Lha depends on the goodwill of volunteers and monetary and material donations for it to provide essential rehabilitation resources to the exiled Tibetan community. Lha is a non-profit organization solely dependent on monetary contributions from philanthropic corporations and generous individuals. In India, even a little goes a long way, and a lot goes very far!

Account Name: Lha Charitable Trust
Account Number: 2517000101008335
Swift Code: PUNBINBBPAR
Bank Name: The Punjab National Bank
Branch: Mcleod Ganj, Dharamsala, H.P

Payable to: Lha Charitable Trust
Lha Office Temple Road, Mcleod Ganj, Dharamsala, 176219
Distt Kangra, Himachal Pradesh

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Lha Annual Report 2013

Season's Greetings from Lha Charitable Trust

We wish you a happy holiday season and a safe and prosperous New Year!

Lha Charitable Trust has just released its 2013 annual report. It has been a successful year, thanks to our many generous supporters, such as yourself!

Lha's primary goal is to provide meaningful, multi-leveled social services in Dharamsala, to help ease the transition for the Tibetan refugee community. On a daily basis, Lha serves over 150 people, hosts between 15 to 25 volunteers, and provides approximately 20 different kinds of services, including language education, computer courses, vocational training, health and environmental education, a Community Soup Kitchen, clean water, medicine, clothing distribution, and a public library. Lha's services are open to Tibetan refugees, as well as the local Indian population, and people from the Himalayan regions. We also provide cultural exchanges for international groups and free coordination for volunteers from around the globe.

Lha works hard to operate with minimum administrative and program costs, to produce the maximum output. Your donations help us to improve and increase our services and projects. One of the many projects that donations in 2013 contributed to, was the installation of five brand new water filtration systems in five schools, serving around 2000 people who are now using pure clean water for both their drinking and cooking needs. In addition, donations helped support Lha's Soup Kitchen, to bring healthy food to those in need. The kitchen serves 40-50 financially disadvantaged people daily and 168 needy people since its inception. We also organized nine cultural exchange groups, in collaboration with international institutions, and a total of 120 students participated in this program. On a different note, we would like to announce that from 2014 onwards, the Lha Tibet Fair Trade (LTFT) company will be open for business. LTFT is a registered company undertaken by the Lha Charitable Trust, with headquarters in Dharamsala, India. It aims to improve the standards of living for Tibetan refugees in the Himalayan regions, by means of helping them to generate income, while also ensuring that Lha remains an economically sustainable organization in the future.
Lha is also proud to announce that Contact Magazine is now registered under the Registrar Office of the Newspaper, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting Government of India. Recognized by Lonely Planet and other international travel resources, Contact has been a very popular, free publication for Tibetan issues and community information in Dharamsala for over 15 years. It is one of the longest-running Tibetan publications in the area, and provides information for local residents, as well as international visitors. Please read more about Contact Magazine.
Starting from January 2014, we will also be extending our successful eye-care and dental programs from adults in the community to school children, as we have found this is a much needed area of expansion.

The donations from volunteers and exchange groups staying in Lha's accommodations have allowed Lha to become more self-sufficient and sustainable – our Language, Computer Classes, and other daily social services are now able to continue to be provided regardless of outside funding. However, to keep up with the growing needs of the community, and to maintain the operation of our other social services and special projects such as the soup kitchen, eye, dental & health care, clean water, environmental initiatives, and Contact Magazine, we continue to rely on your generous donations.
Since Lha's founding in 1997, we have continued to be inspired by the compassion, dedication and contributions of generous supporters, and thousands volunteers from around the globe.

With your generous support, we hope to continue providing these invaluable services to the local community, and engage in many new initiatives in the coming year. Please follow the links below for more details, updated reports and news. Should you like to read the latest updates from 2013, you can locate them on Lha's website. Read more.

Below are some quick facts about Lha's successes during 2013, and we hope for continued success in 2014! Thank you once again for your unwavering support; we could not have achieved these things without you, the volunteers, and of course the dedication of the students and the community.

Sincerely,
Ngawang Rabgyal
Director - Lha Charitable Trust.
www.lhasocialwork.org
www.contactmagazine.net

IMPORTANT INITIATIVES, REPORT FOR 2013

  • 3120 students attended language classes on a monthly basis
  • 806 new students enrolled for language classes
  • 234 students attended Beginner and Intermediate computer classes
  • Over 1766 free articles of clothing distributed to both the Tibetan and local Indian communities
  • 40-50 financially disadvantaged people ate daily at the Lha community kitchen, which provides clean water and nutritious meals.
  • 108 Tibetan refugees received free eye examinations, and 80 were provided with free glasses
  • Organized a mass clean-up program in Mcleod Ganj alongside the Tibetan Settlement office
  • Provided recommendation letters for 204 students. The Indian Government requires letters from an educational institution as proof from newly arrived refugees that have registered as relocating to India for educational opportunities
  • Worked with 619 new volunteers, who donated their valuable time and energy
  • Organized Cultural Exchange Programs for 9 University and High School Groups from the USA, France and Mexico, with 120 participants
  • Held free acupuncture treatment at Jampaling elder peoples home
  • Organized massage therapy training
  • 8400 free copies of Contact Magazine distributed and published (700-1000 copies published every month).
  • Installation of five brand new water filtration systems in five schools, serving around 2000 people with pure clean water for their both drinking and cooking needs.

QUICK FACTS FROM 2003 TO 2013

  • Over 5,807 volunteers from 40 different countries have contributed to Lha's work.
  • Approximately 909 students from international education institutes participated in the organized cultural exchange program
  • 33,000 free books distributed to Tibetan and local Indian schools and libraries
  • More than 30,779 articles of clothing were collected and distributed through the donation center
  • 9,525 students have benefited from our language courses
  • 2,556 students have benefited from our computer and IT workshops
  • 296 free eye check-ups and glasses provided for more than 226 people
  • 169 people have graduated from Lha's massage course
  • 67 people have graduated from Lha's photography course
  • The Lha Community Soup Kitchen has fed between 40-50 financially disadvantaged people daily, and 168 have benefited since its opening in July, 2011
  • Installation of nine brand new water filtration systems in nine schools, serving around 4000 people with pure clean water for both their drinking and cooking needs.
  • Provided recommendation letters for 368 students. The Indian Government requires letters from an educational institution as proof from newly arrived refugees that have registered as relocating to India for educational opportunities.

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Lha is a non-profit, non-governmental, grassroots social work organization located in Dharamsala, India. Lha was founded in 1997 and in 2005 was registered as a non-profit and charitable trust in Himachal Pradesh. Every year we submit our income statements to the Indian Income-Tax Department and undergo an audit. The following are our financial statements from 2005 to 2011 fiscal years, which have already been reviewed. Following the financial statements are graphical representations of some of the key aspects we would like to highlight.

Lha's commitment is to help the Tibetan people survive and prosper in their new home of Dharamsala and to preserve their profoundly unique culture. The means to which we have been able to accomplish these goals has changed over the years. In 2005, as a young organization, Lha had few assets. Lha has steadily grown since then, and now occupies two buildings, which house our classes, soup kitchen, social services and volunteer and exchange student group accommodations. In 2005 Lha had seven full time employees, which has since expanded to nine. The notable increase in wage expenses between 2009 and 2011 reflects the decision to provide a livable wage to the Tibetan employees.

Lha took on the responsibility to pay rent for the operations building during the 2009 financial year, after the purchasing of the new Ahimsa House building, and becoming more financially stable. Since 2005 we have slowly been accumulating assets for the language classes, computer courses and social services which function out of the building, such as computers for our offices and classes, and books and teaching resources for the community libraries.

In 2007 Lha began the process of acquiring a four story building, the Ahimsa House, to house a community soup kitchen and volunteer accommodation. In May 2011 Lha used the remaining funds from the corpus receipt and capital fund to make the final payment on the Ahimsa House. This will be reflected in the financial statement for the 2012 financial year. We began working on the community soup kitchen project in 2010 and officially opened it in 2011. Since 2007 Lha has also purchased many furnishings and appliances for the volunteer accommodations. The donations from Exchange students and volunteers staying in Lha’s accommodations have also created a new source of income for Lha. In the future, Lha hopes that the donations raised from visitors in these accommodations, in conjunction with cultural exchanges and visitors services, will create a stable and sustainable financial foundation for the organization.

The Annual Report, written by Lha’s Director, Ngawang Rabgyal, sets out the aims of the organization, the year’s developments and the latest financial position. It also illustrates the diversity of the social programs provided, and the numbers of students who have benefited from these services. These achievements could not have been reached without the generosity of the volunteers and the dedication of the students and Lha’s employees.

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.