On Monday, August 1, 2011, Tibet Charity celebrated its Opening Ceremony of its 2nd Semester. There were four new teachers who were present, and only Chis, one of the teachers from the 1st Semester, was there. The new teachers are: Dustin and his wife Haley, who are from Ohio, the United States, Edward from the UK, and Linley from Australia. Jemma, another teacher of ours, will be a little late and will be arriving on August 19, and we keenly look forward to meet her soon.

Ms. Rinzin Wangmo, our education coordinator and teacher, began the program by welcoming all our new teachers. She advised the students to work hard, and to take care of their health in Dharamsala, and make the best of the rare opportunity of learning English from very qualified, competent, and dedicated teachers without having to pay an arm and a leg. Next, our new teachers were offered ‘khatas’, white Tibetan ceremonial scarves, by the Director as a welcome gesture and they were asked to introduce themselves to the students. They introduced themselves to the students, and they said that they were all very excited to be in Dharamsala and couldn’t wait to meet the students and start teaching.

Next, the Director of Tibet Charity, Mr. Tsering Thundup la, gave his speech. He welcomed our new teachers of the 2nd Semester, and he said that Tibet Charity has an Animal Program, a Health Section, and provides scholarships to students and financial aid to retired elderly Tibetans. He told the students that their teachers are all qualified and experienced in teaching English, and that they should make the best use of their time at Tibet Charity. After the short tea break, the Director outlined the rules and regulations of Tibet Charity. Later, the teachers had a little meeting in the staff room and they decided who was going to teach what class. The Opening Ceremony went without a hitch, and it was now time, once more, for our students to persevere and work hard for another semester.

On July 29 2011, Tibet Charity’s Education Section celebrated its closing ceremony of the 1st Semester of 2011. The morning began with a brief welcome speech by Ms. Rinzin, the education coordinator and teacher. Next, Ms. Dolma, one of the Upper Intermediate students, gave a speech. In her speech, she said that she was one of 14 children in her family, and didn’t get an opportunity to go to school. She said that she ran away to Lhasa from her home in Amdo in eastern-Tibet when an arranged marriage was arranged for her by her parents. In Lhasa, she said that she worked in an enormous hotel. Together with her friend Tseyang, she made the arduous journey over mountain passes from Tibet to Nepal, and then finally to India. She thanked all the teachers.

Next, prizes were distributed to all the 1st and 2nd position holders. Next, the teachers said a few words. Meghan said that while in Dharamsala, she learnt a lot about Tibet and its culture. She said that she had a very positive experience at Tibet Charity. Chris said that learning English is a “medium” and a means to achieve something. Andy, Andrew, and Michael all said that they had a wonderful experience at Tibet Charity and Dharamsala. Next the director in his speech said that Tibet Charity has an animal, and health section, and provides scholarship to students and financial aid to elderly retired people; he said that out of all these different programs under Tibet Charity, the Education Section makes him the proudest. He thanked the teachers who were leaving and thanked all the teachers who have taught in the past. He thanked Mr. Tenzin Dawa, our computer teacher, who is leaving us, and welcomed Tseten Dolkar la, our new computer teacher, who will be starting work from September 1. He thanked Ms. Rinzin, our coordinator, for doing a wonderful job teaching the students basic English.

Mr. Tsering Thundup la, the Director, next spoke to the students in Tibetan. He told them that he is thinking about starting a program which will give the students to pass grade 3, 5 and 8. He said that even if someone wants to work as a peon in the Tibetan Administration in Gangchen Kyishong, he or she needs a eight grade pass certificate. He told the students that if they work hard they can get an eight grade pass certificate in 4 years. He said that the reason why he thinks this program is important is because right now, our students really can’t use what they have studied here in looking for a job since the certificate we provide can’t be really used to look for a job. We told the students to contact him if they are interested in the program.

After the Director’s speech, the crowd disbanded to have tea and cookies. The Closing Ceremony went smoothly and according to plan, but we now had to get ready for our Opening Ceremony of our 2nd Semester on Monday, when there will be a new group of teachers and plenty of new students.

First Summer Science Camp for Tibetan Students.

The intention of organizing this camp was to give the participants an opportunity to work using scientific methods. They were asked to observe and analyze the actual outcome of their experiments. They tried to understand some of nature’s forces. Participants were given opportunity to think and wonder.

Emphasis was given on a different teaching and learning style

compared to the traditional education situation. Focus was more on hands-on experiments, teamwork, group discussions and critical thinking. The focus was on asking questions instead of just finding answers.

As for the resource persons, instead of looking outside for experts, made use of the expertise we have among our teachers. Starting with the two resource persons that we had this year, we hope to create a pool of resource persons from within our own teaching community. This should give them some pride and motivation to come up with more ideas and ways of imparting knowledge to the students.

After two days of learning and group discussions, the students showed a glimpse of their innovative skills by presenting various models using scientific applications as part of their project work.

It was not only learning with fun but they had plenty of opportunity to enjoy the scenic beauty of Manali. Besides evening outdoor activities, the third day was dedicated just to relax and have fun. They were taken to Solang Valley for picnic with kind support from Manali Parents’ Association who provided vehicle free of cost for the picnic.

We thank Peter Hallum for kindly funding this camp. We also thank the Resource persons for making themselves available for

the students. We thank the Education Directors of TCV Schools & Sambhota Tibetan Schools as well the Principals of the participating schools for kindly allowing students from their schools to join the camp. We thank the administration and staff of Tibetan School Manali for kindly allowing us to hold the camp in their school. Last but not the least we thank all the participants for participating in the camp and for being wonderful participants as well.

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On Saturday May 7, a group of 5 volunteer English teachers went on the daylong trip to Bir, Chauntra, and other neighboring areas where Tibetans live.

We left at 7:30 from Tibet Charity, and reached CST Chauntra School around 10:20 a.m. The school secretary showed us around the school, which has around 400 students. We went into classrooms while they were in session, and the young students were engrossed in their studies. After that, we went to Zongsar Monastery. The main temple of the monastery is impressively large, and numerous steps lead up to the main entrance, which has symbolic Buddhist paintings outside. One of the paintings depicted various hells that are in Tibetan Buddhism; another depicted the world. There is a huge bronze statue of a seated Buddha inside which is flanked by two other smaller standing statues, and the space inside the temple is large enough to accommodate several

thousand people.

After that, we went to Bir and had lunch at a Tibetan restaurant. Next, we went to the Bir Tibetan Settlement office, and met the representative, Ms. Tsering Lhamo, who welcomed us with ‘thankas’ and served tea and biscuits. She explained to us the work she does, and related to us briefly the story of Bir. She then took us to the noodle factory and the prayer flag factory outside, where our volunteers bought a few prayer flags to take back home. Next, we went to TCV Suja School. There was a basketball and a football match going on, and we toured around the campus.

After that, on our way back to Dharamsala in our taxi, the teachers marveled at the beautiful landscape of the looming Himalayas in the distance, and terrace farms, trees, and gentle sloping hills outside. We got back around 7:30. We all had a lovely day, and the teachers really appreciated the trip.

As a mark of our appreciation to the volunteers for their kind help in teaching English to the new comers of Tibet, Tibet Charity organizes special dinners for the volunteers once a month.

The first such dinner get together was held on 29th March, 2011. The dinner was attended by all our volunteers.

It was also an occasion for us to bid farewell to Ms. Mireille Dore and Castongauy Isabelle who have been with us for the last few weeks. Ms.

Mireille Dore has been teaching the elementary classes. She also participated in the English conversation sessions at the end of the classes. We could see that the students enjoyed her teaching very much, and we could also see that she enjoyed teaching the students here at Tibet Charity.

Ms Castongauy Isabelle and Trembley Claudine have been working as volunteers in our health section. They have been accompanying our home nurses, taking care of the old and sick in places around Dharamsala. The time that they spent with our home nurses has proved very beneficial to the people we attend to as well as our home nurses.

We thank all for the quality time that they have spent with us.

The dinner get together was also an occasion for us to welcome Mr. Sten and Mrs. Nette from Denmark who are here to help some Tibetan schools set up

their own kitchen gardens. They had organized a workshop on kitchen gardens in the past, which is now bearing very good fruit in some Tibetan schools. This time we hope more Tibetan schools will be benefitted.

We also welcomed Ms Sarah from England who will be taking the class which is being taught by Ms. Mireille Dore. We thank her for coming here to work for us, and we hope she will have good time teaching the students of Tibet Charity Education Centre.

Tibet Charity Education Center reopens after winter vacation on 16th March 2011. A simple opening ceremony at 10 a.m. marked the beginning of TCEC. The opening function was attended by the students, the volunteers and the staff of Tibet Charity India.

Ms Rinzin Wangmo, the coordinator of TCEC, welcomed all the volunteers and the students to TCEC. She requested the students to make the best use of the opportunity they have at TCEC. She thanked the volunteers for kindly coming from various parts of the world to be of some help to the Tibetans who have not had the opportunity to go to formal schools or to learn English.

The volunteers then introduced themselves briefly, and they all expressed their joy and enthusiasm to be a part of Tibet Charity as volunteer English teachers to the new comers from Tibet and others, who could not complete their schooling due to one reason or the other. They said that

they will do their best to be of help to the students of TCEC.

The Director, besides thanking the volunteers, briefly explained the various programs under Tibet Charity.

Mr. Tashi Paljor, the assistant coordinator of TCEC, thanked everyone present at the function.

After the function, a simple tea party was organized for everyone present.

Thereafter, the students were explained various rules and regulations governing TCEC. The lists of the students in various classes were read out.

We are very grateful to Tibet Charity Sweden and Tibet Charity Denmark for their kind support in enabling us to run this program with much success for the last five years. We also thank all our volunteers – past and present – for their wonderful contribution to the success of our education programs.

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