MGVS's Kaplani School

The Kaplani School was founded in 2001 in a small mountain community about 5 miles southeast of Mussoorie, at the direct request of the community.  The area's families were seeking a way for their children to continue beyond primary school.  The only alternatives were beyond the distances the children could realistically walk each day.

Kaplani contacted a local organization named Mussoorie Gramin Vikas Samiti (MGVS), or in English, the "Mussoorie Village Development Committee," for help.  The community said it would provide land and help build two rudimentary classrooms.  Families agreed to pay what tuition they could.  MGVS agreed to provide 2 teachers and administrative context.  The school opened with 11 students spread among grades 6 and 7.

Winterline joined the cooperative venture almost immediately, augmenting the efforts of a small group of local supporters by making very modest grants and matching contributions in support of the school.

With hard work, and heartwarming persistence manifested by local support and optimism, the school took root.  In 2006 Winterline's governing body decided that ongoing support for Kaplani School furthered Winterline's charitable purposes and established a Kaplani School Fund as a restricted fund into which contributions designated for Kaplani are placed and from which grants in support of the school are made.

Winterline Foundation matches contributions to its Kaplani Fund from its own undesignated funds.  Currently, it is matching the first $4,000 of outside contributions at a level of $1 for every $2 received.

The school now serves 60 students from grades 6-10, and is housed more comfortably in a solid, permanent building, with bathrooms and other amenities that seemed impossible just a few years ago!  But many of its student still walk 5 miles each day to get there.

Winterline Foundation believes that this extraordinarily tangible effort is one of its most meaningful activities.  We gratefully accepts outside contributions in support of this activity.  We believe those contributions are making an un-measurable difference in the lives of five dozen wonderful kids – and counting – from the Himalayan Mountains.

[ Download a PDF of the Annual Report ]

Donate to the Kaplani Fund