The Swedish School in Katsel - Tibet
In 1988 Soenam Jamyangling was allowed to return to his home village of Katsel leading a delegation after 28 years in exile. The village-school was very bad and Soenam criticised it (among other things) in a meeting with theLhasa government. The delegation was asked to help build a new school in Katsel. Back in Sweden The Swedish- Tibetan Society for School and Culture was founded with the goal to raise money for the buildings. They applied for money at SIDA (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency), and it was granted. The most difficult thing was writing an agreement that both parties could agree on, something which had to be done before a school-project in Tibet could be started. The negotiations took three years, but finally the agreement was signed and the work could get started. During that time the children had lessons in a temporary shed. The School Society started a Sponsorship-committee to find sponsors for the childrens` food and clothes.
The school was inaugurated on the12th of September 1994, and in accordance with the
agreement it was handed over to the local authorities five years later. The School Society has however promised continuous financial support until 2002. In 1998 the school was chosen by the education-department in Lhasa as a model school, the best school in central Tibet.
The school has been enlarged by a cottage hospital, library, showers, greenhouse, and football
and basketball fields . The school has yaks, dris (female yak), and pigs. An extensive tree-planting project was started in 1997.
Of the 270 pupils ,103 are boarding students from Katsel and other villages nearby. The school has 20 teachers and personnel. Once a week evening classes are held for grown-ups.The people in the area who cannot read or write get teaching free of charge.
The Child-Sponsorship programme which started with the Katsel School, now include more schools and a total of 328 children are sponsored.
Chakrildo school - Tibet
The school was ready for the autumn term in 1999. The Katsel school's architect has built another nice, small school built in the traditional style. The building has two classrooms and a teacher's living quarters. 30 children from class 1-3 receive teaching from one teacher. The child-sponsorship committee has children in the school.
The school is also open for children from "Big Bone Disease Village". The majority of the people there are suffering from swollen joints, which may be caused by the drinking water. "Médécins sans frontiers" have been to the village but they are not sure what is causing this invalidity. Above the school is a very famous meditation-cave.Here yogis from Drikung Thil monastery have done research into the human mind .
Yichi school - Tibet
Yichi is a small village with a population of 247, approximately 8km from Katsel. The village is beautifully situated between two mountains and the people are farmers and cattle-tenders.Originally there were two Yichi villages, Upper and Lower Yichi. Upper Yichi had a nunnery with 80 nuns where teachings were given. During the cultural revolution the nunnery was totally destroyed and the whole village moved down to Lower Yichi.
There was no school before the School Society inaugurated one there in 1998. 47 pupils ar attending 1-4 grade. There are children here who are supported by the child-sponsorhip programme.
Reting school - Tibet
The school is situated in the village, approximately 15 kilometres from the famous Reting-monastery. The monastery was built in 1056 but was destroyed during the cultural revolution. The abbot was the 14th Dalai Lamas regent. Before 1998 there was a very simple school in this very poor area. The Society and Individual Human Aid decided to build a new school with dormitories for 120 children.
Private sponsors contributed to bed-sheets.Before, the children had been sleeping on rags.
Kartö school, Nenang - Tibet
Lama Tsewang Tashi started to build a school for the children in the village close to his monastery. He has taken care of 10 orphans from Lhasa area and is now building a dormitory for them. The School Society has contributed to the school building and now also to the dormitory construction.
The school is beside a road that leads to Karmapa's monastery, Tsurpu. Busses and cars are often passing by,so Lama Tsewang has built a small restaurant and a shop for the travellersThis enterprise is giving the school some extra income. Before,the Lama traveled to Malaysia giving teachings to raise money for the school, but at present he is not allowed to travel abroad.
The School Society has child-sponsorship activity at the school.
JEMA SHANG SKOLAN - TIBET
Mampa School, Drikung Til - Tibet
Just below Drikung Thil monastery lies Mampa School,which has 400 pupils in the grades 1-6. The 50 boarding pupils had very poor, cramped bedrooms.
With money from the Trace Foundation the Society has been able to finance a dormitory building that contains 6 bedrooms. The architect was the same one that made the Katsel School and he has done a very good job. The house is in traditional Tibetan style with sloped slate roofs. It is built in such a way that it is possible to build a second storey up on the roof if this should ever be necessary! The bedrooms have tiled floors, which brighten up the rooms better than concrete floors. This is the first school building with tiled floors and it will be interesting to see how it looks after some use. The older bedroom building will be used as teachers quarters after they are fixed up a bit.
