School bus for the Srongtsen Bhrikuti High School in Kathmandu, Nepal:

The Srongtsen Bhrikuti High School in Kathmandu, Nepal has an enrollment of 712 children from Kindergarten to grade 10th and 60 teaching and non-teaching staff. Although the main school is residential, there are many children who attend the school as day scholars who live in other parts of the Kathmandu valley. The bus used to transport the children was old, frequently broke down and was generally very unreliable. The school approached Tibet Fund for funding to purchase of a new bus. With the generosity of Ms. Marjorie Leyden, the Tibet Fund was able to provide funds to purchase this bus for the school. The school expressed their thanks to the Tibet Fund and Ms. Layden by painting a large thank you on the side of the bus!

Projects to introduce new technology to the refugee community:

While the Tibet Fund still focuses primarily on projects that provide basic needs such as safe drinking water and access to health care and education to the Tibetan refugee community, the need for newer technology has become evident, and Tibet Fund began looking for partners to work with to fund and implement two technology based projects – the establishment of computer labs, in eight Tibetan schools to introduce computer education into the curriculum, and the linking of the Tibetan refugee via e-mail. The salesforce.com/foundation and the Flora Family Foundation, based in the San Francisco area, understood the importance of these projects andEstablishment of a fruit orchard in the Bhandara Norgyeling Tibetan settlement provided funding to implement them.

Salesforce.com/foundation provided the entire funding to establish computer labs in 5 Tibetan schools in India and 3 in Nepal. In these computer labs children are learning basic computer skills such as word processing programs as well as more advanced graphic programs. Some of the schools are teaching the children

    


how to use the computers to create school magazines, and eventually they will learn how to create and update their own websites. The children are also being introduced to e-mail as well as being taught how to use the Internet to gather information. The computer labs were established over a year ago, and all of the schools are reporting that they are tremendous success and the children are greatly benefiting from them.

Salesforce.com/foundation and the Flora Family Foundation jointly funded the project to link the Tibetan settlements through e-mail. Communication within the Tibetan refugee community is very difficult. The postal service is known for taking several weeks to deliver mail, the phone lines can be unreliable, and in some areas the cost to speak on the telephone is prohibitive. In addition, some of the settlements are located in very remote areas, days away from major communication channels. This has hindered the growth of the general community by limiting the access to information and communication. The project is currently being implemented.

These projects, generously funded by salesforce.com/foundation and the Flora Family Foundation, have enabled the Tibet Fund to help the Tibetan refugee community begin to embrace the possibilities and empowerment that new technology has to offer.


The Tibet Fund also provided support to the following projects:

  • Establishment of a fruit orchard in the Bhandara Norgyeling Tibetan settlement

  • Construction of a housing project in the Jampa Ling Settlement, Nepal

  • Construction of a housing project at the Tashi Gang Tibetan Refugee Camp at Hyanja, Pokhara

  • Began renovation of the Home for the Elderly at the Mainpat settlement, India

  

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