The people pictured in this calendar are all students or staff members of Karuna Vihar, a school for children with learning difficulties. Karuna Vihar is a project of the Latika Roy Memorial Foundation and is based in Dehradun, U.P. We got our start because of a little girl named Moy Moy, the daughter of one of our volunteers. Moy Moy, who was born 12 weeks premature, has Cerebral Palsy with associated mental retardation.

Her mother was determined that a school for children like her should be established in Dehradun, and Karuna Vihar (named after Moy Moy’s Dadi) was born. We are now one year old and we mean to keep on going. As our school song, ‘Chhoti si Asha’ says:

“We have tender hearts and small hopes- we only want to reach the moon and the stars.”

-–Jo Chopra