Jhamtse Canada Summer 2015 Newsletter
SUMMER 2015
Welcome to Jhamtse Canada’s first newsletter. The word Jhamtse means love and compassion in Tibetan. Our mission is to relieve poverty in developing nations, including India, by providing basic necessities of life, including food, clean water, clothing and/or shelter to individuals and families and, in particular, children, who are poor, of low income, or in need.
LOCATIONS
The Jhamtse Gatsal Children’s Community is 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. In response to the earthquake disaster in Nepal we also provided support to the relief efforts by sending funds to the Child Haven children’s home in Kathmandu in May.
CURRENT STORIES
Jhamtse Gatsal supports almost 90 children in the poorest remote area of the poorest state in India. Against high odds the children’s Community is a model of compassion and harmony creating great people from destitute children, most of whom are orphans. Most recently the largest cohort of children competed in the Class 9 national exams in May. All students from the Community cleared their national level exams with flying colours. Of the 20 students in a class of 140 students that passed their first attempts at the local Government School, 14 were from Jhamtse Gatsal. Our students also took the top 10 positions under Lobsang Phuntsok’s direction.
As the Community is at the end of the road in India its basic infrastructure is stretched and it suffers regular weekly power blackouts sometimes for days at a time. Jhamtse Canada has assisted the Community in its energy self-sufficiency.
We funded repairs to the emergency lighting solar power system and installed a small meteorological tower in 2014. The entire community helped with the manual installation which has been measuring the wind resources at the Community for 9 months. The resources show promise that small wind turbine will generate power and provide needed electricity to the Community.
RECENT ACTIVITIES
The creation of the multiple award winning documentary about the Community called Tashi and the Monk has given us the opportunity to build awareness. It shows how children at Jhamtse
Gatsal are transformed by love and compassion. Tashi won nine awards at international film festivals including Best Short Film at the 2014 International Documentary Association awards in December. As a result, volunteers from Jhamtse Canada were able to attend three film festivals and more than 25 screenings of Tashi across Canada as part of the Banff Film Festival’s World Tour. There have been five local fundraisers across Canada. Our thanks to Leo Chan in Bowen Island, Etienne Beaudet in Whistler, Juan Andersen in Thunder Bay and Louise Abbott in Georgeville, Quebec for organizing these events. The movie was screened at these events as well as Artemano in Toronto on June 13th to help raise more than $10,000 for Jhamtse Canada.
In addition, we, along with the film’s creators, Andrew Hinton and Johnny Burke, have created a Deluxe DVD package that is available from our website for $30. Over 400 DVD’s have been sold around the world raising awareness and funds for the Community. You can purchase your DVD at (http://jhamtsecanada.ca/tashi-and-the-monk-dvd/).
UPCOMING EVENTS
Jhamtse Canada has additional events planned:
- On October 24th a dinner event hosted by Manju Sekhri and Brian Van Heesch in Milton Ontario. The event is a pay-what-you-can with contributions encouraged.
- The Vancouver Jhamtse Canada volunteer committee has two events. The first on November 7th at The Pipe Shop in North Vancouver. Tickets will be available from our website.
- The second is a dinner music event in 2016 hosted by the Synergy Collective.
- We teamed up with World Expeditions to create a Jhamtse Gatsal Himalaya Challenge where the travelers raise funds and work on a project for the Community. Only 16 participants so sign up early.
- Also look for a launch of a Capital Fund Raising Campaign in the fall of 2015 to build proper residences for the children at Jhamtse Gatsal. Currently the children sleep in large classrooms with more than twenty children and a house mother per room.
DIRECTORS
The Board of Jhamtse Canada:
- Linda Bertoldi, LLB Partner, Bordner Ladner Gervais
- Mark Foley, President, Jhamtse International
- Frank James, MD,
- Jeff Jenner, CA, CBV, President, Jenner Renewable Consulting
- Adarsh Mehta, MSc, MBA Director, Canadian Wind Energy Association
Special thanks to Pankaj Mehta who assisted Jhamtse Canada as a Founding Board Member. He is the center of the children’s attentions during our last trip to Jhamtse Gatsal in the picture shown on the first page.
DONATIONS & VOLUNTEERS
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 organizations such as Jhamtse Gatsal.
Donations can be made by cheque 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 sponsoring a child you should contact Adarsh Mehta at amehta@jhamtsecanada.ca or telephone 905-990-2464.
We thank you for your support and trust.
Adarsh and Jeff