Annual Reports

Every month there are 20-30 volunteers working at Lha and from July 2003 to November 2009, we have worked with 3,595 volunteers from 38 different countries over the past seven years.  Our donation center has collected and distributed over 20075 articles of clothing to both the local Indian and Tibetan refugee communities. So far, we have 126 people who have graduated from the massage course, 1515 students from the computer classes, 45 people from Photography course, 490 students from mutual Exchange, 870 people who attended Tibetan art, cooking and language classes, 300 people who attended yoga class. All of our classes are taught by volunteers, and the language courses offered by Lha have benefited around 6538 people. We publish 600 copies of Contact magazine every month for free distribution.

Important projects completed in 2009:

• Four massage courses for 53 people.
• Five special IT training courses for 50 people.
• Two photography training courses for 20 students
• Organized mutual learning exchange for 120 students from abroad.
• Free eye check up for 145 people and free eye glasses for 112 people.
• 2921 new students enrollment for language classes.
• Two new Chinese classes with enrollment of 260 students.
• Organizes clean up of Mcleod Ganj on World Environment Day and pamphlet and book distribution.

We have the following upcoming projects: community kitchen, bakery training and environmental website project.

Lha offers different volunteer options, we welcome drop-in volunteers with no previous communication or planning and other options for those wanting to plan ahead and receive supported services before arrival in India, upon arrival and during their stay in Dharamsala.

A wide array of meaningful volunteer opportunities is available for both skilled and unskilled individuals. Most volunteers work directly with Lha, while others are placed throughout the community. Some of the areas of ongoing need are the teachers for English, Chinese, French and Spanish classes, tutors, office assistant, class administrator, fund raising professional, project professional, computer professional, web designer, graphic designer, photographer, medical professional, massage therapy instructor, yoga instructor, creative writers & journalists and human rights and legal professionals.

Currently, Lha is solely dependent on the goodwill of volunteers, as well as monetary and material donations. Although Lha increases its sustainability through its staff’s fundraising services, it’s quite difficult to cover all costs solely from the income of such programs, despite low staff salaries and staff members doing more than three jobs each.

Lha also acquired a large new service center.  We are now searching for grants and donors to help us renovate the new building space and pay off the mortgage, so that we can transform the building into a high quality language, computer and job skills institute with a new computer lab, community library, and culinary classroom.  Once the mortgage has been paid off, Lha will become financially fully self-sustainable