Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing a sick elderly woman in Maratika, Nepal. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

The FPMT Social Services Fund offers grants to beneficial projects primarily in India, Nepal, and Mongolia, which are aimed at serving children, the elderly, the sick, and very poor. We offer grants for schools, hospices, health clinics, soup kitchens, and elderly homes. In addition, due to shutdowns in 2021, we also offered food and monetary assistance to thousands of families in need.

We would like to invite you to rejoice in some of the grants recently offered specifically toward medical care, living expenses, and food to those in India, Nepal and Mongolia.

Patient Care Trust, India

Patient Care Trust (PCT) is an NGO operating in India, with a large proportion of its field work being conducted in Northern India. The NGO facilitates access to quality healthcare and also organizes free medical camps with partner hospitals. The mission of this project is to provide timely access to affordable quality healthcare for the socially marginalized Tibetan Refugees.

Tibetans refugees in India are disproportionately exposed to risk due to lack of access to quality healthcare. Because of a variety of factors, many of them have a choice between costly but timely access to healthcare in private institutions, or affordable but untimely access through Indian public hospitals. As such, Tibetan refugees either give up on healthcare access, or contract high levels of debt. Most Tibetan refugees reside in rural areas of India, where local facilities are understaffed and under equipped. Additionally, reputed public government hospitals in urban areas such as Delhi have a waiting list of five to six months, but lower average costs. A number of Tibetan refugees are monks or nuns receiving very little or very low income and many have no income at all, especially the newly exiled from Tibet, who sometimes cannot speak English or Hindi. Due to these factors, the Tibetan refugees in India suffer from direct and disproportionate access to quality healthcare, particularly in the case of emergency treatment.

Tibetan refugees arriving in India sixty years ago. Photo courtesy of Tibet Relief Fund.

Since 2012 over 4,500 vulnerable patients have been assisted by this project. In 2021 the Social Services Fund was happy to support the important work of Patient Care Trust by covering the operational budget for an entire year with a grant of US$27,954.

Shakyamuni Buddha Clinic, India

Shakyamuni Buddha Health Clinic, a social service project of Root Institute, Bodhgaya, began in 1991 as a home for the destitute and has evolved into a diverse community health program encompassing a wide range of medical and rehabilitative services and health promotion activities.

The clinic continued to do important work in the community in 2020, some highlights are:

• The purchasing of a new Mobile Clinic vehicle that will serve hundreds of families in remote villages every week for those who cannot come to Root Institute. Through this, doctors, health educators, and physiotherapists brought much needed care to many poor families.
• The Adolescent Girls Health Training classes continued. The mission of this program is to create awareness regarding the dangers of child marriages and domestic violence, and the value of education, health, and hygiene for women for the overall wellbeing of the family.
• The teachers and students of Maitreya School, also a project of Root Institute, participated in a workshop on menstrual health and hygiene organized by Sakya Hospital. The students then continued to share this learning with students of other schools.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing a very sick patient of Shakyamuni Health Clinic in 2017.

The clinic was required to shut it’s doors in March 2020 due to the lockdown declared by the government of India. The doctors however, continued to help patients in their personal capacities. They also distributed medicine and helped the community in whatever way they could. In February 2021, the clinic reopened with all required protocols.

The annual cost of operations for the clinic is US$30,292 and in 2021 we were very happy, through the Social Services Fund, to offer US$14,700 toward these operating expenses.

The Social Services Fund has been providing annual grants to the incredible work of Shakyamuni Buddha Clinic since 2012 and in total has offered over US$172,000.

Lamp of the Path, Mongolia

A young recipient of Lamp of the Path’s services in Mongolia.

Lamp of the Path NGO (LOP), part of Ganden Do Ngag Shedrup Ling, has offered social services to some of the poor and homeless living in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia for the past eighteen years. The soup kitchen, which is its main program, offers food to those in need and free medical support is offered through a health clinic. LOP also helps bring awareness to the epidemic of alcoholism in Mongolia and offers tuberculosis checkups for the disadvantaged in the area.

A grant for US$35,281 was offered to this beneficial project toward the 2021 operating budget.

The Social Services Fund has been providing annual grants to the incredible work of LOP since 2012 and in total has offered over US$318,000.

Please watch this moving video featuring the lives of three individuals who have been positively impacted by the services offered by Lamp of the Path.

MAITRI Charitable Trust, Bodhgaya

MAITRI is engaged in the eradication of leprosy, the control of TB, medical assistance and care for expecting mothers and new born babies, life-saving assistance to malnourished small children, education of children and adults in rural areas, rehabilitation of disabled people, the provision of opportunities to women and other underprivileged people, promotion of a holistic development in villages, rescuing and care of animals, and awareness campaigns for all of these programs.

In 2021 during the lockdowns, MAITRI’s work continued, as they had inpatients in the hospital and animals in the shelter, the staff came to work regularly. They were provided with face masks and Vitamins C and D to boost their immune system and the staff were grateful to have a regular job and regular income. Registered patients of the TB and mother and child care programs defied the lockdown restrictions and came to the gates for their monthly rations which MAITRI duly provided.

During the year the programs continued with new patients being registered and others being released from treatment. In particular, MAITRI helped to hospitalize two leprosy patients and with MAITRI’s special treatment their condition has been greatly improving. The work of the animal care program continued with the rescuing of animals in distress and injured, including a monkey.

A grant for US$68,600 was offered to this beneficial project in 2021 toward the operating budget.

The Social Services Fund has been providing annual grants to the incredible work of MAITRI since 2012 and in total has offered over US$606,000.

Participants of a community event gathered around stupas at MAITRI Charitable Project, July 2019.

Helping Nepali and Tibetan Refugees Affected by the Pandemic

Kopan Helping Hands has been distributing food to families affected by the pandemic and who have lost their livelihood due to the lockdowns and restrictions. Kopan is working with the local government to identify families most in need and distribute food to as many as 400 families. In addition, Kopan is working with trusted local contacts to identify elderly people living by themselves and families without any means of support in the Upper Solu Khumbu area of Nepal. Food will likely be distributed to them through the local shops. Lama Zopa Rinpoche recently spoke to the senior Kopan monks about how important it is for monks and nuns to engage in social activities that directly relieve the suffering of sentient beings. However, in addition to the immediate benefit, Rinpoche emphasized that by seeing monks and nuns do activities for their benefit, people will develop faith in them and this will plant the seed of liberation in their minds and cause them in future lives to meet the Dharma and the Sangha.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered a grant of US$20,000 to Kopan Helping Hands toward these food distribution efforts.

The Central Tibetan Relief Committee (CTA) arranged support in the form of direct cash assistance as an emergency relief measure, to alleviate the financial burden of the most vulnerable households. Cash assistance will help these homes meet basic nutrition and financial security needs over the next several months, and prevent them from falling into deep poverty due to their inability to earn income during the pandemic.

The financial impact of the pandemic has been especially devastating for the poorest households in Tibetan settlements. According to a rapid survey conducted in June, 2,774 households across India, Nepal, and Bhutan are now struggling to afford basic necessities, and are at risk of falling into a cycle of poverty from which they cannot soon reemerge. The CTA offered a one-time payment of 10,000 Indian rupees for each household (1,000 rupees per month for ten months). 

Kopan Sangha distributing emergency aid to those in need during covid-19 crisis in Nepal. Photo courtesy of Kopan Monastery Facebook page.

Emergency cash relief is expected to help enable them to maintain financial stability in the short term, and increase their ability to regain or advance toward self-reliance when economic activity normalizes. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered a grant of US$50,000 toward this beneficial initiative of the CTA.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khadro-la visiting the site where the new Tsum Community Center is being built, in 2020.

Tsum Community Center, Nepal

This year the Social Services Fund was happy to support the construction of a new community center in Kathmandu to support those from the Tsum region. This new community center is being built in the area of Swayambhunath and the community center will serve as a place for people to gather and offer prayers, particularly at the time of death, by offering a space for the final rituals before cremation. The other objective of this center is to teach the younger generation in the area about the cultural traditions of Buddhism as they are not taught this in their schools.

In 2021 US$ 40,996 was offered toward the building expenses of this community center.

Rejoice!

Please join us in rejoicing in some of the ways that FPMT is offering direct support for those most in need in India, Nepal, and Mongolia by providing grants for medical and heath care, food, and living expenses. In 2021 we have offered US$257,531 so far this year. Thank you to the many who make these grants possible and continue to support the Social Services Fund.

All are welcome to support the Social Services Fund and help ensure we can continue to offer support toward the health of those in need.