Archived Projects

Project # 331 – 2020

For six months, until the end of September, 2020, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) was able to fund, with support from the United States, all the COVID-19 related expenses of the Tibetan clinics, health posts and hospitals in India and Nepal, but that funding ran out at the end of September. The Department of Health has urgently requested all the friends of Tibet to help in the struggle to keep the virus at bay in the many settlements.

So far, they have done a superb job of training staff and teaching the residents to follow good practices. Now they need protective equipment, testing capabilities and medical supplies to continue keeping their population safe. 1,043 Tibetans in India and Nepal have caught the virus and, sadly 23 have died.

The Department of Health has created an excellent plan of quarantine, containment, testing, tracing and treatment – but it will only happen with funding. Out of the request for $140,000 to cover costs for one year, TRAS promised to pay the $14,000 needed to purchase a year’s worth of personal protective equipment (PPE) for all the staff and helpers in the 12 Nepali clinics.

The project will be overseen for the Department of Health by the Snow Lion Foundation (SLF) in Nepal, which administers 12 Tibetan schools, 12 health posts and a seniors’ home. TRAS has had a good relationship with the SLF for many years, helping with several of its projects.

Project total $14,000 A Big Thank You to everyone that helped us achieve our goal.

Jan 7, 2020 Read here for update

May 3, 2021 Read here for current update

Project #327 2019-2020

Munsel-ling School requested support in a much needed roof repair. With the support of our donors, TRAS was able to send $14,300 CAD

Read about this project on page 1 in our October 2019 newsletter.

A wonderful report was sent to TRAS from the school, read here on their achievements.

            

Library Maintenance Project:

Libraries have been opened in 20 villages bringing books, periodicals and newspapers to villagers for the first time. Children and youth are making good use of these, many adults are showing a keen interest in learning to read, and the libraries are becoming a hub for village meetings and discussions. Children’s ‘book clubs’ have started, and school attendance has improved. Government school teachers are using the library books for teaching their classes.

The good news is that registered card holder numbers have increased, and now 1,252 children and adults are using the libraries. Some of the increase is attributed to word of mouth advertising and also to the relocation of two libraries within their villages, making them accessible to nearby villages as well. TRAS promised to support the libraries for three years, to pay for new books, newspaper subscriptions and the librarian honorarium. Already some libraries are run by the villages, it is hoped more will soon be independent, and a scheme to collect gently used books from nearby towns is in hand.

Project #326 – 2018

TRAS is a long-time supporter of the Munsel-ling School in the Spiti Valley, in northern India, since it opened in 1996. This has included desks for classrooms and greenhouses for growing food during the long winters, as well as sponsorships to support the education of individual children, and more recently supporting post-secondary students through the TRAS Scholarship Fund.

Munsel-ling wrote to ask for TRAS’s support in building laundry facilities.

TRAS board member Dr. Videsh Kapoor visits Spiti regularly as part of her work with the UBC Global Health Initiative, and she was able to get a more detailed understanding of what the needs are. The key problem is water availability.

The population of the town of Spiti is only 200 people, while the school has up to 600 students. This leads to possible conflict over water usage.

Currently, the students have been using a gray-water pond to wash their clothes. This pond is also used by the villagers for irrigation. When the students use it to do laundry, the soap and grime often flow into the villagers’ fields, causing conflicts with the school.

Moreover, when the students are unable to clean their clothes, they can develop worrisome health issues including scabies.

The Munsel-ling school has four sources of water, including two surface springs and two wells. One of the wells supplies the hostels and the kitchen, the other is shared with the villagers.

Of the two surface sources, the “north source” is a government source, shared with the entire village, including farmers, and governed by traditional norms (more for old people, less for new people).

Finally, the “south source” is the target for the laundry project. It’s also a government source, but the villagers don’t use it. It connects to solar water heaters. Currently, there is no reservoir, so the water is wasted.

One question we had was where the water would come from in the winter. The two surface sources are not available in the winter, but the population of the school is also much smaller. (From mid-January to March, senior students continue studying in Dharamsala, and Munsel-ling has started sending teachers to villages to continue running mini-schools.)

TRAS agreed to fund the building of a large water storage tank to collect clean water from a surface spring which is not used by the villagers, two outdoor laundry stations and a soak pit to strain the soap and grime out of the water before it reaches the farmers fields. Construction in the Spiti Valley is limited to the few summer months, so Munsel-ling School forged ahead, and by the end of August the children were washing their clothes in the almost-completed facilities. They are simple but effective, and large enough to cope with the school population of over 400 children.

$17,695 has been sent for this project. Thank you to all of our donors that have made the completion of this project possible.

Project #300 – 2017-2021

READI Nepal

Rural Empowerment and Development Initiatives (READI) Nepal is a local NGO in the Humla district of Nepal. One of the poorest districts in the country, Humla struggles due to its remote location, lack of infrastructure, and the historical disregard for its population made up largely of the Dalit (untouchable) caste. There has been little government support throughout the years.

In 2011 TRAS and READI partnered  to create the READI hostel in Simikot. There, 20 underprivileged children from all castes have been brought together to be supported with the necessities required to be able to attend a well-regarded government school. The hostel also has its own teachers to support the children in their education, and READI’s workers help to meet the students’ healthcare needs. An additional ten children have returned home and attend local village schools now that their families can afford to do this. READI continues to monitor them.

In 2016, 10 children returned to live with their parents and are regularly monitored to ensure that they continue their education and are enjoying their successes. These children now attend a local public school and are still supported with the clothes and stationery that they need.

To show their gratitude, many families have begun donating firewood and cereals to help the hostel. Together, this creates a greater sense of community and reciprocity that empowers the families as well as their children. In addition to this, READI has also provided apple and apricot saplings to the families. These trees are now beginning to bear fruit, and the harvests are shared between the families and the hostel. This not only directly aids the hostel by reducing its reliance on food imports, but it has also empowered the families and created a new source of income. For instance, five families were able to start their own tea houses and apple processing businesses.

READI Nepal has extended its philosophy of cooperation to many other agencies, both government and private. This includes cooperation with the district health officer, to create the “Little Doctor” program, teaching basic first aid knowledge to the children. Similarly, the recent mayor of Simikot has expressed a great interest in the READI hostel, and plans to continue supporting their goals. READI has achieved more and more each year. We’ve included the major highlights of the 2017/18 annual report in our Spring 2018 Newsletter here.

We are proud to have witnessed READI Nepal’s flourishing that has brought education and agency to many of the most underprivileged in Humla. Furthermore, we look forward to their next promising steps with excitement, and wish them the best!

Read about their April 2020 to March 2021 challenges and achievements

Read their  half yearly progress report for Nov 2020