Empowering Tibetan Civil Society

We empower Tibetan-led civil society organizations to make positive change in their communities. We do this by funding their social impact projects and supporting organizational development, encouraging young Tibetans to become social entrepreneurs. Since 2017, more than 30 civil society organizations in India and Nepal have received multi-year support from The Tibet Fund. Below are profiles of some of our current partners.

Manjushri
Educational Services

Manjushri focuses on promoting healthy cognitive, social, and emotional development for children up to age 5, and Tibetan language reading skills for children up to age 8. It organizes activities for Tibetan children at its reading and play center in Dharamsala, and conducts workshops for parents on the importance of early childhood and positive parenting. Manjushri also produces high quality children’s literature and newborn baby care packages that have reached more than 15,700 children in India and Nepal.

Shatsa

Shatsa’s mission is to develop excellent reading habits among Tibetan children and set them on the road to lifelong learning. Shatsa conducts reading programs for Tibetan children in Ladakh at its community library, and operates a mobile library for nomadic children without library access. Shatsa has also produced original children’s books based on stories of Tibetan nomadic life that have reached more than 6,600 children in India and Nepal.

TibetWrites

TibetWrites is a Dharamsala-based collective that works to promote Tibetan writers and publish their work in Tibetan and English, including original and translated fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Recent publications include Under the Blue Skies: A Tibetan Reader, an anthology of fiction, essays, and poetry that is now being used in Tibetan school classrooms. TibetWrites publications supported by The Tibet Fund can be viewed here.

Drokmo

Founded by two young feminists with support from The Tibet Fund, Drokmo works to advance gender justice in Tibetan settlements and schools. It conducts menstrual, sexual, and reproductive health workshops for adolescent girls and students, at which they have entry-level discussions about sexual consent, violence, and the changing patterns of relationships during adolescence. It also organizes menstrual health workshops for nunneries and gender awareness workshops for Tibetan NGOs.

Reimagining Doeguling
Tibetan Settlement

This grassroots organization specializes in water conservation, public health, and community development in Doeguling, the largest Tibetan settlement in South Asia. With our support it has significantly improved water conservation and prevented the spread of Hepatitis B for thousands of residents and monastics in the settlement.

Tibetan Legal Association

Tibetan Legal Association promotes legal literacy and offers legal representation and counselling to Tibetans in India, including pro-bono legal aid for vulnerable Tibetans and weekly legal services for women and children in Dharamsala. It also gives legal advice to Tibetan civil society organizations and conducts legal awareness events for Tibetan settlement officers. The association has more than 100 active members in India, including Tibetan lawyers, legal experts, recent law school graduates and current law students.

Lha Charitable Trust

Lha provides livelihood skills training to unemployed Tibetan youth with our support. Training focuses on young Tibetans who have never attended school, school dropouts, and former monks, who learn baking, cooking, bartending, barista, nail art, woodcarving, and yoga teacher training, among other skills. Short training courses are complemented by financial literacy and basic business training. More than 400 unemployed youth have benefitted from this program since it began in 2019.

Drung

Drung is a Tibetan filmmakers collective based in Dharamsala. With our support it organizes a mentorship program for aspiring young filmmakers who receive grants to make short films in Tibetan language. Drung connects mentees with award-winning filmmakers to advise on script development, direction, editing, and post-production. Drung has also received support to produce an anthology of short films in collaboration with four established Tibetan directors.

Tibetan Cancer Society

Tibetan Cancer Society works to spread awareness and assist patients in consulting cancer specialists and accessing quality hospital care. It has organized preventive awareness and screening camps in remote Tibetan settlements of northeast and central India and nomadic areas in Ladakh.

Altruism in Action

Founded by a nurse after recovering from Hepatitis B, Altruism in Action spreads awareness about this life-threatening disease and provides screening and vaccinations to Tibetans in Ladakh and other parts of India. It also provides medication and follow up consultations to economically vulnerable Tibetans who test positive.

Tibetan Heart Foundation

Located in Doeguling, Karnataka, Tibetan Heart Foundation was founded to spread awareness about cardiac disease and promote good cardiac health. In 2022, more than 950 Tibetans received cardiology screening in settlements of south India. Following medical camps, the organization assisted more than 100 patients with hospital visits, specialist consultations, and surgeries.

Charitable Tibetan Dentists

Charitable Tibetan Dentists is a volunteer organization founded by a group of young Tibetan dentists. They organize camps in schools and settlements where they screen for dental ailments and provide free services, including fillings, extractions, scaling, and fluoride cleaning.