Fund Raising in Dharamsala

This August while attending the teaching by His Holiness the Dalai Lama at Namgyal Monastery, Varada Effort has put up a little stall to sell some of the merchandise designed and produced by its members in order to raise more money for the toilets. During the 4 short days with only not more than one and a half hour per day to sell the goods, we managed to raise the following amounts:-

1) A total sum of 47,400 rupees (nett) from the sales of 80 tote bags, 32 CDs and 372 note books

2) A total amount of 23,300 rupees plus US$10, S$210, and Ringgit$60 from public donation 

The above amounts have already be given to the Monastery (refer to receipts) as the deposit for the general sanitation construction. Hopefully, from the existing expansion of toilets, more toilets than the 2 units we anticipated, can be fitted with seats and grab bars. We are still waiting for the quotation from the suppliers of the monastery.

Since all the toilets are situated on the 2nd and 3rd level due to the lack of land, there still exist a problem for the wheelchair bound and those on crutches as there is no lift access to any of the upper floors of the monastery. Therefore, now we are looking into the possibility of purchasing mobile toilets for these disadvantaged people as the best alternative solution. Further research are being conducted now as to where to place them and which system of disposing the waste will be choosen. We are keeping our fingers crossed so that when the devotees return for the teaching next year these amenities will be upgraded as planned.

Therefore we have not stopped the collection of donation as we are still calculating the costs for the mobile toilet(s) and the freight charges to Dharamsala, which has exceeded our original budget.