The hostel children were invited to perform for His Holiness the Dalai Lama at his 75th birthday celebrations. This really was a momentous occasion for Tong-Len. His Holiness expressed his sincere and ongoing support for Tong-Len. He was especially supportive of the continued achievement of the children under Tong-Len’s education programmes. See the video of the children's performance here.

This year approximately 300 people attended the Tong-Len Thanks Day. Representatives of the office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, local dignitaries and other supporters joined members of the Charan community in the celebrations. Everyone enjoyed the performances of the children from the hostels and from the tent schools. Films were also shown of Tong-Len's projects and the achievements made during the year. You can see a video of the dance performances on the Tibet TV website at http://www.tibetonline.tv/videos/169/tibetonlinetv-news-july-2-2010 .

Mary Hayman, a graduate of the Welsh School of Architectural Glass and a member of Michael's church in Swansea, has designed and produced this beautiful stained glass memorial window.This window will have pride of place in the main entrance to the new hostel building. Mary travelled to Dharamsala to visit Tong-Len's projects and find inspiration for the window's design. She worked both in the tent schools and with the hostel children. The hand is taken from the children's drawings and is reaching out to help, demonstrating compassion in action. At the centre of the hand is the Buddhist Dharma Wheel, which is also the Tong-Len logo. For the month of June the window has been on display in the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea.

The hygiene project has taken another step forward through the provision of a shower. Cristina from the Energee Association has been working with Tong-Len. With her help and financial support from the Energee Association we have been able to create a shower with two cubicles, one for men and one for women, and also a space for laundry. Solar energy is used to heat the water and to provide light.

The office staff have been looking after a baby from Charan. Sanjeeta is about 19 months but weights only 3 Kg. The health team have been following this baby since she was five months old. The mother of this baby gave birth to another baby three weeks ago. Sanjeeta has needed intensive care and nutritional supplements. She is now making some progress.

Promotion exams were held in Dayanand Model High School to select children whose educational prgress was such that they could jump a year. All the 11 kindergarden children were promoted to class 2. Mamta Devi, Rohit, Rano and Ajay were promoted from class 1 to class 3. Poonam, Nisha Devi, Kishan, Suraj and Naresh were promoted from class 3 to class 5, and Ranjeeta, Renu and Vishal were promoted from class 5 to class 7. Congratulations to all!

The new developments of clean water, nutrition and emphasis on hygiene has enabled 20 children to be accepted into a local government school. The teachers in Tong-Len's tent schools provide extra support for these children when they return to the camp. If this pilot project is successful it is hoped that more children will have the opportunity to benefit from full time education.

We are delighted that Edinburgh Rotary Breakfast Club decided to support Tong-Len as its overseas charity this year. Brigid Whoriskey, one of the Tong-Len UK trustees, gave a presentation at the fundraising breakfast organised by the club on the 28th April. This raised £1500 for Tong-Len. This money is being used to support the work in Charan slum camp and has provided the funding for the new teacher in the tent school.

Congratulations to Renu and Ranjeeta! As well as coming 1st and 2nd in their class, they also came 2nd and 3rd in the Dharamsala section of the State Board examinations in which 8,000 children participated.

On the 13th April, their school annual function day, 23 of the hostel children were awarded prizes for coming in the top positions in their end of year examinations.

On the 10th of April all the hostel children hiked up Mount Triund, the mountain that overlooks Dharamsala. They were accompanied by two sponsors from France, Magali and Florence, as well as hostel staff. The children were excited about camping overnight especially as this was the first time that the younger children had been allowed to do this. Magali, a professional yoga teacher, had given yoga lessons to the children during the previous week. A further yoga lesson was given by Magali on the top of the mountain. The children considered this a wonderful way to celebrate their achievement.

From the outset, Tong-Len has had a number of French supporters. Largely due to the efforts of Annie Benard (annie@tong-len.org) this number has increased considerably over the last few months. Annie took on the task of translating the web site into French and this is now operational. The language can be selected on the home page. Annie has also registered Tong-Len as a charity in France, registration number W061001498.

Jamyang and Navita took 15 of the more senior hostel children on an educational tour of Delhi and Agra. The children had a fantastic time and were amazed by the sights they saw. They have written their own report on their experiences which can be viewed here.

The hostel senior children created a puppet theatre with help from Tong-Len volunteers, Sophie, Will and Roger. The children prepared stories based on those explored in the Theatre of the Oppressed (see the October 2009 news item by clicking here) with the emphasis this time on making people aware of issues surrounding domestic violence. On the 25th March the children gave a performance of their puppet theatre show in Charan camp when more than 200 people participated. The children plan to use the tool of puppet theatre for future awareness campaigns to the Charan community.

For a long time Tong-Len has been concerned about the complete lack of sanitation in the Charan settlement. Until now requests to allow us to install even basic composting toilets have been refused. Permission has now been given to erect two toilets to be used by the children attending the tent schools. If this proves successful we hope it may be possible to provide further facilities. 

Due to a shortage of space it has been necessary to relocate the nursery tent. We have been allowed to use space on the far side of the primary tent. The nursery tent was in a bad state of repair and the opportunity was taken during the move to replace it. We are grateful for the support of the Institute of Village Studies towards this and also to the help we were given by individual students.

The first Tong-Len hostel opened on 9th February 2005. To celebrate the 5th anniversary the children prepared speeches for the staff and supporters. Some children were quite emotional in their recounts of the changes they have experienced. They decided it was also a day to celebrate Jamyang's birthday. As is common in Tibetan culture, Jamyang has no knowledge of the actual date of his birth.

If you want to how the children's lives have been changed, see the short video they prepared here.

26th January 1950 is one of the most important days in Indian history as it was on this day the constitution of India came into force and India became a truly sovereign state. In this day India became a totally republican unit. The country finally realized the dream of Mahatma Gandhi and the numerous freedom fighters who, fought for and sacrificed their lives for the Independence of their country. So, the 26th of January was decreed a national holiday and has been recognized and celebrated as the Republic Day of India, ever since.

Republic Day is a National Holiday. The older hostel children chose to celebrate their day off school by hiking up Triund, the mountain overlooking Dharamsala, from where there are magnificent views of the Dhauladhar range of the Himalayas.

John and Sharan Brown set off on their trip on Boxing Day from the UK. They will be travelling through France and Corsica and then on to Italy. After this they plan to travel the length of Africa and then on to the USA. Their route then takes them through Central America, Ecuador, Peru and Chile, finally ending up in Ushaia, Argentina - the southernmost city in the world. Their trip will take in 23 countries in four continents. We all wish John and Sharan a safe and wonderful trip. Tong-Len is hugely grateful for the money they will be raising for Tong-Len from this challenging enterprise. Help them raise their target for Tong-Len by visiting their JustGiving web page at http://www.justgiving.com/halftheworldbikeride . See the route plan on their facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/photo.php?pid=2774&id=100000131282003 .