turning   the   wheel
online edition

siddhartha school project newsletter

issue #9 - page 4

February 2005
page 1 - page 2 - page 3 - Swiss Organization - Growing School - Hill Council

New Swiss Organization Support School

When Nicolas Combe and Severine Pont visited Siddhartha School in the summer of 2003, they knew they had found a cause they wanted to support. Both avid outdoors enthusiasts, they had come to Ladakh for the trekking but found themselves captivated by the children’s smiles. For some time, Nicolas and his mother had been thinking about starting a charitable organization. Nicolas’ mother, Lotty Combe, had a long-standing interest in Tibetan culture, and had sponsored Tibetan children for many years. Even before Nicolas and Severine returned to Switzerland, she made a commitment to sponsor a Siddhartha School student as well.

Not long after their return to Geneva, Nicloas and Severine, along with Lotty, created Les Enfants du Sourire (The Children of the Smile), an organization dedicated to supporting projects benefiting children in the developing world. They chose Siddhartha School as their first project and in just a few short months found sponsors for the school bus and science lab (the Swiss organization Freres de Nos Freres), arranged sponsorship for three students, and raised additional funds from municipal organizations in Switzerland. Arriving just at the moment when the school faced its biggest challenge, their generosity has made a gargantuan task seem manageable. From the bottom of our hearts we thank these tireless new friends.

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A Growing School, A Firm Foundation

Student dancersAlthough 2004 has been a banner year, we must not lose sight of the task still to be done. This year we hope to complete the second story of the new building, which will house the remaining two classrooms, the principal’s office and the administrative offices. Although the peripheral wall was built in 2003, we still need to construct a proper entry gate. The estimated combined cost for these two projects is approximately 2,100,000 rupees, or $47,000. We must also build a garage to accommodate the two school buses and the school van, and a regulation athletic field is needed before the school can apply for certification for grades IX and X. The budget for faculty salaries continues to grow as the school hires the specialized teachers the upper grades require. Fortunately, the ranks of the school’s supporters continue to grow as well, and we are hopeful that we can meet this challenge.

In addition to providing for these immediate needs, we must begin the second stage of our fundraising effort, the establishment of an endowment. It is not enough to build the school; we must make it secure for generations to come. Classrooms will not be of much use if there are no funds to pay the teachers’ salaries. We have many dreams for Siddhartha School, but our most important dream is that it will endure to provide an excellent basic education to the children of our current students and to their children as well.

For this reason we plan to begin this year to earmark a portion of our funds for the establishment of an emergency fund and an endowment. Once we have achieved this security, we can begin to consider other possibilities. The school has a large amount of land, enough to accommodate a residence facility for children from villages without good schools, enough to accommodate an intermediate college (in the Indian system, grades 11 and 12). Siddhartha School can continue to grow, but it first must stand on a firm financial foundation.

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What is the Hill Council?

Many of our readers are aware that Ladakh is part of the troubled state of Jammu and Kashmir. It was the dispute over this state that recently brought India and Pakistan to the brink of nuclear war. Ladakh, which was an independent nation until 1834, comprises 70% of the territory of J&K State. It is divided into 2 districts - Kargil, whose population is 85% Muslim, and Leh whose population is largely Buddhist. It is mostly desert and its population is small.

Since the Chinese invasion of Tibet, the district of Leh is the only region in the world where all four lineages of Tibetan Buddhism flourish in their age-old setting. Its culture is rich and unique. Unfortunately, the Buddhists are a small minority in largely Muslim J&K State, often referred to in the Western press simply as 'Kashmir'. If you read in a newspaper article that 'Kashmir' has a small Buddhist minority, the reference is to J&K State, and the 'Buddhist minority' is the population of Leh District, Ladakh.

The Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council was set up by the government of India in Sept. 1995. For many years the people of Ladakh had demanded Union Territory status as a means of separating from J&K State, whose politics are dominated by the interests of the populous Muslim section, the valley of Kashmir. Although separation from Kashmir is not politically feasible at this time, The Union Territory Committee and the government of India agreed to set up the Hill Council to assure Ladakhis some control over their development.

The Jammu and Kashmir State government had been neglecting the people of Ladakh in every field, including sanction of funds for development, infrastructure and education. Since the granting of full executive power to the Hill Council in 2002, the development of infrastructure in Ladakh has accelerated, and the new infrastructure has been better suited to the needs of the community. The Hill Council has full power to set priorities and allocate resources.

The new government in Jammu and Kashmir is a good one and everyone is optimistic about the prospects for peace and prosperity in the area. Still, Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, though forming one state, are very different entities, each with its own history, its own language, religion and culture. The Hill Council is vital to the
preservation of Ladakhi culture, and we're proud that its president recognizes in Siddhartha School a strong partner in building Ladakh's future.

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updated 3/05/2005