Assistance from Down Under for students from the Roof of the World

AUSTRALIAN TEAM HELPS OUT THUMBI SAMBHOTA TIBETAN SCHOOL WITH INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT AND TEACHING AIDS
GANGTOK, 08 Dec: A 13-member Australian team comprising of 9 students and 3 teachers from Ormiston College and one member of Antipodean, an NGO, helped build a stairway leading to the Thumbi Sambhota Tibetan School at Sichey here and donated a swing for the playground, a fan, an almirah, medicines for the dispensary, school bags and 1,000 exercise books for the children. They were felicitated for their support by members of the Tibetan Youth Club [TYC] at the school premises today.

The team had collected funds from various organisations and individuals in Australia and then contacted members of TYC through an NGO to learn of projects and necessary items required for the school and the Tibetan children in Sikkim, informed the TYC president,  Chung Chung Bhutia, while speaking to NOW!.
In 2002, the team had visited the Tibetan Settlement at Ravangla and carried out similar work there, he added. The team comes here to work as well as spend their vacation, it is learnt.
Thanking the team for raising funds and undertaking such social work for the school and children, the president in his address said that this was a very good and thoughtful gesture on the part of the people of Australia for the Tibetan community in Sikkim. He also lauded the efforts of the nine students for helping rebuild the school playground as well as doing paint work.
The team leader of the Australian team, Mr. Wayne in his address said that it was good to learn about new culture and new things. “The act of ‘giving’ is not normal in our culture especially giving outside Australia but giving to the students is very important as they are the future of our generation”, he expressed and added that he was pleased to be in Sikkim and to help others.
“We could not interact much with the children because of the ongoing examinations, but whatever time we spent here with the kids, we used well exchanging lessons – use coaching them on English and the children giving us tips on Nepali and Tibetan,” Mr. Wayne further shared.
The Headmaster, while thanking the team for all their generosity and the work they had done for the school and the children informed that at present there were 139 students [73 boys and 66 girls], 16 teaching and 13 non-teaching staff in the school and that they were imparting basic education along with teaching English, Mathematics and other subjects.
Two of the Australian students shared their experience of coming to Sikkim and helping the school children with the Headmaster, teachers, members of TYC and children of Thumbi Sambhota Tibetan School, who were present for the felicitation programme. The team also presented T-shirts to members of TYC, while the Australian team was presented with a Tibetan flag, certificates of appreciation and mementos, along with khadas.