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Project #318 – 2014

Click here to read the Project Completion Report from November 2016.

Can a child learn well when she has lice, anemia and diarrhea? 

She needs a better diet, including lots of fresh green veggies – but how to get them in the arid desert-like conditions of the remote Spiti Valley? And if her school does manage to plant them, how will they nurture and protect the vegetables?

Munsel-ling School has the answer – now TRAS wants to implement it.  With YOUR help, these precious vegetables can be cared for and protected to provide much needed nutrients for the children.

In this harsh, cold environment, greenhouses are essential for growing the green vegetables needed to help combat anemia.  The 50ft long greenhouses are working well – EXCEPT that they are unprotected.  Cows and dogs are causing havoc, the heavy polythene roofs are being torn and a good watering system is non-existent.

Now that the first greenhouses have proven their worth, the school wants to create a secure compound.  Needs are:

• A strong 4 foot high wall to keep out marauding animals (and the kids who love to slide down the roofs!)
• Properly engineered canals to provide water
• A large cement water storage tank
• A smaller tank in each greenhouse to be filled with snow – it will melt in the comparative warmth of the greenhouse for water during the freezing winter.
• A shed for equipment and compost storage
• A small cottage for the permanent gardener.
• Good soil for the summer plants to be grown between the greenhouses.

Once all this has been accomplished more greenhouses can be built to feed the 500 children at the school.  But the compound must be secured first. The snow will start soon– there may just be time to start clearing the land and collecting stones to ready the site for the wall construction next spring.

Project #320 – 2014

At the end of a risky flight or a 10-day hike in, what better than a cup of real coffee in a clean cup!

TRAS is ‘breaking new ground’ with this exciting project.  READI Nepal is a small local non-governmental organization (NGO) in Humla, the far northwest corner of Nepal’s mountains. It is committed to improving the lot of the village children through education.

So why are we talking about coffee?  The villagers cannot pay for coffee, let alone for their kids to go to school, but READI Nepal has an innovative plan to raise funds to pay for the schooling. It’s called the HUMLA DELIGHTS CAFÉ.

And why a café?  Nowhere in Humla can you get a cup of coffee or clean, safe food. Although the population is tiny and poor, many government officials visit the town, and tourists and trekkers are starting to arrive (1500 last year).  Humla is at the western end of the Great Himalaya Trail. READI Nepal sees an opportunity to get in first with a cheerful, clean café, serving decent coffee, tea and baked goods. 

They have created a hostel for 30 children in the tiny capital of Simikot and the children go to a local private school. Through TRAS-supported projects, the children are excelling at school. They are healthy and well fed.

Now this far sighted NGO is encouraging the parents in small income generation schemes, so that eventually they can pay for their children’s education.  The latest project is the café.

A building has been rented near the airport. That means right in the centre of town – the airport is simply a strip of land surrounded by town buildings. One of our directors visited a few years ago and says she would have raced to such a café after that flight! And if the planes aren’t flying, you have to walk in for 10 days – there are no roads in these mountains.

So here’s the plan:

• READI Nepal will have a ‘barista’ trained in Kathmandu;
• A simple coffee machine and a bread making machine will be purchased.
• The hostel cook will bake bread from local grains both for the hostel and for the café.
• Their business plan is well thought out. They realistically expect the café to be open only 8 months of the year, and will start small.
• TRAS will provide $5,500 to get this venture on its feet.
• All profits will go towards the hostel costs, thus reducing the amount of TRAS support needed.

Project #298 – 2010-2014

In the remote villages of the Tuting region of Arunachal Pradesh, Tibetan women are desperate to learn to read and write. There are no electricity, no internet and no phones in their villages. So the only way to keep in touch with their children 3,000 kilometres away in Tibetan schools in Dharamsala and Chauntra, is by writing.

These illiterate women gather to learn after dark, because their days are spent working in their fields and looking after their families. And they are so determined to learn that they study by lantern, flashlight, or candlelight. TRAS can’t help them install electricity in their remote region – but we can support them by keeping the courses running.

Under the guidance of the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamsala teachers have been hired, blackboards and notebooks purchased and literacy classes have started up again for the Tibetans in these 17 scattered villages accessed only by foot.  Enrolment is up to 192, with 50 on the waiting list.  They are so keen! Men are joining the classes too. Lack of electricity doesn’t stop them learning!

The children are only able to visit home every couple of years, but now their mothers can read their children’s letters and reply to them.

Project #293 – on-going project

From the time His Holiness the Dalai Lama first met with TRAS members in 1979 and spoke to them about the importance of health as well as education, TRAS has been involved in many health-related projects.  From 1988 to 1998 TRAS supported community health workers training at Delek Hospital in Dharamsala, helping to staff a small clinic in each of the Tibetan settlements in India, Nepal and Bhutan.  As the standard of education for Tibetan children in India improved, the Tibetans realised the importance of upgrading the health services by training registered nurses to staff the clinics, some of which were enlarged into small hospitals. The Tibetan community in India, Nepal and Bhutan currently has 7 hospitals, 4 primary health centres and 43 small clinics, run by the Department of Health of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), which is situated in Dharamsala.

Under the auspices of the Department of Education (CTA), scholarships are given annually to Tibetan students to pursue a variety of careers.

TRAS has provided the scholarships for nursing students since 1995, helping many young women fulfil their ambition to succeed at a useful career and, at the same time, achieve independence for themselves with the ability to help support their own families.

The CTA is able to enrol qualifying students in excellent teaching hospitals in India, and the majority of the graduates immediately find employment, either in the small clinics and hospitals of the Tibetan settlements in India, Nepal and Bhutan or in Indian hospitals.

TRAS considers this a worthwhile project to continue, and has just approved a further three years of support. For 2019, TRAS will be supporting eight students, each taking a three-year general nursing course. Funds needed for 2019: $6,949.

Of the last 13 students, 9 are working in Tibetan or Indian hospitals, one just completed her BSc Nursing and is looking for work, one is going on to do her BSc Nursing, one has moved to the US, and one married and moved to Ladakh.

Recent graduates have written to TRAS:

“Hope you are in good health. I am always thankful to you for supporting me so far till here to achieve what I have dreamed for. With your support, I have completed my degree course and because of you, now, I am a confident lady to serve as a professional nurse.

 I graduated my college in Jan 2014 from Dr. M.V. Shetty college of Nursing, Mangalore. And currently, I am serving as a Surgical ICU staff nurse in Max Super Speciality Hospital, Dehradun. And, it’s been half a year now. I am having a good time with my profession and I love what I am doing now.

This is the recent news from my side: In our hospital, there held poster competition for Nurses Day. I participated on behalf of my department and secured 1^st position and the poster I have prepared I am here presenting to you.

With this, I extremely want to thank you for gifting me my profession! You will be always in my heart and prayers.

With thanks and regards,

Namgyal Dolma ”

“A very warm Tashi Delek! My name is Dolkar Tsering and I am a former scholarship awardee from TRAS. I studied nursing in Mangalore, India. And I am very glad that I have completed my nursing course with less difficulty which was only possible with your kind help. I completed my study in month of October and presently I am working as a staff nurse in Neuro Operation Theatre in Max hospital, Dheradun India.

At last, I would like to thank you all for your help and making me succeed in myself. Thank you once again. 

Yours sincerely

Dolkar Tsering”