Tibetan Homes Foundation Mussoorie Supplementary Diet Project
Currently TRAS has agreed to allocate donations from Tibetans in Canada to a food supplement program at the THF.
The Tibetan Homes Foundation (THF) was established by the Dalai Lama in 1962. It takes care of the overall development and cultural upbringing of orphan, semi-orphan and destitute Tibetan children inside and outside Tibet. THF runs four schools (three of them are boarding schools), with 1900 to 2000 children under its care. The Tibetan Homes Foundation in Mussoorie, north India, was one of the first two Tibetan children’s homes opened in India and has been supported by TRAS since 1962.
TRAS was recently contacted by a Tibetan Canadian, Khechog, asking if he and his friends could sponsor some children at the Tibetan Homes Foundation (THF) in Mussoorie, north India. TRAS has arranged sponsorships at THF since the early 1960s, and sensing a story, TRAS asked Khechog how he came to hear of TRAS and THF.
Here’s what he told us: “I was born in Tibetan Homes Foundation where my parents served as foster parents in Home 13, one of the 25 homes, each holding 25 children, most of them orphans or semi orphans. As a teenager I was transferred to Home 8/18, a large Victorian building which housed two Homes. It had a plaque indicating it was funded by TRAS. The plaque explains that TRAS donated this home. In 1981, my family moved to Alberta and I graduated from high school and then from university with a degree in Electrical Engineering. There are around 25 THF alumni in Calgary, about twice that many in Toronto and a few in BC. This past April, THF organized an event to express gratitude to His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala and I attended. On my return to Canada, I decided to help the current students at THF and organized the first fundraising event for THF in Alberta, raising $10,500 and finding sponsors for 16 students. One project we decided upon, during our visit to THF, was to improve nutrition for the THF children and we are very grateful that TRAS has agreed to endorse this project and also to look after the sponsorships.”
It’s wonderful to see the circle completed, as Khechog gives back to help today’s children at THF. Thank you, Khechog, for your generous donation and for entrusting TRAS to carry out your wishes.
By donating to this project, you will help with providing nutritious food to the children – fruit, eggs, meat, cheese – for better growth, better body metabolism, and better health, preventing nutrient deficiencies.
Dr Yosef Wosk Family Foundation Library Project
Thanks to Dr. Yosef Wosk and his determination to spread the joy of reading and learning far and wide, TRAS is helping hundreds of children with a supply of new books! The Yosef Wosk Family Foundation has given TRAS $19,000 to provide a much-needed supply of new books to 6 Tibetan schools in India. The schools are in Chauntra (2), Suja, Tenzingang, Miao and Tezu. This gift has also enabled AMAN and VIMARSH to create a new village library in seven of the nine villages in the Hope for Children project regions (the other two have already been supplied with a library last year). We are hoping soon to open a library in Dolakha — the village in Nepal which was devastated in the 2015 earthquake and where TRAS members helped to replace all the toilets. And most exciting of all, we are helping a new school in distant Zanskar build its first library.
Read more about this project in our 2024 Fall Newsletter
Sundrawati Basic School, Dolakha, Nepal
A new project is underway to provide books and furniture (tables, chairs, and bookshelves) to Sundrawati Basic School (nursery to Grade 8) in Dolakha, Nepal. 100 boys and girls aged 5 to 15 (girls outnumber the boys) will benefit from a collection of stories, biographies, poetry, essays, Nepali and English grammar, and dictionaries. Most of the children in this school are from the Thami community, one of the most deprived communities in the region.