School's founder honoured by the United Nations in New York

During the night of 5/6th August 2010 devastating mudslides hit the Leh and Shey areas of The Indus valley. One of these mudslides swept through the school depositing up to 1.5m of mud, boulders and debris across a large part of the campus. All the residential students and staff escaped across a raging torrent of mud in the pitch dark of the night.

In the following days the devastation was recorded in these photographs.

During the first few weeks following the mud and rock slide, the school received immediate help from many volunteers. The Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) sent a team of around 50 workers for three weeks to dig mud out of the buildings which was a tremendous help.

During this time the school received a visit from the Bollywood star Mr Aamir Khan, who filmed part of the hit film ”3 Idiots” at the school two years previously. Mr Khan was the guest of His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa, the school's founder. This visit helped to cheer spirits amongst the devastation.

Oxfam kindly provided emergency latrines. Médecins Sans Frontières offered counselling to the staff and pupils.

Sir Anthony Bamford of JCB Excavators kindly donated a JCB to the school in Septemebr 2010 at the request of Drukpa Trust in the UK. The JCB has already been extremely useful in clearing rocks and debris from the school campus and is now being used to create a ditch, wall and earth mound protection.

Druk White Lotus School, Khachey, opened its doors on 10th April 2010 with Nursery, Lower Kindergarten and Upper Kindergarten classes.  The school is located in the Kargil District of Ladakh, about 7 hours' drive from the mother school in Shey.

The school has around twenty students, two teachers (Ms Tsewang Dolkar and Ms Tsering Chozom) and a support staff member. One teacher is a graduate with a strong background in English language and sports, and the other is an undergraduate with a strong Bothi language background.  One reason for starting the Khachey School was to provide education in English and Bothi languages in an area that predominately focuses on Urdu.  Staff underwent training at the mother school in Shey before the school opening.  The school was initiated by and is owned by the local community. 

The inauguration ceremony was well attended by villagers and the school has their wholehearted support.  They are paying for one teacher and need your support to pay for the other @ Rs12,000 / US$260 / €215 / £180 per month. Villagers are paying half the cost of the Montessori equipment and need your help to pay the other half: Rs42,225 / US$900 / €750 / £620.

Thank you for joining our community.

New Faces in the DPKS Family

Several new staff members joined the team at the beginning of November 2009:

Julayne Farmer from the USA is working with students to help them express themselves through photo-images.  They have been working on a range of subjects including ‘Gandhi’, ‘The Best Bit of Me’ and ‘Peace, Hope, Love, Freedom, Happiness’.”

http://photoliteracy.blogspot.com/

The Changthang area lies high on the Tibetan plateau. The people tend yaks and goats – the goats that produce the wool that is ‘pashmina’. Life is harsh. It is hard for youngsters to obtain a good education. The nomadic way of life is under threat.

Mme Sarla and Wendy Cornwell visited the area in September and several more Changthang children will be coming to Druk Padma Karpo School in Shey, with the support of international sponsors.

Saving more permanent teeth

The condition of students' teeth in Ladakh tends to be poor, due to a combination of diet (too many sweet things) and lack of dental hygiene. We are paying a lot of attention to preventive care in order to protect the students’ permanent teeth. Dentist Michel Guinet and his partner Corinne Barbier from Tahiti visited the school in April (their third visit) to offer fissure sealant treatment to the children. They treated around 140 permanent teeth on this occasion. They were joined this time by Jean-Philippe Bréard, a dentist from Grenoble, France.

Through the generosity of donors in France, Tahiti and UK, we were able to purchase a portable dental unit and related equipment, which they were able to use. You can see from the photos that we are still saving up to buy a dental chair! Michel, Corinne and JP demonstrated that toothbrushing and nose blowing can be fun! In addition, dentists from the dzi Foundation, USA, returned to Leh and kindly treated some of the children who they had checked last year.

We built our first greenhouse in 2009 and students from BaSiC Initiative worked with local staff to prepare the ground, import top-soil and start composting.  In 2010, we aim to start growing some of our own food for students and staff.

The second ever camp officially ended on August 20th. The 12 days of fun, challenge and excitement left many of the 6th and 7th graders in anticipation of the next round. You can read all about it and see more images on facebook. We hope to start a true foundation for this outdoor leadership experience.

Students from Perse School, Cambridge (UK), interacted with the Design Team to design a tower for a new adventure playground. The students travelled from Cambridge to Shey in summer 2009 and built the tower themselves, much to the delight of Druk Padma Karpo students.

The Perse students then went off to explore the big montains - and here is their story.

Around 100 international volunteers contributed during 2009 on the Shey campus. Some helped inside the school with educational aspects, while others worked to develop a recently-launched ‘Living Traditions’ heritage project. International volunteers and Ladakhis benefit one another.

A group of students and staff from St Christopher School, Letchworth (UK) visited Shey in April - the third such visit from ‘St Chris’ under the leadership of Edwin Gruber. The group spent time at the school helping Ladakhi students with ‘learning through fun’ before heading off for a challenging trek very early in the season. Here you can view a movie made by the St Chris students.

Michelle Fan and Julayne Farmer from the USA are working on film & heritage aspects and a photo-literacy program respectively, while ‘gap year’ students Rocky Bamford and Josh Torrance from UK helped with English language skills. Read Julayne’s blog

Students from Alton College raised funds for Druk Padma Karpo School before their departure from UK. In mid-July they embarked upon a 4-week expedition to Ladakh, which included building an exercise trail on the school campus, followed by an arduous trek in the Markha Valley.

Nearly 30 architectural students from Portland State University, the University of Texas and elsewhere accompanied Professor Sergio Pelleroni on a month-long exploration of Ladakhi customs and culture, and architectural traditions and methods. They worked in four areas: (a) understanding nomad customs and erecting a rebo (traditional nomad tent dwelling), (b) developing innovative sun shading devices, (c) fitting out a large greenhouse where food can be grown (see image); and (d) helping with landscaping measures.

Read the Ladakh Summer 2009 Design/Build Studio blog here

His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa together with about 500 nuns, monks and students walked for 6 weeks during May-July from Manali at the base of the Himalaya up to Hemis in Ladakh - a distance of some 400km including the ascent and descent of two 5,000m passes and trekking across other high altitude areas.

The ‘Pad Yatra’ pilgrimage raised funds for several humanitarian activities, including Druk White Lotus School.
Pad Yatra link.

His Holiness visited the school on 4th July, accompanied by His Excellency Khamtrul Rinpoche, VIPs from Asia and the United States, and a group of 30 media folks. The students performed traditional songs and dances for the visitors, and displayed their skills and achievements. Here you can see a short clip of the culture show the students gave..

Slideshow