Compassion Beyond Borders supports Tibetan refugee girls living in two mountain communities in northern India. The refugee children do not qualify for aid from UN refugee organizations if they have been born outside of Tibet.
Refugee schoolgirls
Girls from the Tibetan refugee communities of Bir and Chauntra in northern India receive $150 scholarships from CBB. Some of this funding goes for a girl's school uniform and school supplies, while the remainder pays the fees of the school she is attending.
Refugee children are educated in schools that follow both an Indian and a Tibetan curriculum. They study in the Tibetan language through the fifth grade and afterwards in English. At home, Tibetan remains the spoken language.
Since the Tibetan language is not taught in Tibet under the Chinese administration, the refugee communities and schools have become the sole means for preserving the Tibetan language and the culture that goes with it.
One girl's story: Pema
At the age of ten, Pema walked out of Tibet with her family to a new life in India as a refugee. The family settled in the Bir/Chauntra Tibetan refugee community at the foot of the Himalayas. Pema's father has since passed away, and so her family is now poorer than ever.
After primary school in her village, Pema was placed in a boarding school in Dharamsala, the home of the Dalai Lama in exile, where she has now completed her high school education. Pema is continuing her studies at a university in Bangalore to become a nurse.
