Sangita and Asmita

Sangita Mijar, 14, and Asmita Thapa, 17, are like teenagers anywhere- they are concerned with having friends, being fashionable, and keeping connected by cell phone to an expanding world that they hope will accept and include them.

Both girls are dealing with the realities of having disabilities that impact their lives. Sangita, like her siblings, has xeroderma, an autosomal recessive genetic disorder of DNA repair in which the ability to repair damage caused by ultraviolet light is deficient. The skin is severely freckled, and the vulnerability to skin cancer is dangerously heightened.
Asmita has trouble walking (I'm not sure if it's musculur dystrophy or something else.) She lives at Shanti and works in their workshop sewing.