• Day: Fees cover everything for day students (education, supplies, a hot lunch, dental & vision care) We raise extra for uniforms, shoes, vision and medical care.

• Day Seniors: Fees cover education, supplies, a hot lunch, vision and medical care. All seniors get pocket money.

• Boarders: Fees cover education, room and board on a 12 month basis and dental care. We raise separate funds for uniforms, play clothes, shoes and medical care

• Seniors: Fees for Boarding Seniors cover room and board, clothing and pocket money. Fees also cover uniform, transportation textbooks and school supplies as well as tuition if they are attending school outside SMD

Write to us at the school: himalayanchildren@gmail.com

Sponsors, please send your addresses (snail and e-mail). The Nepal post office can process outgoing mail to some (not all) countries. Incoming mail is functioning to some extent.

Yes, if you are in Canada, the US, the Eurozone, or Hong Kong. Please contact one of Thrangu Rinpoche’s non-profit charities for details. Details below.

Canada: Namo Buddha Foundation

Public Fdn Reg. # 891225211 RR 0001
c/o Treasurer Betty Wong
Email: nbfcanada@yahoo.ca
PO Box 46898, Stn. D, Vancouver, BC,
Canada V6J 5M4

US: Himalayan Children’s Fund
A 501(c)3 nonprofit organization
c/o Debra Ann Robinson-Menzies
Email: himalayancf@gmail.com  
P.O. Box 15644, Beverly Hills,
CA 90209 USA

Hong Kong: Thrangu Vajrayana Buddhist Centre Ltd.
c/o Lama Karma Dawa and Secretary Ling
Email: info@thranguhk.org
Tel: 852–2760-8381
FRm 912, 9/F., Wah Shing Centre, No. 11-13 Shing Yip St.,
Kwun Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Europe: Pende e.V.
Vereinsregister VR 720194
c/o Katrin Norbu
www.pende.org
spenderservice@pende.org
Tiroler Str. 45
70329 Stuttgart, Germany

UK: Thrangu Rinpoche Trust
treasurer@thranguhouse.org.uk
Tel/fax: 0044 (0)1865 241555
42 Magdalen Road, Oxford, OX4 1RB, UK

No, it doesn’t. We need to raise extra funds for medical care (which comes to approximately $20,000/year (vaccinations, tests, hospitalizations, vision, and hearing care, etc.)

Yes! You can do a partial sponsorship (we arrange that) or you can go together with family, Friends, or colleagues.

Thrangu Rinpoche and his labrang (monastic management committee) tell us who will be admitted as Boarders, then we check to see how much space we have in our crowded classrooms. Then we are notified which children will be admitted as Day Scholars (including nuns and monks and lay children). If we have any seats left in the classes, we admit local (Day) students.

It’s a good sign that you’re thinking so far ahead, but don’t worry! We understand that things change. If you start, but can’t continue, let us know. We’ll find another sponsor.

All funds get to us, but not immediately. Funds are accumulated in the country of origin and are generally wired once a year – each wire transfer costs money. Once funds are deposited in our account, they are converted into NRs. Nepali rupees cannot be exchanged into other currencies.

Yes, you can, but NOT TO NEPAL. You will have to send the money to the country your student is studying in.

Yes, you can. There are no difficulties for tourists bringing books, memory sticks, vitamins and other things on our Wish List.

Gifts are welcome if you are visiting. We advise sponsors to give some small things as well as the main gift..so your child can share with all the other children in her/his dorm room….this way, s/he would be practicing generosity, as the Buddha taught. Small gifts which can be shared are meaningful because they allow kids who have nothing to practice generosity. No high-tech gadgets please – they create isolation. We are trying to strengthen a sense of community.

We would love to show you the school. Call the Director’s assistants, at school 491-5407 to arrange a time. We can also arrange for you to visit SMD Branch School for monks, two hours away from the Kathmandu Valley. SMD Branch School

Personal Hygiene Items – are available in Nepal – nail clippers, soap, shampoo, skin cream, (for chapped winter cheeks) towels, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and hairbrushes – all high ticket items because manufactured goods are all imported. Donate funds or food to SMD’s Feral Cat Project- the kids are looking after 5 rescued cats. No one helps stray cats in Nepal. We use funds for sterilization/neutering, vaccinations, and cat food. By the way, cat food and pet care gear is available in Kathmandu. We’d love donations.

Max the Wonder Dog is a 9 year old Alsatian with bad hips. He’s been living at SMD for the past two years.  His human is Lama Karma Topden.  We are happy to get donations for Max, too. He needs meat, a brush, flea powder and dog shampoo.

Thrangu Rinpoche has hundreds of children in his care and Tibetan speakers don’t use surnames…we have 74 “Tserings” at the main school. Numbers help us locate and identify the children. (B=boarder, D=day student, M=monk, N=nun, S=Senior, SGY=Senior on a Gap Year). Please use complete Admission numbers in all correspondence

Since we are Buddhist, we do not kill, but the children sometimes arrive with heads full of lice. This is the way we get rid of them.

A NOTE ABOUT AGE:

Tibetan speakers reckon age this way: at birth, a baby is one-year-old, at the next Losar (Tibetan new year), everyone gets another year older. This leads to discrepancies in Western-Tibetan ages. The younger children always reckon their age in the Tibetan system. Until we began to help our students’ parents, there were no records kept in the high Himalayas. Nowadays, when we do intake, we ask for documents (birth certificate and parents’ ID) and we help. Still, as government documents are often doctored, we estimate children’s ages by evaluating their dental and skeletal development.

Normally on our side, every year, we send a photo and report to each sponsor, along with at least 2 letters. We encourage sponsors and children to correspond. You can send letters to your child:

CHILD’S NAME & ADMISSION NUMBER, SMD SCHOOL, PO BOX 1287, KATHMANDU, NEPAL

We instruct our children not to ask sponsors for anything We’ve had some cases of adults posing as SMD students in order to extort money from unsuspecting sponsors. If your child asks you for anything, please write Shirley immediately.

Sorry! Our boarders don’t have much access to the internet. Our computer lab is the only access they have to the internet and connections are very slow.

• 3 Projectors: to use in classrooms we need high power projectors. $800 each.

•  A New Generator: our generator is too small and very old. It spikes & has burned out 2 of our brand new speakers 

• Maintenance Fund: to replace light bulbs, water filters, recharge fire extinguishers, clean the water tanks, get water tests, Repair: wooden desks, tables, chairs & benches, kitchen equipment, iron bed frames

• Small electric vehicle: For hospital runs and city errands in narrow roads. Our old car is unsafe. (~$28,000 +10% tax for EV; fossil fuel vehicles are taxed at +300%)
• Play shoes (~$8/pair; $4,800 for everyone)
• DSLR Camera (~$2,000)

  We have 2 already, but they are both about 18 years old

• New winter quilts (70 quilts ~$2,000/year)

  We need new quilts every year, for the new boarders and to replace worn out quilts

• 1 Portable (wheeled) white boards ($200)
• Yearly Healthcare Fund ($20,000 to $25,000): Supplies for SMD clinic, lab equipment, vaccines, medications, eye and dental care, hearing, vision, dental and hospitalization expenses for children and support staff (the variability relates to how many hospitalizations we have in a year). Specific supplies include multi-vitamins and vitamin C, calcium and iron tablets, wart medicine, bandaids, gauze, antibiotic cream, fungicide cream, and tea tree oil (helpful for treating scalp fungal infections for shaved heads).

• Vitamin C & Multi vitamins: Non-chewable, w/o sugar adult tablets (we break them in half for the kids).
• Small carpets for dorm rooms ($15): The school is unheated. Temperatures reach 0C at night. Locally-made carpets keep kids’ feet warm and prevent colds.
• Running shoes ($25): Kids play sports in bare feet, risking injury and hookworm infections.
• Office supplies, reusable adhesives, board games (Chess sets, Scrabble, Cluedo etc.), small washable stuffed toys, skipping ropes, soft fabric frisbees, hackysacks, soccer and basket balls, whistles for referees, sports equipment, wool/yarn and knitting needles, warm woollen socks and underwear, hair clips and scrunchies, lice combs, face paint, Karaoke discs, and art supplies – but no glitter or balloons please ($35).
• Internet service payment for one month ($60)
• Driving lessons ($100): At SMD only a handful of people can drive. $100 trains one older student.
• Memory sticks, external hard drives, SD cards for our camera, and solar chargers. If you have a laptop or an old tablet, we’d love to have it.
• Menstrual cups for our female staff and girls.
• Earthquake Survival Gear: mylar blankets, Petzl headlamps, 1/2” nylon (not poly) rope in 50 metre lengths, work gloves for rescue team, solar flashlights (torches), duct tape, LifeStraws (personal water filters), loud hailers, whistles, rescue tools, and any other survival gear.
• Picnic, concert or outing contributions (from $300 for smaller events to $5,000 for full day park picnic for 500+ students, teachers and staff): the kids live in a compound and seldom get out to play.

• Multivitamins (non-chewable, adult dose tablets), vitamin C, calcium & iron tablets, wart medicine, bandaids, gauze, antibiotic cream, fungicide cream Lice combs – to remove nits Books
• Nail clippers
• Memory sticks, external hard drives, SD cards for our camera, power packs
• If you have an old laptop or tablet, we would love to have it
• Our unicyclists (The Himalayan Unicycle Club) need helmets, elbow & knee pads
• Skipping ropes, balls, Jacks, hackysacks, soft fabric frisbees
• Soccer & basketballs + whistles for referees
• Learning Games, board games, Pickup sticks, Rubix cubes, Chess sets, Uno, Bananagrams, Scrabble, Cluedo
• Small washable stuffed toys – we try to get a washable toy for each newly admitted small child – something to hug at night when feeling homesick and missing mum
• Also – Lego, Meccano, matchbox (Dinky) toys, hand & finger puppets
• For the office: high lighter pens, Post-it notes, Whiteout, whiteboard pens (wide nib) & erasers
• Art supplies, masking tape, sidewalk chalk, materials to repair library books, arts & craft supplies, beads, and yarn for weaving friendship bracelets – No glitter or balloons, please. Plastic is killing the planet
• Reusable adhesive – Faber-Castell’s “Tack-it”, Henkel’s “Fun-Tak”, UHU’s “Poster Putty” and “Sticky Tack”, “Gummy Sticker” Pritt’s “Sticky Stuff”, Bostik’s “Prestik” or Elmer’s “Poster Tack”.
• Face paint
• Wool, knitting needles, and yarn
• Hair clips & scrunchies
• Earthquake Survival Gear: IN 2015, WE HAD A M7.8 TREMBLOR, BUT THE BIG ONE HASN’T HIT YET mylar blankets, headlamps, 1/2” nylon (not poly) rope in 50 meter lengths, hard hats and work gloves for the rescue team, solar flashlights (torches), duct tape, LifeStraw (personal water filters), whistles, rescue tools & any other survival gear