For many young people in Qatar and around the world, school breaks are a chance to spend time away from the classroom and have fun with family and friends.

But two locally-based high school students have turned that idea on its head, deciding instead to spend their winter holiday with complete strangers at a school in Nepal.

Inspired by a talk given a few months ago in Doha by a UN aid worker, Sirius Ganesh and Sascha Zierbock organized an informal school supply donation drive for students in Katmandu.The 16-year-olds, who hail from India and Germany respectively, then headed to Nepal themselves to deliver the collection after coordinating with the UN worker, Peter Dalglish.

Dalglish has helped create the non-profit Himalayan Voluntourism which works to improve and support schools and community and learning centers in a highly impoverished area of Nepal that is located about 200km west of Kathmandu.