Tibetan Children’s Village Invites you…

Dear Friends, 

The worldwide Tibetan Children’s Village (TCV) Family cordially extend our warmest invitation for your gracious presence on the occasion of our “TENSHUG” offering to His Holiness the great 14th Dalai Lama –Tenzin Gyatso and 62nd TCV Founding Anniversary dedicated as a gratitude to Kasur Ama Jetsun Pema

On: October 26 & 23, 2022

At: Tsuglakhang – Main Temple in Mcleodganj and Tibetan Children’s Village Dharamsala Cantt., (HP) India respectively.


President/Organizing Committee
Head Office, TCV

Invitation

Munsel-ling School Passive Solar Heating

Project #341 – 2022

For more than 20 years, TRAS has supported the 500 students and staff at Munsel-ling School in the Spiti Valley in northern India. Residents of Spiti Valley experience harsh winter conditions, with temperatures often plunging to -30°C and below.

For the students at Munsel-ling, staying warm is a daily challenge for many months of the year. In mountain deserts like the Spiti Valley, firewood is expensive and hard to come by. Although the smoke-free, fuel-efficient rocket stoves have massively improved the living conditions at Munsel-ling School, the temperatures in the Spiti Valley are so frigid that polythene sheets were laid along the side of each

building each year to generate solar heat. Because new sheets needed to be purchased and installed each year, this was not a sustainable solution.

TRAS is fundraising to support the installation of a passive solar wall to heat the junior girls’ dormitory, which houses around 80 students. This fixture will create an 80×8 ft. buffer zone of stone, concrete, and very large windows, which will heat the interior of the building and provide a bulwark against harsh winter winds.

Being a desert, there is little precipitation during the coldest months, but lots of sunshine. When the dormitory was built, the long wall was positioned to face south; the new buffer will act as a conservatory to warm the actual dormitory building. A similar wall has already been built against the boys’ and senior girls’ dormitories with great success.

TRAS was able to send Munsel-ling $18,436 CAD to help with this project. Thank you to all of our donors that made this possible.

Bob Walker Memorial Fund

Dr. Bob Walker of Victoria, BC passed away peacefully on the 30th of April, 2022.

Bob was born on the 15th of May, 1936, in Nottingham, England. He attended Lancaster Royal Grammar school, then Newcastle Medical School. After graduation, his first job was working in Bedford, England. In 1965 he emigrated to Canada, along with his wife Dorothy (nee Cowan) and two young children – Liz and Al. They settled in Thunder Bay, Ontario, where Bob practiced medicine for ten years at the Port Arthur clinic. During that time, a second son, Dave, was born. In 1974, Bob and his family moved to Vernon, BC, where he practiced as a GP. While they were living in Vernon, Dorothy passed away in 1977, and Bob became a widower.

Bob then met his future wife Janice (nee Mann), whom he married in 1980. They welcomed a new addition to the family, a daughter – Szu. After retirement, Bob and Janice moved to Vancouver, BC and later relocated to Victoria, BC.

Bob was a kind, gentle, compassionate and courageous man in his own humble way. He was an avid bird-watcher, enjoyed playing guitar and going for walks in the countryside, and loved British antique sports cars and car racing. He and Janice had the privilege of traveling to many parts of the world, such as East Africa, the Galapagos islands, and India. Bob was a practicing Buddhist and was ordained by Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in 2012 with the Dharma name True Profound Achievement.

Bob and Janice sponsored the education of children in the Himalayas through the Trans-Himalayan Aid Society (TRAS) for many years. If you would like to make a donation to TRAS to honour and celebrate Bob’s life, you can do so by:

  • E-transfer to email address: info@tras.ca and add reference “Bob Walker Memorial Fund”
  • Credit card online via CanadaHelps
  • Credit card by phoning the TRAS office at 604-224-5133 (the phone line is monitored regularly)
  • Cheque made out to TRAS. Please note “Bob Walker Memorial Fund” on the bottom of the cheque, and mail it to:

    TRAS
    1183 Melville St
    Vancouver, BC, V6E 2X5

Thank you for honouring Bob’s memory.