Suruchi Maya Tamang never went to school. But even as a child she had a yearning for learning. When a local group ran adult education classes,they didn't allow her in-saying she was not an adult. So, Suruchi got her mother to enrol and followed her there. You could say Suruchi is (literally) self-taught. She is now at college in Bhaktapur Campus. But in her free time she has started giving girls in her home village of Khoriya Gaun and surrounding districts the chance that she did not have to learn to read and write.

Learning from her own difficulty in grasping the woolly and boring development concepts built into reading materials in her adult-literacy classes, Suruchi Maya realised language was the principle barrier. So, she is conducting her classes in Tamang language. This is a unique approach, and Suruchi's experience so far shows that it works. "We speak Tamang at home, so learning new things in Nepali was tough. Most of my friends lost interest because they were intimidated by the language," she says.

When she first went to school, she felt left out, as her knowledge of Nepali was limited. "The whole classroom felt dark-it seemed impossible to communicate with people and nothing the teacher said made sense," she recalls. Now reasonably well-educated, Suruchi feels it is her duty to make learning easier for her Tamang community. "It is much easier for beginners to learn to read and write in their own language. After they know the alphabet, they can move on to Nepali," she says. "Learning can be fun, and not a chore that is forced on you."

Suruchi took this idea to the Bagmati Integrated Watershed Management Programme which works in Kavre, Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Makwanpur, Sindhuli and Bhaktapur districts. Half the population in these areas is Tamang, so it made sense to try out Suruchi's idea. Today, thousands of girls and women in these districts who would perhaps otherwise not be literate have learnt to read and write.

For Suruchi it was just a hunch, but she is delighted that it turned out well. She told us proudly: "There is no greater satisfaction than helping my sisters overcome the hurdles that I overcame."