Students of Sangag Dechholing Gonpa School in Taplejung, Nepal.

Since 2012 the Social Services Fund has been offering substantial support to different schools in Nepal and India that are offering education to students of Tibetan, Nepali, and Indian heritage. Investing in education through schools is one way to help break the cycle of poverty in impoverished areas and we are pleased to offer support to nearly 1,000 children each year at this time.

2020 has been an unusual year for the schools due to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the schools were required to temporarily close in March and April of 2020 and have remained closed due to local restrictions. Some of the schools have been able to offer some form of online schooling or direct limited support to older children who will be sitting in on exams in 2020. Some of the schools that have hostels associated remained open and offered restricted classes to the children still living there.

Here we invite you to learn about some of the schools we currently support and also those we have offered grants to in the past.

Students of Sambhota Tibetan School, Bylakuppe, India.

Sambhota Tibetan School, located in Bylakuppe, South India, was established in 1971 to serve the children of refugees living at Dicky Larose Tibetan Settlement. 24 staff help educate 217 elementary, middle, and secondary students.

Since 2015 we have offered sponsorship for daily vegetarian midday meals, salary for one person to help look after the children after school for a year, and sponsorship of new kitchen. In 2020 we were happy again to offer US$6,706 for midday meals for all the children.

Students of Sagarmatha Secondary School, Chailsa, Nepal enjoying a meal.

Sagarmatha Secondary School in Chailsa, Nepal, is located on what was once a Tibetan refugee camp. It currently serves 170 students, including 79 young lay students who live at the school hostel and 25 young monks who live at Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery, which is a branch of Kopan Monastery and shares the school grounds. Eleven teachers and one additional employee support these students.

Since 2015 we have offered annual grants to the school that covers the salaries of teachers in addition to yearly text books and one set of school uniforms per year for the students. Grants are also offered for prize distribution for exams and sports competitions. The grants are offered at the end of each year, and in 2019 we were happy to offer US$30,495 for this purpose.

Students of Maitreya School, Bodhgaya, India.

Maitreya School, which is a social service project of Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, is a free school benefiting impoverished children from neighboring villages. The school offers children living in one of India’s poorest states a precious opportunity. Not only do they engage in a traditional education but, more importantly, they receive life skills in compassion, honesty, and loving-kindness presented through Buddha’s teachings. The core of the training and vision of the school is: making lives meaningful. The school has a total of 305 students with 12 full-time teachers including the principal. 

Since 2012 we have offered yearly support toward the operating costs as well as two new buses for transporting students. In 2020 we offered US$39,200 toward the annual costs of the school.

Tara Children’s Home, Bodhgaya, India, was also a social service project of Root Institute, Bodhgaya, but has now closed. The Tara Children’s Home was a small orphanage for about 20 HIV affected children. For six years, starting in 2012, we offered over US$172,290 in grants toward the annual operating expenses of the orphanage. 

Some of the Ngari Institute students, Ladakh, India.

Ngari Institute of Buddhist Dialectics is located in the Himalayan Kingdom of Ladakh, India, in a small village called Saboo. The campus is spread over twenty hectares of deserted land. The Institute helps children in need from different remote parts of Ladakh, and sends them to three different local schools, by covering all the costs for the children to attend the schools. The aim of the Institute is to empower and enrich the poor and remote-area students by offering them a combined learning of both modern scientific knowledge and ancient Buddhist wisdom. It was founded by the Ladakh alumni of Sera Je Monastery in South India.

You can watch this video of the children of Ngari Institute enjoying breakfast:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWj03fV9Lk8&feature=youtu.be

Since 2014 we have offered lunch every day of the year to the children and staff of Ngari Institute. There are currently 62 school children, including young monks, and 21 teachers who benefit from this offering. In 2020 we were happy to offer support in the amount of US$30,741 toward all the lunch expenses for the year.

Rolwaling Sangag Choling Monastery School educates 15 children from poor families across the Dolakha District of Nepal at the primary school level and provides free boarding, medical attention, clothing and other needs to its students.

The Social Services Fund raised a substantial grant to assist with a desperately needed hostel for the children in 2015. After raising this money, Nepal suffered the 7.8 magnitude earthquake and the school also endured considerable damage. As a result, the grant offered to the school was not only used to assist with the hostel, but also to help with repairs needed elsewhere on the property.

Students of Sangkpa Dechhholing Gonpa School.

Sangag Dechholing Gonpa School in Taplejung, Nepal, was established in 2007 to serve the Buddhist community in the area. Seven teachers currently educate 80 students, starting at age three. The curriculum is taught in English and Nepali and focuses on modern subjects such as math and science, while being grounded in Buddhist teachings and culture.

In 2018 we offered a US$53,587 grant to support the work of this school.

Young monks of Samtenling Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Samtenling Monastery desperately needed classrooms and a school building to provide the young monks of the monastery a modern, progressive, secular education in Kathmandu, Nepal. Out of 140 monks, 120 of them are aged 6-26. The school provides education from kindergarten through grade eight. Most of the monks are from Nepal and are primarily Sherpas and Tamangs, but Tibetan monks also attend the monastery and school. The school has been operating without any classrooms or a debate courtyard and the Social Services Fund offered a grant of US$166,090 in 2019 for the school to be built. The actual building will begin soon.

Sera Je Monastery, India needed new science classrooms and in April 2013 the Social Service Fund offered US$100,000 toward building the new classrooms .The classrooms are used primarily to teach subjects such as science and other fields of knowledge within the monastic curriculum. This offering came as a direct request from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and was a long-term objective of Sera Je Monastery to align with the vision and recommendations of His Holiness to integrate this kind of study into the monastic education.

Since 2012, amazingly over US$1,042,644 has been offered to these schools and institutions. These grants have had a direct effect and changed many children’s lives for the better. All of this is due to the kindness of the donors of the Social Services Fund who make it possible to make these offerings. We hope that more substantial grants can be offered to these and other beneficial schools offering education to youth in India and Nepal in the future.

All are welcome to support the Social Services Fund and help ensure grants to schools can continue.