Social Service for Tibetan Refugees

Lha’s primary goal is to provide meaningful social services, such as free education, computer skills courses, vocational training, health and environmental education and service, volunteer coordination, cultural exchanges, free books, medicine and clothing distribution. The services of Lha are open to Tibetan refugees as well as the local Indian population and people from the Himalayan regions.

On any given day, there are 250 to 300 students attending Lha’s  daily classes. Most participants are adults who were deprived of educational opportunities both inside and outside of Tibet. Many were not admitted to schools in Dharamsala due to their age, as only those Tibetan refugees aged 18 and under can attend the special school system set up in India for Tibetans. Lha offers five different levels of English classes a day, from beginner to advanced levels. We also offer two French classes (beginner and intermediate), Tibetan language class and three Chinese language classes (beginner to advanced), as well as two Spanish classes. Apart from that we have English conversation, computer skills, vocational training, photography and blogging, massage course and many more special services programs.

Lha has grown quickly in the past few years.  From July 2003 to January 2009, 6000 individuals have benefited from Lha’s courses. Most participants are adults who were deprived of educational opportunities both inside and outside Tibet. Many were not admitted to schools in Dharamsala due to their age, as only those Tibetan refugees aged 18 and under can attend the special school system set up in India for Tibetans.  On any given day, there are 250 to 300 students attending Lha’s daily classes. There are 15-30 volunteers working at Lha every month and we have worked with 3,122 volunteers from 37 different countries over the past five years.  Our donation center has collected and distributed over 17,200 articles of clothing to both the local Indian and Tibetan refugee communities. On July 13^th and 16^th, 2008, Lha distributed 30,000 books to Tibetan and local schools, organizations, libraries and individuals. Lha continues to expand to meet the growing needs of the community.