pass and the TSF support is the right platform for me and am grateful.

I am living with my mother and my 2 brothers. My father works in a quarry in Pambara and he comes home sometimes on weekends or twice a month. My 2 sisters are married and live out of home. Our home has one room where my parents sleep and my brothers and I are sleeping outside in a hut on a mat and we have one old blanket to cover. I spent my childhood in Mangarela where I started school. After the 1st grade, I went to Maputo with my family for 3 years. Once back to Vilankulo, I started grade 1 again. During my free time, I go fishing to help the family and on Sundays, we go to church. My mother goes to the field 4 times a week. I like to play Neca and Football. I am grateful to get a sponsorship, because that will help us a lot.