Our Story



Hello, My Name is Jan and I am one half of Skyira. I’ll be telling you all about Skyira and the Journey that lead to its creation.

Skyira is an import business that was created from a passion for supporting the education of underprivileged youth in India. We do this in many different ways but for you to understand I think I have to take you back to the very beginning.

My first husband Bill sadly passed in 2001 and I was searching for a way to honor his memory. I decided I would sponsor a child at Dr Grahams Home in Kalimpong where he had spent several years growing up and both of his parents had spent almost their entire youth. I was thrilled to be helping and at the same time honoring Bill’s memory.

Then in 2004 I stumbled upon a newspaper Ad for a tour in India. The seed was sewn, I was going to India to visit the school where I had sponsored Earnest for the last 3 years. It took some wrangling, but the tour organizer agreed to a detour from the schedule to put Dr Grahams on the Itinerary. I was thrilled. It was booked and I spent the next year saving and economizing to make this dream possible.

This first trip in 2005 was life changing and cemented for me a love of the people and culture of India and reinforced in me a need to assist the less fortunate. From this point on I would go to India as often as I could so I could visit the school and the children. Saving as much as I could on a Pharmacists Assistant wage, I managed to go once a year for the next nine years.

The years passed quickly, and I was still working in Pharmacy when in 2009 I meet Craig. He was a Rep that would visit my store regularly and a connection was immediate.

I remember clearly having something of a difficult conversation when I told Craig about my passion for India with a loud proclamation that I could not commit to a relationship with someone if they could not support my investment in Dr Grahams and the work they do.

It was not long before I was proudly introducing Craig to the India I knew. It soon became apparent that my passion was now a shared affair. With Craig now on board we started to up our efforts to raise funds so we could do more for Dr Grahams.

We struck the idea of garage sales as a way to raise money and visibility for the sponsored children at Dr Grahams. They were hugely successful and enabled us over the next couple of years to up our efforts in our sponsorship of more children at Dr Grahams and also to undertake projects at the school. Things were getting more serious.

In 2012 Craig and I married and as our commitment to each other grew so did our commitment to do more for the underprivilege children in India and it was not long before we had the realization that we could do more for these communities on more than one level and this is how Skyira was born.

Today Skyira is a blossoming business that not only generates income that goes to support Dr Grahams and other organizations like Asha Niketa and Dougs but also injects income directly into local handmade manufacturing on the ground level.

We are proud of what we do and the life long relationships we foster with the children we have sponsored from Dr Grahams. We make a firm commitment that once one of our wards comes of age our support does not end when they leave Dr Grahams school. We maintain support as they move into adulthood and leave Dr Grahams for the workforce or other educational opportunities.

To our retailers new and old, we are grateful for your patronage, as a purchase from Skyira is not just a simple transaction, it is a commitment of support for someone’s future. On their behalf we thank you.

To our dearest family and friends. Your unwavering support has enabled us to build this vision. We love you.