Topaz Sitling

Topaz was born and raised in Kalimpong, a small hill town located in West Bengal, India. He belongs to a tribe called the “Lepchas” who are the indigenous people of the region. He completed his Bachelor’s degree from the University of North Bengal, India. Topaz has always been passionate about organic farming and after finishing college, he moved straight back to his ancestral village where he worked together with the local farmers, building stronger relationships with them and finding ways to help encourage them to keep practicing traditional methods of agriculture on their farms. He believes that losing these traditional methods would gravely impact the social fabric of many tight-knit Himalayan communities. He later came back to Kalimpong to get a diploma in organic farming and became a member of the local Farmer’s Welfare Association in Kalimpong. These experiences with the farming communities have shaped his life immensely and given him all the more reason to be grateful and have appreciation for simpler things in life.

After the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, Topaz traveled extensively to remote areas of the country where there was critical need for assistance. He has also worked as a relief aid worker in the Eastern Himalayan region during the devastating landslides that were triggered by the aftershocks of the quake and torrential rains. The main focus of his team was to provide gravity water filters to all affected families so that they would have access to clean drinking water.

In addition to instructing with Dragons, Topaz also works as a mentor and a tutor for nursing students under the Department of Health, Government of West Bengal, India. He is passionate about working with the local youth in his village and has been mentoring and counseling them for many years now and wants to continue to encourage and empower them.