Toshala Sikhya Foundation

Toshala Sikhya Foundation is run out of House No. 164 in the Azimabad area. We are located in Ward Number 16. It’s just a regular house like any other on the street, so it's nothing special to look at. We’ve been working here for several years. Azimabad is where most of us grew up, so it made perfect sense to have our office right here. We focus on education for the most part, which is why we have Sikhya in our name. We have a few rooms that are completely filled with books and old papers. Sometimes the local kids come by after school to borrow things or just to read. We don't have a formal library set up, just some wooden shelves we built ourselves during the first year. It’s a bit messy and crowded sometimes. We try to keep it organized but there's always more stuff coming in than we have room for. We don't have a big budget or any corporate sponsors. Most of what we have comes from local people helping out when they can. We spend our evenings sitting in the back room planning for the next week. It’s a lot of talking and drinking tea while we listen to the radio. We don't use big words or have long, boring meetings. We just decide what needs to be done and then we go out and do it. The neighborhood knows us well and we like it.