Louisiana Himalayan association

Dear family and friends, 

We write to you from the Himalayas of Northern India as we take part in an immersive international learning experience. During our stay in Dharamsala, we have had the opportunity to meet, interact with, and learn from the Tibetan community. Dharamshala is home to the Dalai Lama and the largest community of exiled Tibetan Refugees.


When many of us think of Tibet, we think of the country that was forcibly occupied in the 1950s; however, as Tibetans seek refuge in India, they are faced with language/cultural barriers and also often lack the financial resources needed to maintain good health. In a new environment with minimal resources, many Tibetan refugees endure unnecessary suffering and some even die due to lack of funds and/or confusion about personal and community medical care.    

Since becoming aware of the identified difficulties of Tibetan refugees, we have partnered with the New Orleans-based Tibet Aid organization Louisiana Himalaya Association (LHA) (www.lhainfo.org) and its Indian counterpart Lha Charitable Trust (www.lhasocialwork.org), a fully Tibetan run and operated social service NGO which provides a wide array of programs throughout this community. 
 
 One important part of Tibetan culture is supporting the Tibetan monks that serve and promote spiritual wellbeing within the community.  Two dear friends of Lha Charitable Trust, Khenpo Kunsang Ten and Lama Tsering Phuntsok, are Tibetan monks who have played key roles over the last two decades in connecting multiple volunteer groups with the Tibetan refugee community in Dharamsala. As Khenpo Kunsang and Lama Tsering have dedicated their lives to promoting the wellbeing of others, we wish to do the same and help their monastery in a time of need. 

Lama Tsering Phuntsok (above) and Khenpo Kunsang Ten (below) 

Annual volunteer groups working with LHA provide medical, dental, and eye care screenings to Tibetan refugees. Dr. Rebecca Byrne, faculty at Tulane Medical School, leads a volunteer group each summer. On average, they provide health assessments to approximately 200 Tibetan refugees. About 75% of those assessed are referred to local healthcare providers for further medical, dental, and/or eye care treatments. These services are all paid for with funds generated by the volunteer group and other generous LHA supporters.

Before our arrival, a group of nurses organized by Dallas Lawry, RN volunteering with LHA developed an idea to start a medical clinic within the monastery Khenpo Kunsang and Lama Tsering call home: the Palyul Chorkhorling Monastery. The group raised enough funds to complete all the construction costs. Following the nurse group, a volunteer group of MDs organized by Dr. Chris Blaise and Dr. Jonathon Nussdorf of Oschner Hospital in New Orleans provided training to the two Tibetan monks who will oversee the clinic. 

Medical clinic room before (above) and after (below) renovations

Now, our group is working to raise money for the furnishings and medical equipment needed to supply and maintain the medical clinic!

Please see below for a list of the supplies and the approximate cost for each:
Also, below is a sketch of the medical clinic's floor plan.
Please help by making a general donation or a donation covering a particular item on the supply list! 100% of your donation will go directly to this project - there are no administrative or managerial fees.

We deeply appreciate your support for our efforts. Your donation, big or small, will make a huge difference in someone’s life. Every dollar goes a long way in India!

Also, if you'd like to get involved with Louisiana Himalaya Association in New Orleans or participate by joining one of the 2020 volunteer groups to India, please contact Neil Guidry at [email redacted]. 

Thank you from all of us for your generosity, 

Amanda Lally
Kasra Khalili
Rachel Walls
Adrian White
Allison Reho

About the Scholarship Fund

Tibetans who have made the treacherous escape by foot over the Himalayas to India seeking asylum face huge resettlement issues. For twenty years the Louisiana Himalaya Association has helped them to find housing, healthcare, employment, education and more. And Tibetans have much to offer in return. For more than 2,000 years, Tibetan culture has been developing ways of coming to know the human mind and spirit—a tradition that can help us confront a modern world facing enormous challenges.

More than just one student is affected when a youth becomes educated and empowered, as employment and healthy modeling can help entire families and communities. Many Tibetan women seek a degree in nursing, since jobs are available and nursing degrees are easily transferred abroad or to Tibet. Many are qualified and accepted into programs, but lack funding for tuition, room, and board. The cost of a three-year nursing degree in India is only $6,000, including tuition, books, room, and board. That's just $2,000 a year per student! Our long-term goal is to continue to support and grow this scholarship program, and to have a lasting impact and provide opportunities for years to come.

This project was started in 2017 by a group of Tulane University social work students, in honor of Neysa Fanwick, a Tulane School of Social Work alumna who passed away on July 29, 2017. Neysa had come to India in 2011 and was greatly moved by her Tibetan friends and their community.  A highly successful campaign quickly funded the first three scholarships.  Professor John Clark of Loyola University, with great admiration for the LHA and its work, accepted the invitation to coordinate the ongoing scholarship campaign. Please contact him if you can in any way help with this important project. 

The Louisiana Himalaya Association

The Louisiana Himalaya Association is a 501c3 nonprofit social work organization that is dedicated to improving the lives of Tibetan refugees, and to making ancient Tibetan wisdom traditions available to the world. LHA is completely volunteer-staffed and volunteers cover their own expenses. From the New Orleans office space to accounting and legal services, all resources and work hours are donated by our Board of Directors and other members of the LHA team, rendering LHA 100% free of overhead expenses. 100% of donations to LHA go directly to the actual social service projects for which they are donated. LHA has worked with the Tibetan community since 1997. LHA works with a variety of schools and organizations, including Tulane and Loyola Universities, Ochsner Medical Center, and the Louisiana Mississippi Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (LMHPCO), in addition to other local, national and international groups, to host Tibetan scholars and organize cultural events. These schools and other organizations send groups to India each year who volunteer for social service activities and learn directly from the Tibetan people. Please see the LHA website at http://www.lhainfo.org/india.html for further information on its work and that of the Lha Charitable Trust in Dharamsala, India.

Image: Tibetan Women Student Leaders at the Third Tibetan Students' Leadership Workshop in Dharamsala (June 18-23, 2018)

Join our Tulane student and faculty group in making a difference for Tibetan refugees here in India!

Our team of six students and four faculty members from Tulane School of Social Work and the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine are now in the Himalayas of northern India for an immersive international learning experience. While here in Dharamsala, home of the Dalai Lama and the largest community of exiled Tibetans, we are partnering with the Louisiana Himalaya Association (LHA) on service projects for the community. We are working with and learning directly from local Tibetans who have so much to offer from their ancient wisdom traditions. We are all incredibly impressed watching how much they are accomplishing, so joyfully and with so little resources.
 
Since being here we have discovered a serious health hazard directly affecting over 200 refugees daily and indirectly affecting many more. The Tibetan organization hosting our group runs a community center that has encountered water damage and is now experiencing grave mold issues. Our project is to raise the funds to repair the damage and remediate the mold. 
 
Project Focus
 
Repairs and mold remediation of a community center that has an average daily usage of over 200 local people and 30 international volunteers
 
Our host organization in India is Lha Charitable Trust (www.lhasocialwork.org) which is a fully Tibetan run and operated social service NGO. It is run by 14 full time Tibetan staff members and provides a wide array of programs throughout this community. Besides their offices, the damaged community center houses classrooms for language and computer training courses which are attended by over 150 students daily. They also produce a monthly news magazine on Tibetan issues, manage a water filtration program that supplies clean water to over 10,000 people, manage a soup kitchen that provides 50 free lunches daily, manage five websites,  oversee medical, dental and eye care programs, and coordinate over 300 volunteers from 30 different countries annually.

Environmental Health Hazards
All of this amazing work is being done in one of the oldest buildings in Dharamsala, built in 1969, and desperately needs to undergo an extensive roof repair and mold removal process. As our group toured the facility, besides the mold in the air that was obvious to our lungs, we could see large areas of mold on the ceilings and walls, obvious water damage and pieces of the ceiling cracking and falling down. The condition of the building creates an unsafe and unhealthy learning and working environment.
 
Importance of Mold Removal
Our group has consulted with Dr. Felicia Rabito, a professor of epidemiology at the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine who specializes in children’s health and the environment, specifically exposure to environmental allergens, psychosocial stress, and adverse health outcomes in low-income populations. There is clear evidence that exposure to dampness and/or mold is associated with adverse respiratory effects. 
 
Please Help if you can!
 
100% of every donation will be used for this project, there are no managerial costs. We deeply appreciate your support and assure you that your donation will make a substantial difference. All donations are tax deductible, Louisiana Himalaya Association (LHA) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, please contact Jesse at [email redacted] if you would like a tax-deductible receipt. Every dollar goes a long way in India !
 
Thanks from our Tulane Team!

TSSW Students
Brigette Escandon
Jesse Hartley 
Jasmine Holt
Rachel Lacey
Josh Manguno
Sierra Powell

TSSW Faculty
Dr. Ron Marks
Dr. Carolyn Weaver
Jocelyn Pinkerton, LMSW

TSPHTM Faculty
Dr. Cathy Taylor