Founder

Amanda Faber founded KINOE after living and travelling extensively in India, Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan. While teaching at a project in Mumbai for children living on the street, she met and worked with Shaheen Kumar, who had recently founded Akanksha, also teaching at the centre headed by Rachna Mathur. Returning to the UK, Amanda set up KINOE and invited the first group of trustees to join. She identified the Lo Kunphen project in Mustang, Nepal and worked closely with Paul and Mary Slawson who very generously funded the building of the school.

Passionate about the power of education to change lives, Amanda has since worked with a wide group of trustees, freelancers and volunteers organising many fund-raising events. Since its inception in 1994 KINOE has gone from strength to strength providing basic education for thousands of children. It prides itself on running on very low overheads in order to provide maximum impact. Many of the children who were in the project are now teachers or university graduates.

Trustee

An early years educator and mother of two originally from India, Rachna began her career at GD Somani Public School in 1992, one of Mumbai’s premier schools, as an Early Years teacher.  During that time, she also volunteered as Head Teacher, Education Consultant and Co-ordinator for Akanksha Foundation, an educational trust for under-privileged children in Mumbai.  While at Akanksha, she was in charge of 60 children from the age of 3 to 8 years at first and then was in charge of 8 centres as an educational consultant.

Rachna holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Early Child Care and Education from Sophia College, Mumbai, India. She has trained in the Montessori method and in Special Needs. Rachna has been with American School in London since 2007 and is currently a Kindergarten creative arts asst teacher.

Trustee

Fiona is a Researcher and Lecturer specializing in Indian temple architecture, and an Honorary Research Fellow at Cardiff University. She has been closely involved with KINOE since spending three months with the students of the Lo Kunphen amchi school in Nepal in 2004, where children from the mountainous region of Mustang learn traditional Tibetan medical practices as well as more standard academic subjects.

Whilst there, she saw first hand the difference that KINOE funding can make, witnessing the impact the school had on the children's sense of pride, identity, and future career options. Like KINOE, Fiona believes that a good education is key to empowering children from less privileged backgrounds, enabling happy, healthy futures with independence and financial security.

Trustee

Reena is the most recent member of the Trustee team.  She spent her childhood years in Mumbai and continues to visit her family in Mumbai regularly. 

Reena believes strongly in the power of education. She is a commercial lawyer with over twenty years’ experience working on projects in Africa. 

She was immediately drawn to KINOE’s work and ethos. She is keen to see firsthand the initiatives sponsored by KINOE and support Amanda and the KINOE team.

Trustee

Elizabeth has long been an admirer and supporter of KINOE. Born and raised in Australia, she lived in London for 15 years before moving to New York where she now lives with her husband and three children.

Elizabeth and son Tom spent time volunteering in a school close to Delhi for girls from impoverished backgrounds. This and other travel experiences has given her a passion for helping children and girls in particular to have access to quality education. She believes that in educating a girl, you educate a village.