Hi to everybody. The first destination after New Delhi will be Leh, close to Himalaya at 3500 m of altitude. Fantastic. There I will visit many Buddhist monasteries and I will start my reportage about the Tibetan refugees. I will visit the Tibetan Children's Village at Choglamsar, few kilometres from Leh, where there are more than 1900 children.
The Tibetan Settlement in Ladakh in the 70's was the most remote and least developed of all the Tibetan communities in exile. Nomadic refugee camps were scattered all along this Indo-Tibet border region where communication and physical contacts were almost entirely cut off from the rest of Tibetans in India. His Holiness was deeply concerned about their future, particularly the fate of the children. In order to alleviate their poor condition, a plan was implemented to provide education and introduce sustainable development programmes in that region.
With initial seed money of Rs.10,000 from His Holiness and land donated by the local Indian government, TCV set out to build a children's village near Leh, Ladakh in 1975. Today TCV Ladakh is a thriving SOS Children's Village with its own school and other facilities. The school includes classes from pre-school through grade ten, after which students can join other TCV branches for further education. Out of 24 children's homes or Khimtsangs, seven are allotted to destitute Ladakhi children.
