FOUNDER and INDIA DIRECTOR

Tansy Troy has been making books, telling stories and writing poems ever since she can remember. After graduating with a Masters in English Literature from King’s College Cambridge, the journey became a story, taking her to schools, galleries and community theatres across the UK with a box of hand-made masks and costumes and many-a tale up her sleeve. In 2005, she and a group of fellow artists founded KINSHIP after Tansy spent time teaching Art at the Tibetan Children’s Village (Dharamsala). Since then, playful projects for children of all ages have danced their way through Madagascar, Palestine and India, especially in Zanskar and Ladakh. Apple Press, a young people’s journal, is the latest KINSHIP adventure and will be launched this September/October 2021. Tansy lives in Rohtak, Delhi and her home in Manali with family and many other wonderful animals.

LADAKH, ZANSKAR and HIMACHAL COORDINATOR

Born in the remote Valley of Zanskar in a small village situated at the 13,900 feet in the western Himalayas, Tanzin Norbu was educated in India and the UK. He now researches the environmental impact of tourism in Ladakh for the Himalayan Institute of Alternative learning in Ladakh. Tanzin is Treasurer for KINSHIP, for which he co-organised workshops for primary school students at Primrose Hill Primary School and Our Lady of Victories in London, connecting them with musicians from the prestigious Royal Academy of Music and local Zanskari musicians. The projects involved young people from Karsha, Testa and Phugtal Monastery school in Zanskar; and the Jamyang School in Leh .

UK DIRECTOR

Iqbal has been part of the Kinship team since 2015, when he began fundraising for a new school at Phugtal monastery to replace a new school destroyed by extreme floods. Supporting education and opportunity in Zanskar and other remote regions of the Himalaya has been his primary focus as Chair of KINSHIP. In his day job he is an urban planning academic based at University College London.

EDUCATION CONSULTANT

Sabahat is a primary school teacher whose upbringing in India and the UK exposed her to a wide range of different education circumstances and approaches to education. She is motivated to make learning as accessible and enjoyable for the widest range of young people as possible. Educated at SNDT University, Mumbai, and the Institute of Education, London, Sabahat brings a wealth of teaching experience to the KINSHIP team. She currently teaches in Bristol, UK.