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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Exchange student group from Mexico

From December 7th to 30th of 2012, we hosted our last exchange student group in Dharamsala, visiting students from Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey  Campus Santa Fe (ITESM CSF)  Mexico for a cultural exchange program. Under this program we, “Lha”, organised many different activities for them.

mixeco group

Since it was their first visit here in this town, the first thing we did was to introduce “Lha” to them. Later on, we took them around sight seeing to different places included Tibetan Government complex, Tibetan Library, Norbu Lingka, TCV and Metse Khang to explore the Tibetan refugee community and introduced them to Tibetan Buddhism and the political situation.  The students were always enthusiastic about learning something new. We also paired them with Tibetan students studying English in “Lha”, so they experienced our different cultures.

mexcan-group-with-ngos-leaders

We organised many different activities, for example, volunteer work teaching English to Tibetan people; community research, teaching English and activities in the local primary school; looking after babies in the nursery; environmental projects and many more.

We also arranged talks from some of our most experienced and high profile people in the Tibetan community.  The first person to talk to them was the director of The Library of Tibetan Work and Archives, Ven. Geshi Lhakdor la, we requested him to give a talk on Introduction to Buddhism. He spoke for one hour and then received questions and doubts from Mexican student which he didn’t avoid, but graciously answered all questions.

mexcan-students-14

We were very pleased that the Political leader of the Tibetan people, Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay took the time for us, and gave a talk to our group. He invited us down to his office and asked our Mexican students about their concerns, since they had spent enough time in this town to know about the Tibet situation. He gave every student a chance to ask a question and he answered every question with today’s reality and present situation in Tibet. At the end of his talk everyone was contented and had gained a lot of Tibetan political knowledge.

Another activity was an informal exchange program with different people in the community who hold some designated position. Firstly, with members of parliament and Central Tibetan Administration staff, which included some dignitaries who made this informal exchange program and dinner possible and successful, they have great ideas and experience and it plays very important role in young peoples’ minds.  The second time, we met directors and representatives of different NGOs in McLeod Ganj and it was amazing to see the enthusiasm and energy on both sides. We have different NGOs in the Tibetan community and they all play a vital role, their different roles and objectives enabled us to distribute or place every student with an NGO with their own interest.

Imexican-student15

In addition to all this hard work, and to make it more fun for the students, we took them out sight seeing and sometimes we gave time some free time for themselves to hang around town like normal tourists do.

Then it was time for them to go back home and share their experiences with people they know there. We had our last New Year eve and farewell dinner together at Ahimsa house, some shared their experiences with us, and it was time to thank both the groups. As a token of appreciation, Lha gave a gift to the Group Leaders and something for every student to remember a very successful visit.

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  • Financial Report
  • Annual Reports
  • General Report
  • Review of Achievements
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.