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. 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.