Jhamtse Canada Spring 2016 Newsletter
SPRING 2016
Welcome to Jhamtse Canada’s newsletter. The word Jhamtse means love and compassion in Tibetan. Our mission to relieve poverty in developing nations by providing basic necessities of life, including food, clean water, clothing and/or shelter to children and families who are poor or in need.
LOCATIONS
The locations to where we sent over $46,000 of funds raised in 2015 for relief and programming included the Jhamtse Gatsal Children’s Community located in the Himalayan foothills at the “end of the road” in northeastern India. The Community is beside the Bhutan eastern border where India meets Tibet and Bhutan. This area has recently been beset with landslides causing roads to be washed out and loss of life. No one at the Community has been injured. Earlier in 2015 we also provided support to the relief efforts by sending funds to the Child Haven orphanage in Kathmandu in May in response to the earthquake disaster in Nepal. Last week we spoke with the Child Haven directors and they indicated that the orphanage has returned to normal operations but the area in and around Katmandu still needs significant efforts to rebuild.
CURRENT STORIES
Adarsh and Jeff visited Jhamtse Gatsal again in the fall of 2015 along our daughter Milaan. We were meeting with Lobsang and staff along with the Directors of Jhamtse International to plan activities for 2016 including the potential for 15 additional children to be accepted into the Community.
It Is Milaan who turns the table on Tashi by acting up at dinner.
The children of Jhamtse Gatsal are still awesome. They and the teaching staff and volunteers work tirelessly on their performances including many traditional dances.
Senior girls’ traditional Monpa dance at Jhamtse Gatsal during recent trip
Volunteers in North Vancouver created a movie night on November 7th in North Vancouver with more than 125 people coming out to support the event’s activities which including watching Tashi and the Monk, traditional Tibetan performances, prayer flag painting and more. The evening grossed more than $5,000 for Jhamtse Canada. Our thanks go to Mark Riddell, Terry Bulych, Carol Evenchick, Ramona Materi and Klara Sedlacek who made the night a tremendous success. The Vancouver volunteer group have plans for another event in 2016 and need your help (see Upcoming Events).
The North Vancouver crowd hears a Tibetan song performed.
FINANCIAL RESULTS
Jhamtse Canada completed its first year as a registered charity in 2015. We had two formal events and attended more than a dozen Banff Mountain Film Festival screenings that showed Tashi and the Monk. Our thanks to the Banff Centre team for allowing us to get the word out to film goers in Canada, USA, Europe and Australia.
Below is the summary of the audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2015. We raised over $117,000 while limiting administration expenses for the year to just $7,214 or 6% of revenues and program travel to 5% of revenues.
During the year we provided $46,224 to excellent and worthwhile causes including $43,000 to Jhamtse Gatsal and $3,224 for Nepal Earthquake relief. We accumulated a surplus that allowed us to commit to an additional three years of continued support to Jhamtse Gatsal up to $35,000 per annum.
With good fortune we will be able to find other worthwhile causes to bring to your attention in 2016. We are currently searching in Cambodia and Bolivia.
Jhamtse Canada is a 100% volunteer organization with no paid staff. Administration costs are covered by contributions from Adarsh Mehta and Jeff Jenner. As a result 100% of your contributions goes to great causes and organizations.
UPCOMING EVENTS
The Vancouver group is at it again with an event planned for October 4 in support of Jhamtse Canada. There is a dinner and entertainment organized through the Synergy Collective Society. Synergy is a community-based organization that blends art with social responsibility. The evening is Just Singin’ Round at the Vancouver Rowing Club in Stanley Park. The Rowing Club is located at the entrance to Stanley Park off of Georgia St. Doors open at 6:00 pm, dinner completed by 7:30 and the show starts at 7:40 and wraps up around 10:00 pm. Tickets are $25 and children under 12 are free. Our goal is to sell 100 tickets so anyone interested in buying tickets and more importantly volunteering to help us with the general organization of the event please call Carol Evenchick at 604-985-2511.
DIRECTORS
The Board of Jhamtse Canada:
- Linda Bertoldi, LLB Partner, Bordner Ladner Gervais
- Mark Foley, President, Jhamtse International
- Frank James, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Washington School of Public Health
- Jeff Jenner, CA, CBV, CEO, Potentia Renewables Inc.
- Adarsh Mehta, MSc, MBA Vice President, JRC Inc.
DONATIONS & VOLUNTEERS
Donations can be made by cheque and sent to the address on the footer of this page or by Paypal or credit card from our website (http://jhamtsecanada.ca/donate/).
If you are interested in volunteering or creating other events for Jhamtse Canada please call Adarsh Mehta at amehta@jhamtsecanada.ca or telephone 905-990-2464.
We thank you for your continued support and trust.
