How donations are used
Ever wonder where your charity dollars end up?
Switzerland Red Cross and Tendol Gyalzal
Maybe, like me, most people hold a somewhat skeptical curiosity about exactly how their donated dollars are utilized. Coupled however, with a trusting and optimistic faith in the dual concept of collective goodness and generosity of spirit, hopefully most people, like me, believe that their donation will contribute to a positive impact on the neglected people of our planet.
It is impossible of course to track each individual donation, but when you hear of just one amazing direct result of your generosity it may well restore some trust that the money given to the many charitable organizations such as the Red Cross, has reached its rightful destination.
Let’s hear the amazing story of Tendol Gyalzur, now 62 years old, and orphaned on her walking journey from Tibet China to India through the Himalayans, at the age of six.
Tendol’s small bare feet were damaged so severely on the long trek that to this day she has scars to remind her of how far she has come.
After arriving in India she was found and taken into the care of in an Indian orphanage. Within weeks of her arrival at the Indian orphanage a Swiss Orphanage requested that the Switzerland Red Cross locate 12 orphans from around the world to fill 12 available spaces in their facility. The SRC decided to go to India and chose 6 girls and 6 boys, of which Tendol was one.
One can only imagine the fear and confusion of this poor little girl at that time. Her German was nil, her knowledge of the world outside of Tibet and India was non- existent and she had never met a Westerner.
The Switzerland Red Cross was not done however. To ensure that the Tibetan children did not lose their heritage, native language or their roots, an advertisement was placed in a Lhasa newspaper for a Tibetan teacher to travel to Switzerland and work in the orphanage teaching Tibetan language and customs to the newly arrived children.
The man they chose for the job left his homeland and family for the first time to travel to Switzerland.
After 10 years, the teacher, Mr. Gyalzur was able to bring his father and brother over to Germany to live.
The years passed and Tendol fell in love with Losang Tsultim Gyalzur, the teacher’s brother. They were married and in time had two sons.
In 1990 after raising her sons, Tendol returned to Tibet for the first time since her childhood but all she saw were the orphans and street children that reminded her so much of who she had been and her early childhood.
The experience of attempting to feed two hungry street children in a restaurant which refused to admit them, made Tendol realize she must help the many unwanted children and fight for their rights for a dignified life. She returned to Switzerland and with her husband’s total support, Tendol then embarked on this mission with a passion, collecting all of their own savings, and raising funds from friends and family in Switzerland.
Tendol returned again to Lhasa in 1993 but this time she had $26,000 US Dollars with which to work. It was decided that the priority for the children was housing and the best way to approach this was to buy land in Toelung, near Lhasa, and build. The first orphanage opened on October 6, 1993 with seven children and two house parents.
Now, seventeen years later there are two orphanages currently housing 104 children, one in Toelung, Tibet and one in Shangri-La, Yunnan Province, China. Three hundred children to date have been rescued and raised in these charity-funded homes. These kids were never adoptable and in reality are the children of the Gyalzur family and will consider these orphanages their only real homes for the rest of their lives. They are the lucky ones.
Tendol and Losang Tsultim Gyalzur have created an extended family for these young people, a sense of place and trust. A family with whom they can share marriages, births and the grief of death with. The Journey of Life!
The wonderful news is that both of Tendol and Losang Tsultim Gyalzur’s sons, Sons have embraced their mother’s mission and passion and include these orphaned children in their own extended family. Songtsen, their oldest son, is now 42 with a wife and two children. Both are stepping into the shoes of Tendol and Losang Tsultim Gyalzur, taking over the growth and care of the children and the orphanages.
Songtsen has also opened two restaurants in Shangri-La, one of which burned down in the January 11, 2014 fire of old town Shangri-La so that the orphaned children can learn skills, have work and an optimistic future as they grow into adulthood . Plus there are new projects planned by this kind and generous family because there is no end in sight for lost and deserted children in these regions.
So, the beginning of this wonderful story shows that with such a small gesture of giving by people like you and me there are opportunities for unwanted children like Tendol to grow and make a difference to our world.
Chosen randomly by the Switzerland Red Cross, this child was able to realize not only her own human potential but be instrumental in the good fortune of so many others’. The amazing journey, which started, on that early agonizing trek to India continues today.
Most of us have not had this awful start to our lives; Our opportunities, compared to Tendol’s, have been many.
If you would like to help children like Tendol become ‘one of the lucky ones’ please put your doubts aside, let the ‘dual concepts’ do the rest and give knowing that lives will change.
HOW YOUR DONATIONS ARE USED
Donations go directly to the Children, these girls are getting money to get their passports to travel with the Yang Li Ping Dance Troop.
Sponsoring dancers in the Yang Li Ping Dance Troop
Great appreciation and happiness from the Children
Keeping Children in the same family together
Money buys computers for Teenage Tarahumara Indians to better learn in higher schools and Scholarships for these schools.
Donations go directly to tuition for the Children to pursue higher education and better jobs.
Money goes directly to food to be delivered to needy Tarahumara Indians…The draught has caused much loss of food.
Below, Back in 2009 and above now in 2014.
Five years and the kids are doing just great…so happy…
Bringing in Corporate Sponsors from Shanghai to participate and donate to the two orphanages in Tibet and Shangri-La.