A memorable tea party and a good way to start a new year

On Jan 1st 2012, an auspicious day in any calendar, Varada Effort hosted a tea party in Mahayana Hotel in Boddhgaya to meet up with some of the heads of organisations that we have helped since the forming of the group. We have never met most of them in the past but always managed to connect with each other through phone or emails.  Therefore this was a good opportunity to get together and share some ideas face to face.
At the same time, we were honored to have the presence of Mr. Dawa Tsering, the MP who is very well known for his social work in Dhramasla and Serkong Rinpoche, a supporter to our effort in training the Tibetans to help their own youth.
Our guests were delighted to have a taste of the Kueh Lapis and Pineapple Tarts brought all the way from Singapore for the occassion. It was a fruitful gathering for VE as we learnt much about how to go about in helping the Tibetan youths and the areas that we can render our service to their community in the future.

New top up for the Students" Pocket Money Fund for TCV

Thanks to the new donors to this project, today we managed to transfer a total amount of Rs 62,323 to TCV. This, with our balance of Rs 3,600 leftover from the previous donations, we will be able to provide at least 131 students this year, a sum of Rs 500 each, when they take part in 2012 year end winter programme. Gratitude to the following people for their generosity:
Mrs. Shirley Hoe    $300/-
Mr. Jason Chan        $50/-
Ms Yong Mee Hiong   $1,000/-
Ms. Chung Ay Neo   $200/-
I am sure you all can see the smiles on the students' faces in your vision for your gift. Thank you once again. 

An Adjusted Balance of Statement for our Students' Pocket Money Fund

From the latest statement from TCV HQ, only 78 studetns have participated in the winter programmes. Each of them were given 300rs as pocket money out from our total fund. Therefore there is 3,600rs remaining in our accounts for the future use.
Also two of our VE members have also contributed 1,500rs during their Dec/Jan stay in Bodhgaya as pocket money for the 5 students from TCV Selakui who came to cook for the pilgrims during HHDL's Kalachakra initiation.

As a result, 28,500rs was actually contributed from various parties during the year 2011/12 till today and a total of 83 students who were coming out of TCV for the first time to visit various parts of India during their winter holiday benefited from this programme. 

Unusual Venues for Training

From Dec 29, 2011 till Jan 3, 2012, VE started conducting the lifeskill workshop in Bodhgaya to a group of prospective trainees and students of various background at different venues. First we started at the public tent constructed for those pilgrims who were attending the Kalachakra Initiation.
This was the first time that our trainers encountered a venue with no airconditioning facilities, not much of light (except one lone light bulb) and no running water. On top of that we were subjected to a weather change of more than 15 degrees dofference within the 9 hours that we were there. Not to mention we had to sit on a floor lined with straws underneath a thick sheet of PVC with no chairs and tables. Projectors? Power point presentation? That was a dream!
But the response and finding were very fruitful for the team. A more profound understanding and insight was gained into their outlook in life due to their past experiences.
Later on, we decided to move the training venue to our hotel room and guess it was a first time experience for the Tibetans to be trained in such an informal setting. Nevertheless, besides theory training, role play, sharing of life journey and personality tests were done and hopefully the two sucessful trainees will in turn train the youth in the coming months so that the benefit will be spread to a greater community.

Our New Logo and Letterhead

Our Logo

2011 has been quite a year for VE. In order to further our future projects abroad we are working towards the registration for the status of NGO in the near future. With the help of our friends and supporters of VE we have adopted the following as our logo and letterhead for our future correspondence. Blue colour was chosen to signify compassion and the mudra has been stylised to give a modern feeling.

List of Donors for TCV Student Pocket Money Fund

Fangqi and Liyuan
Priscillia and Kelvin
Celina Ng
Jennifer Kok
Faith Mak
Jac Ho
Ruoqi
Rita
Tan Su Yin
Lay Beng
Pari Jinpa
Mei Yan and Connie
THE RECEIPTS FROM TCV HQ:-

VARADA EFFORT TCV STUDENT POCKET MONEY FUND

This idea came about this Aug when a group of us were attending Geshe Dorji Damdul's teaching in Deer Park Institue in Bir. We heard from Geshe la that there are some students in various TCVs have never been out of the village during their education there solely due to the fact that they have no family nor relative to take them in during the winter holidays, or they are orphans. This is not very healthy to the student's growing up in terms of mental well being. Though activities have been arranged for some during the recent years but these students will be going out to the community with nothing much in their pocket to spend...not like our children here where everything is well provided for. By the end of the week 26,800rs were donated by students from Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong thanks to their boundless compassion.
After much fact finding to see what are inplace for these students, we have now given an amount of 27,000rs to TCV HQ to provide for a total of 78 students to participate in the winter programmes this year. The students are divided into 2 groups:-

(a) 15 students from TCV Gopalpur will take part in Asian Youth Festival to be held from Jan 21-27 in Kolkata. This is a bi-annual affair and will have cultural exchange of songs and dances from India and Asian countries.

(b) 63 students from TCV from all branches in H.P. and Bylakuppe will go to Gyudmey Monastery in Hunsur, Karnataka to study Tibetan literature, grammar, Buddhist philosophy plus pilgrimage to other Tibetan monasteries around Mysore. Their stay is from 16th Jan till 25th Feb.

Each student will be given 300rs as pocket money. The balance of 3,600rs will be kept in the accounts for us to top up every year. Therefore, this will be a continuious effort on the part of Varada Effort to help these children to go out and see the world. We make our fund raising drive an annual affair and eventually we hope to reach a target of giving every child 500rs as pocket money. 

Please give us the support that we need and we thank you on behalf of the students in advance.