Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Thursday, May 23, 2013,
In :
SMD Boarding School
Mike and Chantal Schauch from Vancouver visited and brought vitamins.
Mike reports, "Natural Factors multi vitamins were safely delivered to Shree Mangal Dvip School for Himalayan children in Nepal. The kids and staff were very grateful to receive these multis!
When visiting the school, we discovered that approximately 100 new kids were admitted to the school this year. Most of these kids come from extremely remote mountain villages, and many suffer from severe malnutrition when they arrive ...
The school year has just begun, new kids have arrived from the remote Himalayan Mountains to get a superlative education, and sponsorships are being renewed. Enjoy the presentation. Forward it to friends. Share it on Facebook. Use it for a fund raiser. Help to generate awareness of SMD and the needs of the kids in Nepal. THANKS Continue reading ...
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Tuesday, March 5, 2013,
In :
SMD Boarding School
Our Canadian volunteer has been working hard at SMD Boarding School since the middle of January.
Here's her latest report about gardening and a request for another volunteer to take over after she returns. THANK YOU, Renee!!
Greetings ... I am here for 5 1/2 more weeks but starting to make a plan
for the kids to continue with the gardening. We have set up 3 teams
that includes 2 captains and 5 helper (for each team). Each team waters
3 days in a row. Tsering Dhondup is the supervisor and i...
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Thursday, February 7, 2013,
In :
SMD Boarding School
Our garden is sprouting (have planted 50 pots so far plus planted coriander / cilantro in the pots on the 2nd floor about the medical clinic ... ( got permission to do this) and the compost is doing well, hot and smelling sweet. Have given up the idea of using red worms (can't find them and realized if the kids didn't feed them every day they would die). There are knitters everywhere at the school (even in the lunch room ... likely not the best... told them to keep it in their pocket) and no... Continue reading ...
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Thursday, January 24, 2013,
In :
SMD Boarding School
Renee from Vancouver says: Today we planted marigolds, snap dragons, marigolds and hollyhocks (from my Vancouver garden). It was fun ... the kids were very keen and listened carefully to what they needed to do. We even found some worms which we were careful not to damage. The pots are near the entrance to the school and there is not sun until the afternoon so hope they will grow.
Then we found a nursery that sold us organic soil and some compost so tomorrow we will start planting spinach, r... Continue reading ...
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Wednesday, January 16, 2013,
In :
SMD Boarding School
Debra Ann Robinson, President of Himalayan Children's Fund US, and an SMD student, going to her second interview for a Leadership Competition. Debra Ann visits Nepal each year to support Rinpoche's projects and collect names and numbers of all the students, monks and nuns.
The Canadian volunteer who took the photo is guiding the older students and also investigating how to incorporate more food and flower gardening at SMD Boarding School to increase the nutrition and reduce food costs. She hope... Continue reading ...
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Saturday, January 12, 2013,
In :
SMD Boarding School
Many times visitors from Canada spend time with the children at SMD Boarding School. They take gifts sent by sponsors and donors to the kids and get tours of the school, nunnery or monasteries (in Kathmandu and Namo Buddha). One sponsor said, "Meeting Tsering Dolma was a highlight of our trip and we were super impressed with the school." Here are some comments from Molly who had the opportunity of chatting with the girl her group in Halifax sponsors at SMD and meeting some other students.
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Saturday, December 29, 2012,
In :
SMD Boarding School
University of Minnesota donors helped to purchase a water filtration system for the new girls' dorm at SMD Boarding School. (This is mostly in Nepali but the visuals are very good. Shirley Blair adds some info at the end of the video) Continue reading ...
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Tuesday, December 11, 2012,
In :
SMD Boarding School
The HTP is ticking along. I think you may know that we've hooked up with a group called Hope Alliance (HA) - they're enlarging the school in Lhi, up to Class 6 and they're building a hostel so kids can board. Our HTP kids are going gangbusters.
Tashi Choden B322 (gave a year of service in Lhi and is now in Ktm, living with us and studying in Grade 12. Mikmar Bhuti B374 (gave a year of service in Lhi and is now in Ktm, in Gr 11). Pasang Lhamo B302 (gave a year of service in Lhi and is now in Ktm... Continue reading ...
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Monday, December 3, 2012,
In :
SMD Boarding School
Thank you to the Yuen family who donated a solar battery to SMD Boarding School in honour of their parents' 40th wedding anniversary. What an enormous gesture of generosity!
With up to 18 hours of power cuts in Kathmandu (load-shedding, they call it), the solar battery will provide back up lighting to help the kids navigate to their rooms after nightfall or study for their exams. This keeps the kids safe and helps them to be one of the best schools in the country of Nepal.
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Sunday, December 2, 2012,
In :
SMD Boarding School
In October, VVF Board Member Kate visited Shirley Blair, Director of SMD Boarding School, and her sponsor daughter Kusum who is 14 years old and in Class 9. Kate reported that everyone was happy and the school was going along very smoothly.
Preparations were underway for the big celebration of Thrangu Rinpoche's birthday in November so spirits were high.
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Saturday, November 17, 2012,
In :
SMD Boarding School
Mike Schauch and Eric Saczuk speak on Global TV about their movie Beyond the Gates of Phu which premiered on Thursday, November 15 to a sold out crowd. View the show HERE Donate to support SMD School online at BeyondPhu.org DONATE Continue reading ...
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Thursday, November 1, 2012,
In :
SMD Boarding School
The students of SMD Boarding School send thank you cards to their sponsors each year. They are exceptionally beautiful, each hand-crafted by the children on locally produced paper from renewable sources. The cards are being sent electronically to individual sponsors. If you wish the hard copy, email us and we will send it by post to you at home. Continue reading ...
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Wednesday, October 31, 2012,
In :
SMD Boarding School
The children studying at SMD Boarding School in Nepal come from very tough situations, high in the mountains and far from the road. Some kids walk up to 14 days to get to the road for a bus to Kathmandu! Life is harsh and demanding for the little children and there is little hope for their future besides marriage and subsistence farming. Learn more on the slide show. Please share on YouTube and Facebook! Continue reading ...
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Friday, October 12, 2012,
In :
SMD Boarding School
More than 500 children (nuns, monks and lay children) study at SMD Boarding School in Nepal. Some children live in the school compound, coming from the mountains sometimes as young as 3 years old. Others live nearby with relatives, walking to school each day at 7am and returning at 7pm. Monks and nuns live in their respective monasteries - monks, a five-minute walk, nuns, a 45-minute bus ride away.
Life in the mountain villages in Nepal is extremely harsh, and children lack basic health car... Continue reading ...
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Friday, August 24, 2012,
In :
SMD Boarding School
Shree Mangal Dvip (SMD) Boarding School in Kathmandu houses 100's of children and provides education, food, clothing, and all other basic necessities free of charge. Another 200 or so students come from 7am to 7pm receiving the same education and supplies but sleeping off campus as the space is too small. The education quality is so high that all the students taking the SLC exam (School Leaving Certificate) pass, getting the highest marks in the country, distinction and first division. (onl... Continue reading ...
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Thursday, August 2, 2012,
In :
SMD Boarding School
Kids Run School Canteen to Inspire Acts of Kindness
SMD kids have opened a school canteen. Kids do the sales, stock inventory, manage the token system (teaching all the school to practice acts of kindness) all by themselves. We use plastic tokens, which children can earn for unsolicited acts of kindness (bodhicitta...helping others, as the Buddha taught). This system also teaches children who come from cashless villages how a monetary system works. (Shirley Blair)
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Wednesday, June 27, 2012,
In :
SMD Boarding School
Loadshedding means that the power is shut off for a certain period to preserve energy. In the Kathmandu Valley, there is a schedule for when the power is off. It prepares the people to make sure their computers are off and other technology are protected from surges. Business halts and buildings are pitch black. Most people don't have back-up units to provide light in the evenings. http://globalcomputersolution-it.com/loadshedding_routine/
New Load Shedding Routine
Updated on: June 27, ...
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Monday, June 11, 2012,
In :
SMD Boarding School
The website Nepal to You is an initiative withhopealliance.org.au and SMD grads (Tashi and Srijana) to sell quality products from Nepal to raise funds for the projects in the Himalayan regions that our SMD kids come from. Free global shipping. CHECK IT OUT http://www.nepaltoyou.com
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Sunday, January 29, 2012,
In :
SMD Boarding School
ABOUT MY EXPERIENCE IN THE LHI VILLAGE SCHOOL It's been six months that I’ve been teaching in Lhi village school. Within those days I felt very glad to help my own community and I never felt any regrets about taking a Gap year to give service.
I didn't get any language problems during my teaching and when I started to work in the school I thought that there would be someone to manage us but later on I came to know that there is no one, and everything we do we must fix by ourselves. So I reall... Continue reading ...
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Wednesday, January 25, 2012,
In :
SMD Boarding School
Harika: a Heart's Home My goodness, what can I possibly say about my experience at Shree Mangal
Dvip that could adequately capture what I felt and feel inside? I felt
welcomed. I felt loved and appreciated. I felt a kindness that seems to
be harder and harder to find these days. There's a light inside the
students of SMD— an insatiable curiosity, a positivity and compassion,
and it moved me. I feel changed somehow.
Shree Mangal Dvip is a school founded by The Venerable Thrangu Rinpoche... Continue reading ...
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Sunday, January 15, 2012,
In :
SMD Boarding School
Once is never enough
Samantha Zaza Kathmandu Post January 13, 2012
Sometime during this wet summer, when I was asked what I loved most
about Nepal, the answer leaped from my lips without hesitation—the
people. It was my second mo... Continue reading ...
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Thursday, November 17, 2011,
In :
SMD Boarding School
Tashi Delek from SMD Lhakpa Dorje D101 Boy 5 years Class: LKG Dear Friends of VVF,
At Thrangu Rinpoche's main school, the children are halfway through another year dotted with success! TWO more Reading Angels were placed at the mountain school in Lhi. Himalayan Teachers Project in Canada is funding training for FIVE young women, so they can finish high school and undergrad degrees in education to return to the mountains to teach. In another Canadian initiative, TWO SMDers (one is a... Continue reading ...
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Saturday, November 12, 2011,
In :
SMD Boarding School
Thank you to Dr. Sanford and Ms. Leighton and her group for getting THREE laptops with learning software to SMD Boarding School in Nepal!
Last spring, Dr. Sanford of Braintrain.com donated 3 computers loaded with the TNT Reading System which assists users in acquiring English reading skills. It also has components to traing and improve brain function. Dr. Sanford brought the units to Thrangu Monastery in Richmond, BC.
VVF in Canada waited for months before luckily meeting Marian Leighton of ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Saturday, October 29, 2011,
In :
SMD Boarding School
Jodi and Phil Tweet and Noel Aylett of Hope Alliance went up to Lhi, Nubri, Nepal to take school supplies, to paint and to love to the kids and families. They made the most AMAZING video of their 10-hour bus ride and 5-day trek into the high Himalayan Mountains. Thank you, Jodi, Phil, Noel and SMDers for all your efforts to help the forgotten children.
FROM THE HOPE ALLIANCE WEBSITE: Lhi School - Nubri Village Lhi is a very remote village situated in the Nubri valley of north-western Nepal, whi... Continue reading ...
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Thursday, September 22, 2011,
In :
SMD Boarding School
September 20, 2011 from Shirley Blair, Director of SMD Boarding School, Kathmandu, Nepal Dear friends, On September 18th, a 6.9 earthquake hit Kathmandu. Although there were some fatalities in the Kathmandu Valley, all of Thrangu Rinpoche’s nuns, monks and lay children were unhurt, and the building sustained no visible damage. At SMD Boarding School, thanks to years of emergency drills, the buildings were evacuated smoothly. The children spent the night in the monsoon rain sleeping on the so... Continue reading ...
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Friday, September 16, 2011,
In :
SMD Boarding School
Hey, take a look at the SMD School Clinic's website. http://www.smdclinic.org/
The clinic does such wonderful work keeping all the kids, staff, monks and nuns healthy and educated about good health practices. Wangchuk Rapten is the driving force behind the clinic. Great job, Wangchuk!!
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Wednesday, May 18, 2011,
In :
SMD Boarding School
Two SMDers have been chosen to attend the South Asian Youth Summit (SAYS) in the US. Debra Ann Menzies of the Himalayan Children's Fund in the States says, "Through a rigorous examination and
interview process, Tashi and Kunchok were selected out of 250 applicants
to be part of seven delegates representing Nepal in the SAYS program,
which includes Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Maldives." Read the article in the Shambhala Sun http://www.shambhalasun.com/news/?p=21097
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Tuesday, May 17, 2011,
In :
SMD Boarding School
Atlanta International senior hopes to use American education to improve life in Nepal By Gloria Love When Karma Gurung crosses the stage later this month to collect her diploma, it will be yet another leg in a journey the Atlanta International School senior said has taught her to celebrate life, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges.
Gurung hails from Manang, Nepal, a village near Mount Everest which requires a seven-day journey by foot to reach from the nearest city. “In my v... Continue reading ...
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Monday, March 21, 2011,
In :
SMD Boarding School
Dear Friends of SMD Boarding School and VVF Canada,
The recent disaster in Japan is a horrible reminder of how fragile life is. So many people are gone, buried or homeless from the earthquake and following tsunami.
While the Kathmandu valley is not at risk of a tsunami, the earthquake risk is "catastrophic". [See the map from the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) in the PDF file on our NEWSLETTER page under EARTHQUAKE APPEAL] Houses in the city are bu... Continue reading ...
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Friday, January 14, 2011,
In :
SMD Boarding School
REPUBLICA KATHMANDU, Jan 14: The Australian production company, The Style Group, is in the capital to launch “‘sPlat” – an Australian children’s musical. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Nepal and Australia, the musical production is touring the country with the collaborative efforts of The Style Group and Shree Mangal Dvip (SMD) Boarding School in Boudha, Kathmandu.
The musical play called “‘sPlat” is the brainchild of Australian husband a... Continue reading ...
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Friday, January 14, 2011,
In :
SMD Boarding School
Power cut up by one hour REPUBLICA KATHMANDU, Jan 14: The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has decided to increase load-shedding by one hour with effect from Sunday. There will be 12 hours of power cut every day from Sunday onward. According to the Load Dispatch Center (LDC) of the NEA, the load-shedding time has been increased as water levels in most of the rivers have gone down. According to Chiranjivi Sharma, chief of the LDC, power demand in the country stands at 940 MW, which is almost... Continue reading ...
Posted by Vajra Vidya Foundation on Tuesday, December 7, 2010,
In :
SMD Boarding School
Canadian friends of SMD Boarding School will soon be able to get the very first SMD Calendar. Full of great photos, it is a perfect gift for friends and family.
Alvin in Singapore conceived the idea and created multiple versions for various countries. Andrew and Trevor in Canada arranged for the printing and are spearheading the distribution. Thanks, guys!!
Look for copies at Thrangu Monastery in Richmond, BC, Karma Tashi Ling in Edmonton, AB, Karma Tekchen Zabsal Ling in Aurora, ON. The calend... Continue reading ...
VVF is Thrangu Rinpoche's Canadian foundation. Vajra Vidya Foundation
is the fundraising organization for
Namo Buddha Foundation, a registered Canadian charitable organization
founded by Thrangu Rinpoche to
undertake charitable projects.
VVF is Thrangu Rinpoche's Canadian foundation. Vajra Vidya Foundation
is the fundraising organization for
Namo Buddha Foundation, a registered Canadian charitable organization
founded by Thrangu Rinpoche to
undertake charitable projects.
