The Tanpo Solar School Building Project is borne out of a collaboration between Sight to Sky and Csoma’s Room Foundation.

The partnership goes back to our roots in 2010, when our founder, Elizabeth, volunteered as a teacher in Zangla village in Ladakh and realised the dire need for basic eye care that inspired her to start Sight to Sky. During that same trip, she met Balazs Irmias, an architect and conservationist, who also saw the need for solar schools in the village due to the harsh winters in the area. 

In 2016, the teachers of the local school in the neighbouring village of Tanpo requested for a small solar school building warm enough for the students to study in during winter. Located in the rural Zanskar valley of Ladakh, Tanpo is a small hamlet of 30 homes dependent on farming. In winter, the village is only accessible via the Chadar frozen ice trek, and children have to walk along the frozen river to reach the main city of Leh. There is no other access to another school for the children.

Sight to Sky agreed to fund 100% of the project with the help of our donors. Building a school is aligned to our vision to invest in the local communities and uplifting their quality of life beyond eyecare. 

We also saw the potential to use the winter school as a future base for our eye clinic operations in the high need area of Zanskar, where 98% of the villagers are exposed to harsh UV rays due to their farming work. 

Thanks to our sponsors and donors which include, Ms. Fei Xiang Woon (volunteer from 2013 - 2017)Ms. Valerie Lee (volunteer from 2016) and the employees of SembCorp Power, Mr. Vince Yip (volunteer from 2015- 2016) and Ms. Elaine Chang (volunteer from 2016) that have helped with the fundraising and coordination efforts.