Organisation  -  Our Board  -  Finances  -  Our History

Children of Sikkim Foundation (COSF) is organized as an association in Switzerland. The voluntary board members are elected by the annual general assembly. According to the statutes of direct aid, all donations and further income are used in order to achieve our goals which are:

We offer school education and a home to children from the poorest mountain farming families in desperate situations and offer long-term help.

All board members work on a voluntary basis, which is why the association's expenses are only around 5%.

We take our duty of care seriously and visit our project in Sikkim once or twice a year. Furthermore, several video meetings take place throughout the year.

Financial Report 2021

In the year under review, COSF transferred CHF 145,000 for the operational management of HDFS. In addition, there is an operational reserve of around CHF 100,000, which was made possible by donations from sponsors and third parties, which were well above budget.

The administrative expenses amount to a low CHF 12.097 (5.3%) and are slightly above the budgeted amount due to above-average IT expenses.

Fortunately, the total income of CHF 262.428 is well above the budgeted amount. We owe this exclusively to a few generous donors. Since operating expenses are still well below budget due to the pandemic, a significant amount was used to create a reserve.

At the end of 2021, COSF had equity of CHF 538.644 (previous year CHF 434.736) and is therefore solidly financed. Equity is offset by cash and cash equivalents and financial assets of CHF 544.369 (previous year CHF 409.564) as well as receivables. At the time of budgeting for the 2022 association year in autumn 2021, the general health situation was still very poor. Since the development was not foreseeable, we budgeted for an average year of operation.

All board members remain committed to maintaining the long-term funding of our partner organization's activities in India.

In 1993 Christina Notter and Jürg Eugster, two young Swiss people who were part of a small group of tourists, visited the former Himalayan kingdom of Sikkim, a semi-autonomous state in India since 1975.

They were greatly impressed by the beauty of the densely, overgrown, mountainous landscape and the deeply rooted, Buddhist way of life, but were appalled by the many needy children who had been abandoned to fend for themselves and with no possibility of a future life and education. As a result, the CHILDREN of SIKKIM FOUNDATION (COSF) was founded a year later in 1996.

Lepcha Cottage infant home:

At the time, the highly esteemed Miss Keepu Lepcha generously cared for twenty small orphans in her private home. Not only did her Lepcha infant home become part of COSF, but Miss Keepu also provided a plot of land outside Gangtok for the construction of a children's village with a school and 2 homes for the children.

In 1998 our local partner organisation HUMAN DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION OF SIKKIM (HDFS) was founded and registered by the Indian Ministry of the Interior.

More than 250 people from Europe, mostly from Switzerland, but also many from Norway and Germany, have become godparents/sponsors of a child. Private donors, companies and public institutions also support the foundation.