Match our Challenge Grant! A generous donor has promised matching funds of up to $10,000 for the Children’s Educational Fund specifically designated for children in Rumtek, Sikkim, India. In order to obtain the full matching grant, we need to raise an additional $8,725. Your donation today will help us reach our goal.

The Bodhi Seeds Children’s Educational Fund sponsors school fees for children in the Himalayan region. The donor has designated $10,000 to sponsor the education of children living in the lay community of Rumtek, who ordinarily would only have access to a rudimentary education. In order to achieve their full potential, the children need to be provided with books and attend better schools, where fees range from $400 - $800 per year.

100% of your donation goes to the school fees, and will be doubled by the matching grant. 

Rumtek Monastery holds a special place in our hearts, and the Tibetan lay community in the surrounding town has many families who have a shortage of resources and struggle to pay school fees.

You can change a child’s life by supporting this fund today.

Your donation will help disadvantaged students in this rural area develop literacy, and help them reach their potential by attending a school with better infrastructure and curriculum.

If you are interested in sponsoring a specific child, whether in Rumtek or another Himalayan region, please let us know at donations@bodhiseeds.org. We will give you the name and photo of the child you are sponsoring.

To help us obtain our matching grant before October 31, please donate here today. Please specify that you would like your donation to go toward the “Children’s Educational Fund.”

Thank you!
Sincerely,
Acharya Tashi Wangchuk

Thanks to your support, Bodhi Seeds has fulfilled its goals for 2011–2012. 

We have been able to stand firmly behind the Tso Jey Medical Clinic and have funded its operational expenses and the salaries for our nurse, physician and custodial staff. Men, women and children can find help at the clinic seven days a week and receive free medication funded by Bodhi Seeds.

We would like to be able to give each monk at Rumtek an annual stipend that enables him to make a trip home to visit family. It’s an important visit for the well being of both the monks and their family. This year, with your help, every monk who needed the support, received it, happy to make the trip home.

Our on-going commitment has also been to the children of the area, funding their tuition for educational expenses. Individual donors have made it possible for several children to obtain full tuition to pursue their educational dreams. There are more children who are requesting help, but we do not at present have sufficient money for their sponsorship.

In 2012-2013, Bodhi Seeds will need your support to enable it to continue to pursue and expand on the goals you have for Rumtek’s health and well being.  Rumtek went through a difficult period following the earthquake of 2012. With your help, the clinic services were available to the monks and villagers while the monastery structures were repaired.  In 2013, please help us make certain these services can continue and grow to include more preventative health care and health education for monks, and the men, women and children of the villages.

Acharya Tashi visited Rumtek in October 2012. He not only reported that the clinic was running well, but also that the monks, villagers and administration were universally appreciative of your efforts. We finalized plans for an ESL teacher that had been requested by the shedra leadership in 2010. If we can obtain sponsorship for him, our teacher will leave Seattle for Rumtek in March 2013. We will need to raise money for his airfare and a small monthly stipend. Finally, more children need educational support and in 2013; we would like to double the number offered help so that they can pursue their hopes for a better future.

Each of you has a personal relationship with Rumtek. Every monk we speak to, villager we help, child we hold, mother we counsel—it is you that is quite literally there with us. We feel great joy in doing this, and make aspirations that you will join us again in the coming year as you have in the past.

Yours truly,

Acharya Tashi Wangchuk
Don Ross, M.D.
Susan Kirchoff, RN, MA

We are excited to inform you about an inspiring project that Bodhi Seeds (formerly Bodhi Heart) began sponsoring in spring at Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim, the seat of the Karmapas. We are in the process of creating a Health Care Clinic that will benefit monastics and lay people, both young and old, men, women and children in need of healthcare. This is a long term project that will take 2-4 years to establish. The clinic has the blessings of the Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche and is being coordinated with the administration of Rumtek monastery. The initial part of this project began in spring 2010 with our Exploratory Medical Expedition to Rumtek.

The medical team used its own resources in order to fund this trip, so that all money raised will go directly for medical care. Funds raised will go towards:

1. Quality vitamins, ointments, and antibiotics
2. Medications
3. Medical equipment, supplies, and laboratory basics

Medications and equipment will be bought in India, in this way we will keep costs down and those who will be using the equipment and medicines will be familiar with those products of local origin.

The medical team has consulted with those who have created medical clinics in Asia and have estimated that the funds needed to set up a basic clinic will be $10,000 U.S. In addition, further funds will be needed to buy medications, supplies and laboratory basics. In all, a total estimate of $14,000 U.S. is needed for the full set up of the healthcare clinic. This clinic will be an on-going Bodhi Seeds project and we will keep you updated on its progress. As mentioned earlier, it will take 2-4 years to establish an ongoing clinic.

Bodhi Seeds also continues to support many Tibetan children by sponsoring their school education, and helping monastics with their studies with such projects as the Library fund which bought 10 computers to further their education. We also recently bought a computer for our Bodhi Seeds administrator in India, to aid in communications between Rumtek and Bodhi Seeds America.

The Medical Clinic is part of the greater vision of Bodhi Seeds to help as many Tibetan refugees at Rumtek as possible. Become a part of this exciting project by giving donating what you can, all funds received go directly to the creation of the medical clinic. As always, thank you for your generosity!!