Maya Chettri, backstrap weaver and teacher

Maya works in the backstrap weaving workshop, but her success story starts back 30 years, when she brought her two children to Darjeeling from Calcutta. Her husband barely made enough to feed the family selling ice cream. Father Burns was traveling from village to village, telling people about the services that Hayden Hall could offer. Maya was intrigued with the idea that she could learn a trade there, so she came.

Maya came to Hayden Hall's Adult Education and literacy program, where she started with the knitting workshop but her teachers told her she already knew everything they were teaching. Then, the call came from the blanket loom workshop. She started there as a trainee and has moved from student to teacher, on the staff of the organization. She trains young women in the traditional back-strap weaving that she herself learned so many years ago, and who, like her, can aspire to become teachers themselves.

Maya belongs to a savings-credit group, and her son has used a Hayden Hall loan to start an umbrella repair business.

"Whatever I got here, it has helped me so much. I have really benefited from this work," says Maya.

Renu Tamang, carpet weaver

Twenty-two years ago, Renu Tamang was having problems at home. She had five children, and the family was very poor. She'd heard that Hayden Hall could help...would provide for her children's education and give them enough food to survive.

But Hayden Hall provides more than handouts, it provides a way to make a living. Renu has been weaving and finishing carpets ever since. All five of her children received their educations through Hayden Hall's education programs. One of her daughters is married, and her eldest son is now a driver, earning money to help support the family. Her youngest boy, 13, is still in school.

More than anything, however, Renu lives in a house built on her own land for her family by Hayden Hall. She pays 100-200 Rupees a month ($2.17-$4.35) mortgage to the social service organization, and hers is a no-interest loan.

"The best part," Renu says, "is that when we were really really in need, Hayden Hall gave us food. When we had no money and needed medicine, Hayden Hall was there."

She's been offered work at higher wages, but Renu has always declined. This place was there for her in her time of greatest need, and she's not forgetting it.

Parbati Gurung, seamstress and teacher

Parbati is suffering from cataracts in her eyes now, and because of her Hayden Hall connections, will soon be getting an operation funded by the Lion's Club. But twenty-eight years ago, she came to Hayden Hall as a single mother, seemingly with no one to support or help her.

She was trained on the sewing machine and now runs sewing workshops not only for poor women learning a trade, but also for more fortunate young women who want to know how to sew and who pay a fee for the course. Parbati, along with one other seamstress, also sews together the bags and satchels that the weavers have completed.

Her son got the education no one else in her family dreamed of having, through Grade 10, the equivalent of our high school diploma. He's now working as a driver for Father Burns. HIS son is attending an English medium school, Bethany, and Hayden Hall helped put that child in school.

Parbati is near retirement, and, like so many of us, she's a little anxious about her future. "I've been happy here. What will be my life, if I'm no longer working?"