serendipityoucity

2 weeks at a wonderful Tibetan Children’s Boarding school in Dharamsala has reafirmed my belief that it is extremely important to provide all kids everywhere with access to a good education in a healthy and nurturing environment.  Just read these stories!

(click on any of these photos & you will go to my TCV collection)

I have decided to sponsor a child border for a full year at the SMD School in Nepal.  I am hoping that friends and family will also help in some way.  I am asking that you do not buy me any gifts for xmas, bdays, etc. and instead direct small or large sums towards the school.  You can sponsor a child for a year, a day student, help acquire the items on the schools wish list.  You can send the $ directly to the school or you can give it to me and I promise to send it for you. Even 5$ makes a difference!

My Pal Shirley Blair is the director of the Shree Mangal DVIP Boarding School which is

one of the top schools in Nepal. For four years running, all our candidates have passed the nationwide Class 10 exams. This is an outstanding achievement because nationwide, more than half the candidates fail to pass “the Iron Gate”…and our kids are writing the exams in their second language (Nepali). In 2005, only 8% of public school candidates passed, but our graduates made SMD’s history, all of them passed in the First Division.

Overseas sponsors wholly fund SMD Schools. In addition educating children, SMD also offers training and employment to more than 100 teachers and support staff.

SMD kids come from all over the Himalayas, from northern districts with romantic names like Mustang, Manang, Dolpo, Humla, Mugu, Gorkha, and Solu Khumbu. Culturally they are Tibetan, but they are born in Nepal. We don’t get newly escaped refugees these days. A few Tibetan students are still with us, mostly second and third generation, born in refugee camps in India.

During holidays the children go home if they can. In recent years, snowbound or monsoon bound trails and the war make going home impossible, so we always have at least 150 children with us at any given time, as a consequence we run 12 months of the year.

Ten SMD students have won scholarships at some of the best high schools in the world; four have gone to United World Colleges. Our first UWC graduate is on full scholarship at Westminster College in Fulton Missouri and our second is at St. Lawrence University in NY. All are thriving academically, but it is the quality of their being that garners respect amongst the other students and their teachers.

We impose one condition on scholarship-goers: they must write a letter to Rinpoche promising to return to SMD or to their village to help others for a set period of time, once their education overseas is finished. Most of the kids want to help in the education or health sector. After they’ve finished their commitment to Rinpoche and to their own people, they are free to do what they like.

The school has programs for senior students,  a wicked curriculum, nice facilities, and about 200 kids on a waiting list to get in.

Also, Jacques (1st Born Rascal) is doing some fundraising to go and work at Shirley’s School next summer! So you can help him get there to! You could also make this a school or team fundraiser!