Tag Archives: Shambala Foundation

Helping Rural Orphans Attend School in Qinghai Province, China

BGR Staff

Shambala Foundation is an independent, non-governmental, non-religiously affiliated humanitarian organization alleviating poverty in Asia (unrelated to the network of Shambhala meditation centers in the US). The organization is registered in Hong Kong and focuses primarily on China. Shambala’s projects and programs promote education for disadvantaged communities, which makes it an excellent partner with BGR.

Shambala Foundation’s main project is called Orphanage Without Walls, which it took over in 2012 and officially registered in 2013. Shambala supports 650 orphans and their foster families by providing educational opportunities, social support, and basic needs.

In the spring of 2014, BGR entered into a partnership with the Shambala Foundation to provide books, clothes, shoes, and school supplies for rural orphans in Qinghai Province, China. Most of the children are of Tibetan ethnicity. Through this collaboration, Shambala Foundation has been able to provide important materials to students in Qinghai Province to support their education and motivate them to continue schooling.

Shambala worked closely with each child and their guardian or relative to discuss solutions to keep them in school. The project had a strong impact in fulfilling basic needs for winter clothing and shoes, materials to support the children’s studies, and books beyond their school textbooks to promote literacy at home. In total, Shambala provided 100 students with these materials while also giving advice, support, and training in basic literacy skills.

Providing these materials had other impact on parents, relatives, guardians, and neighbors in showing that the child has value, and that education should be taken seriously and supported both materially and emotionally by the family and community.
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Helping Orphans in Western China Attend School

by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi

Shambala BGR 6Last May, at its annual projects meeting, the Board of Buddhist Global Relief approved a grant of $7,000 to a new partner, the Shambala Foundation, a Hong Kong-based organization working in rural China (unrelated to the American Buddhist network of Shambhala meditation centers). The purpose of the grant was to cover the costs of books, clothes, shoes, and school supplies for orphans and poor children between the ages of 10 and 16 from Qinghai Province in western China.

These children are already participating in the Shambala Foundation’s flagship program, Orphanage Without Walls (OWW), a long-term partnership with 650 rural children and their families. The overall goal is for each child to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. Shambala Foundation works with each child so they can attend school for as long as possible and eventually find their first paid jobs.
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