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's 11th Clean Water Project

Ponta Tibetan SchoolLha has successfully installed its 11th Reverse Osmosis (RO) Water Purification System as a part of its Clean Water Project on 6th May 2014 at Sambhota Tibetan School in Paonta, Himachal Pradesh.

Sambhota Tibetan School Paonta Sahib was first established as a primary school in 1968 to provide traditional Tibetan education to the younger generation. After five years it was upgraded as a Senior Secondary School affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

Sambhota Tibetan School is located in the Sirmour District of Himachal Pradesh, and the school's water supply suffers from a high alkaline content. Because the school is located on a flat and low lying area there is also the danger of ground water contamination due to the large scale use of chemicals by local farmers. For these reasons, Lha Charitable Trust has taken the initiative to install a water filtration system to provide safe drinking water to the students and the staff of the school. The water filter is benefiting 354 students and 65 staffmembers.

Ponta Tibetan School 2The filter is an RO+UV+ UF and TTS, considered one of the best filtered water systems available in the area. It will provide more than 100 litres of clean drinking water per hour to the students, faculty and staff of the school. The filtration system includes a stainless steel tank with a 500 litre holding capacity. We hope that this water purification system will alleviate major waterborne illnesses like typhoid and cholera which children commonly suffer from in this region, especially during the monsoon season. We believe that the system will contribute to maintaining a high level of general health among the students.

Lha, on the behalf of the students and staff of the Sambhota Tibetan School, would like to extend our deepest appreciation to the Heidi Kieselstein Family, U.S.A, who sponsored this project, benefitting both Tibetans living in exile and the local population. Lha plans to install five more water filtration systems this year.

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.