Siddhartha aims to help children in need, with a focus on children in the Himalayan region. In particular, Siddhartha aims to support the most deprived of Tibetan refugee children, and to offer them an education in the context of their own traditions. Siddhartha also helps children in other Himalayan communities.
The principal way Siddhartha provides help is by sponsoring children and young people in a number of orphanages, schools and monastic institutions across the region. Funds are raised in the West through a sponsorship programme which keeps donors in contact with the groups of children they are helping to support, while avoiding the problems of individualised donor-to-child sponsorships. Other projects are specifically aimed at the needs of the most deprived children outside the Tibetan cultural tradition.
Preserving Tibetan spiritual traditions
The continuation of Tibetan Buddhist traditions is particularly uncertain in these difficult times. With this understanding, many lamas have made it a priority to establish monasteries, institutes and schools in exile. For many Tibetan families (and indeed for local Himalayan communities with similar cultures as well) these institutions offer the best chance for their children to live in decent conditions and to receive an education in keeping with their cultural traditions.
In the early 1960s, Kangyur Rinpoche established a small monastery in Darjeeling, called Orgyen Kunzang Chökhorling. Currently, Pema Wangyal Rinpoche, continuing his father’s vision, oversees the monastery which now shelters more than forty monks, mainly children and young adults.
In order to help support the monasteries that receive and educate the children, Siddhartha has established a system of sponsorship. Sponsors make a huge difference to the lives of children who would otherwise suffer from the poverty and deprivation in which their communities and families live. By becoming a Siddhartha sponsor, you are offering a future to Tibetan and Himalayan children, and at the same time helping to uphold Tibet’s cultural and spiritual traditions. For approximately 1 € per day, you can help ensure the subsistence of a child and education for his or her future.
Siddhartha engages in numerous ongoing and one-off projects for children and young people. Currently, the major ones are those mainly targeted at Tibetan refugees, and those aiming to help the children of other Himalayan populations.
The photo gallery brings you to Nepal, India and Bhutan, where Siddhartha cares for impoverished children. See some of the children benefiting from Siddhartha sponsorships and view the progress of ongoing projects.
