Greetings and Tashi Delek from Tibetan Healing Fund. On behalf of Tibetan Healing Fund (THF), we offer sincere thanks and gratitude to the many people who support us in providing hope, financial donations and resources to Tibetans. Through your generous support and the efforts of our staff and volunteer teams in Tibet and the US, we are producing exciting and tangible results in education and health care for rural Tibetans in the Tibetans regions of Amdo, Kham and U-Tsang.

Our aspiration is to make sure that Tibetan children are healthy and educated. Nothing is as important as the future generation. Tibetan Healing Fund has been working in the Tibetan regions of P.R. China since 2001, helping Tibetan families and communities develop the skills and resources needed to create opportunities for them to live healthy and fulfilling lives. The majority of Tibetan Healing Fund’s programs are designed, implemented and managed by Tibetans themselves.

THF is a Seattle based non-profit organization with board members and supporters throughout the US. Tibetan Healing is unique in many ways; it was founded by a Tibetan Buddhist monk, medical doctor and significantly relies on local Tibetans to implement projects.

In 1994, Dr. Kunchok Gyaltsen raised money to expand the Serkya Village School from grades one to three to include grades four to six. This project was well received by the villagers, but many students were still not able to attend the school due to lack of money. While studying in the United States, Dr. Gyaltsen was able to raise money for a scholarship program to ensure that all village children in Serkya could attend school. In 2001, this program was formalized and became the Tibetan Healing Fund.

THF promotes sustainable development using transparent and participatory methods while incorporating local and traditional knowledge. Projects address social and humanitarian needs, specifically basic education, primary health care and community development in an effort to develop holistic programs. The projects encompass voations training and capacity building that develop skills for our in-country staff, volunteers and the memebers of the community we serve.

Our work is not possible without the many generous donations from individual supporters, the unselfish dedication of our in-country staff, Tibetan advisory committee, US board of directors, the many US and Tibetan friends. We look forward to updating you on the many exciting and crucial projects we are working on this year.

Thank you for helping us provide hope !

For 2008, Tibetan Healing Fund’s activities will remain focused on the priority areas of:

Tibetan Maternal and Child Health
Tibetan Natural Birth & Health Training Center
Maternal & Child Health Education Handbooks
Community & Family Health Education
Community Midwives

Primary Education
Tibetan Heritage Primer Textbooks
Improve Access to Quality Education

Since 2001, Tibetan Healing Fund has implemented the following projects that are creating hope:

Community Midwife Training
Tibetan Healing Fund along with local medical professionals determined that the most pressing need for Tibetan women in the rural villages was to have access to a community midwife/health educator, and to culturally appropriate health education materials. Tibetan Healing Fund trains rural Tibetan women to function as community midwives, bringing healthcare services and education to rural Tibetan women and their families. We have trained more than 24 local community midwives/health educators to assess and assist pregnancies and educate women in poor and rural areas of Tibet.

Maternal and Child Health Education Handbooks
Series of four complementary textbooks. Series include: Tibetan Maternal and Family Health System theoretical text, Tibetan Midwifery practical text and pictorial texts, and a Community Midwife training manual. And, with your continued support we can complete this series of texts for use in the rural communities of Tibet for training of future clinicians and community health workers.

Tibetan Heritage Primer Textbooks
Tibetan Heritage Primer Textbooks will be distributed and available to 196 Tibetan primary schools and 26,929 children! These books are children’s supplemental reading texts written in Tibetan. Content of the books is based on both Tibet-wide folklore as well as regionally specific information such as geography, local customs, culture and art, biographies of well-known scholars, life skills, and significant historical events and sites. The Tibetan Heritage Primers are the first time anything of this nature has been complied for the Tibetan community and its children.

Children’s Fund and Bilingual Teaching Training
Last year, we sponsored more than 300 Tibetan children to attend school and with the county education bureau, we have trained over 650 rural schoolteachers in teaching practices, childhood development and mother-tongue education (Tibetan).

Health Education and Outreach
In collaboration with Qinghai University Tibetan Medical College, 50 medical students traveled to 50 rural Tibetan villages in Amdo, Kham and U-Tsang to teach basic health education to 3,000 rural women.

With gratitude, we hope you will continue to help Tibetan Healing Fund build a healthier future for Tibetans.