Our projects | Dawa Doan Mei School

Our first project, established in the summer of 2004, is a one-room schoolhouse in a village of the Golog region in Sichuan province.

Tze Trongwa Village is home to a population of about 1,500 farmers. Educational opportunities are little to none and most children and adults are illiterate or semi-illiterate. There is little to no health care, no running water or plumbing, no working electricity, and almost no source of income. Villagers live off of their crops and animals, occasionally trading for other needs.

The first time we visited Tibet was in 2000. It was then that we first developed a relationship with the people of Tze Trongwa Village. We realized three important things that year. Not only did the people of this village need help, we had the ability to help them and we wanted to assist them to improve their quality of living. It was then that we first conceived the idea of the Tashi Nyima Foundation.

In the summer of 2004, three members of the Tashi Nyima Foundation returned to the village. We met with about 45 adults to discuss the possibility of starting a school in the valley. After heavy discussion there was a consensus that education was wanted for their children and that they would allow us to help them in starting an elementary school. We secured the donation of the use of the first floor of an existing building for the school and assisted in organizing students, supplies, and a teacher.

In the summer of 2005, we again returned to Tze Trongwa Village to evaluate the status of the school and to determine further needs. We brought donations of much needed educational supplies, such as chalkboards, chalk, pencils, paper, educational posters, and books, as well as much needed clothes and shoes.

We accomplished our goals for that summer. We bought as well as constructed furniture, cleaned and organized the one room schoolhouse. They also sat in on classes and observed lessons, documenting the current situation and evaluating the progress of the school and the students.

We currently have 12 students, ranging in age from 6-15 years. They learn to read, write and count in Tibetan. We look forward to expanding and strengthening the program. This year we will implement a mathematics curriculum.

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