Kumbeshwar Technical School was established to assist socially and economically disadvantaged children in the Kathmandu Valley. KTS seeks to provide trainees with marketable skills that can ultimately lead to successful self-employment. Graduates of the training program have the opportunity to move into employment at KTS, or to establish their own workshop. Besides the technical school, KTS operates an orphanage, a nursery, a primary school and a workplace day-care. Other benefits include literacy classes, women’s health education, health and accident insurance, and access to loans. Over the years, street children and orphans who first attended the nursery or orphanage have been nurtured, educated, trained and are now gainfully employed.

KTS was established in 1983, providing an alternative vision to poverty and caste discrimination. Initially the institution focused on the “pode” or street sweeper and rickshaw driver community, in which children lacked access to education. KTS provided nursery and primary education to children in low-income families, as well as food, shelter and clothing for orphaned children who had been living on the streets. KTS later expanded its work in 1987 to include a vocational training and production unit for people in low-caste communities, people who are disabled and destitute women. KTS is a member of the International Fair Trade Association and Fair Trade Group Nepal.

Ten Thousand Villages purchases hand-knotted rugs from Kumbeshwar Technical School.