Where and who we sponsor

Rinchen Zangpo – Munsel-ling School

High in the Himalayas, near the border of Tibet, lies the remote, cold, desert valley of Spiti. The Rinchen Zangpo Society for Spiti Development created a school there with  specific educational goals:

  • to offer young Spitians the best possible modern education
  • to pass on Tibetan culture and traditions
  • to especially encourage education at all levels for girls

The Dalai Lama inaugurated the new school in 1996, giving it the name of Munsel-ling. In 1999 the school took its first boarders. Living away from home may be the only way for children from outlying villages to receive a decent education. Many, if not most, of the children currently in the care of Munsel-ling are from low-income homes and whose parents who can by no means afford the full cost of their children’s education. Children that currently need sponsors are listed under each school or settlement.

Rinchen Zangpo Society Newsletter Winter 2020/21

Rinchen Zangpo Society Education Update August 2021

Prior to the pandemic Munsel-ling School shot this wonderful video that they have now posted to their Facebook.

Click here to watch

Children that are currently in need of a sponsor:

  • REC80232 Yangchen Profile – Sponsored

Dekyiling Tibetan Handicraft Centre

Dekyiling Tibetan Handicraft Centre, is a settlement in north India that thousands of Tibetans call home. Many of these Tibetans were exiled from Bhutan in the 1980’s and Dekyiling has offered them a refuge since that time.

The TRAS sponsorship program helps to educate the children in the settlement so they can pursue a career and find a place in Tibetan or Indian society. The fees sent from our sponsors help pay for clothes, school supplies and transportation, if needed and in some cases even food as many families are very poor. After grade VIII these donations also help to pay  the boarding fees if the child has to live elsewhere to attend school.

We are waiting for new case histories from Dekyiling

  • REC80341 Kunga Profile – Sponsored

August 2021 Update

Tibetan Children’s Villages

The Mission of Tibetan Children’s Villages (TCV) – an integrated charitable organization – is to ensure that all Tibetan children under its care receive a sound education, a firm cultural identity and become self-reliant and contributing members of the Tibetan community and the world at large.

TCV Goals:

  • Provide parental care and love
  • Develop a sound understanding of Tibetan identity and culture
  • Develop character and moral values
  • Provide effective modern and Tibetan education
  • Provide child -centered learning atmosphere in the schools
  • Provide environment for physical and intellectual growth
  • Provide suitable and effective life and career guidance for social and citizenship skills

Today, TCV has eight major school branches with residential facilities across India. Many offer primary and secondary education.

    Letter to sponsors Feb 26, 2021

    Letter to sponsors May 20, 2021

TRAS  sponsors children at the following 3 schools:

TCV Suja (Bir)

Children that are currently in need of a sponsor:

August 2021 Update

TCV Lower Chauntra

Children that are currently in need of a sponsor:

TCV Upper Dharamsala

No children currently needing sponsorship

Tibetan Women’s Centre

The Tibetan Women’s Centre was established in Rajpur, Dehra Dun, north India, in 1965. They are a charitable registered body for Tibetan refugees (registered under the Society’s Registration Act 1860).

Today they are one of the oldest Tibetan Handicraft Centres in exile. Their mission is to work for the rehabilitation and socioeconomic empowerment of Tibetan Refugees. They envision a self-sufficient society where refugees, especially women are empowered. They do this through teaching the art of weaving and tailoring. At present they employ more than 70 people in making carpets, aprons and custom tailoring.

One of their main goals is to help provide and improve education opportunities for the children of their workers. All their staff and their families are provided housing within the compound. They have a crèche where they offer day care for the workers children and assist with the sponsorship for the children’s education.

No children currently needing sponsorship

Chauntra Tibetan Settlement

TRAS is pleased to be able to offer help to yet another Tibetan settlement in north India to help support its destitute children. The Chauntra Tibetan Settlement has been known to TRAS for years – our members paid for the weaving hall there in the 1980’s, where the refugees produce magnificent carpets. We remember that the late Barry Leach, one of TRAS’ first directors, and ever practical, suggested building the foundations strong enough to hold a second story in case more room was needed.  Sure enough, it soon became clear that the settlement needed a multi-purpose meeting hall and it was built atop the weaving hall.

Pema Youdon, with whom TRAS worked when she was the manager of the Tibetan Women’s Centre in Dehra Dun, was  transferred in 2019 to Chauntra by the Central Tibetan Administration to manage this settlement and she has written to TRAS to ask if our members could sponsor a few of the neediest children.

No children currently needing sponsorship

August 2021 Update