Dawa's story

by Tamara Cannon
Founder, Lille Fro

Over many months I talked endlessly with my guide Dawa, fascinated by his background and what he considers to have been a very privileged childhood.

While Dawa is a refugee living in a camp in Ladakh, India, he considers himself very fortunate because he was sponsored as a child.

Even now, Dawa's sponsor still holds a special place in his heart. Although now an adult with children of his own, it is still very apparent how grateful Dawa feels towards the man who gave him the gift of an education and for the benefits which came with this opportunity.

Watching his face as he would unfold the neatly laminated photo of his sponsor, the same one he has carried with him ever since he was a child, I realised there was more to this. It wasn't simply about being given the opportunity of an education.

Here, it was about friendship.

A little boy knowing there was a person on the other side of the mountain range who cared. For Dawa, it was the difference in knowing he was never really alone.

This didn't end at childhood. Dawa's sponsor was his friend for life.