Compassion Beyond Borders supports Tibetan refugee girls living in two mountainous 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
Fifteen 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 Tibetan schools, separate from the Indian school system. 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 eight, 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. After completing her primary school education in her village, she was placed in a boarding school in Dharamsala, the home of the Dalai Lama in exile, where she is now in the eleventh grade.
Pema's father, like most Tibetan refugees, is poor. He works as a night watchman, earning a meagre income. Pema wants to be a teacher, and will receive a university scholarship from CBB when she completes her high school education.
