ICT Project: Tibetan Children’s Village, Suja
ICT Germany, in collaboration with RTL, Europe’s largest commercial broadcasting corporation, has spent the past year working to improve the Tibetan Children’s Village (TCV) in Suja, India. RTL featured the school project on its annual “Spendenmarathon,” a 24-hours telethon aimed at raising funds to improve the lives of children from all over the world—RTL generously donated $1.4 million to go towards expanding and renovating the TCV campus and providing psychological care, where needed, to the 2,000 Tibetan children living at the school, many of whom are new refugees from Tibet. ICT members in Germany, as well as German actor Hannes Jaenicke who is the project’s patron, have been of tremendous help and support.
For almost 50 years the TCV schools—from Dharamsala to Ladakh—have been nurturing and educating Tibetan refugee children—many of whom are brought from Tibet by their parents for the sole purpose of receiving this distinctly Tibetan education. School facilities in India have been hard pressed to meet the needs of the expanding exile community. The situation at the TCV Suja school exemplifies this challenge. It is home to some 2,000 children, many of whom are orphans or living far from their families who remain in Tibet. TCV Suja was ill equipped to house, feed, and nurture so many children; but the staff members—many former TCV students themselves—have committed themselves to making Suja a loving and comfortable home for these children. Their efforts have not gone unnoticed, and thanks to the RTL grant, the children at TCV Suja will soon have a new health center, multiple dormitories, a multipurpose area for sports and dining, staff quarters, an ambulance, and additional nurses on staff!
Also included in the RTL grant is funding to institute a new program of psychological care for traumatized children. The special program is intended to offer support to those who need help most and to contribute to a more open approach towards psychological needs of children within the Tibetan exile community. To this end, the program will also rely on support from Tibetan community members to serve as resources—providing specialists as those with an intimate knowledge of the struggles these children face.
Thanks to so many friends and supporters of ICT in Germany and the dedication of so many in India, the first phase of the renovations at the TCV in Suja is almost complete, and the school will soon enjoy the use of their new ambulance, health center, multipurpose area, some dormitories, and staff quarters. The remaining renovations and the psychological care should be in place by May of 2013.
(Photo Caption: The new health center. Credit: TCV)
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Fundació Casa del Tibet and Ruta de la Luz Foundations first cooperation Spanish mission improves visual health of children in TCV Suja and Gopalpur
August 2009 – Following an agreement between Tibet House Foundation (Fundació Casa del Tibet, Barcelona, Spain) and Fundación Ruta de la Luz, a team of opticians traveled to India in a project aiming to improve visual health of Tibetan children. The opticians from Ruta de la Luz and their assistants from Tibet House Foundation worked in TCV Suja, near Dharamsala, India, to evaluate and graduate the vision of aproximately 500 people (children and staff members) starting on July 28th. Previous work of the TCV optician and nurse (?) in Suja made the mission so succesful that the opticians could also work for some extra days in TCV Gopalpur where a revision of 300 people was made.
Ruta de la Luz will manufacture as many glasses as required (200 for Suja and 100 for Gopalpur) in Spain and send them to every child or adult absolutely free of cost. Fundación Ruta de la Luz also delivered 40 pre-graduated glasses as well as different maintenance materials. This means not only a significant improvement in health but also a major economic contribution to Tibetan Children Villages. Another 300 sunglasses were donated to Reception Center in Dharamsala and children and staff with special sensibility to light in both TCV.
Besides the benefit of the campaign itself, Tibet House Foundation will develop a communication project on the mission of TCVs and their work with children in order to preserve and regain Tibet´s rich Cultural heritage and its spiritual values for the promotion of World Peace.
Members of this cooperation mission found in Tibetan children and teenagers an example of personal balance and conciousness in self-development, this being one of the core messages for the communication campaign to the Spanish society.
For futher information, please contact:
Fundació CASA DEL TIBET
Tel.: +34 932 075 966
E-mail: info@casadeltibetbcn.org
http://www.casadeltibetbcn.org
Editorial contact:
CONSUELO TORRES COMUNICACION S.L.
consuelo@consuelotorres.es
Tel.: +34 91 382 15 29