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Medicine and welfare for Lodrik communities

Location Tibetan settlements in Nepal
Type Community and Health
Amount £4,500 annually

Background
When China invaded Tibet in 1959, thousands of Tibetans fled their homes. When the Dalai Lama managed to escape to India later that same year, tens of thousands of Tibetans followed him. Their journey was a hard one with the Chinese army trying to stop them fleeing. Many of the young Tibetan men formed a guerrilla movement to fight back against the invading Chinese and to provide protection for those trying to escape – including the Dalai Lama. This movement was known as the Lodrik (or Loe-Drik-Tsuk) movement.

After years of fighting in remote border areas, the Lodrik freedom fighters were persuaded by the Dalai Lama to surrender their weapons and live a more peaceful life. They were all given a piece of land in one of the newly established Tibetan settlements in Nepal, where they settled down to build new lives.

Project
Today, the Lodrik freedom fighters are old. Many fought for years for Tibet’s freedom and never got married or had families of their own. Others had little or no education or training and spent most of their lives working in menial manual labour jobs to support their families.

At settlements across Nepal, these elderly men’s lives are tough. As refugees they are not entitled to a pension like Nepalese citizens are. They must face old age while struggling to pay for food, housing, healthcare and their families. We send annual grants to these communities for medical care and stipends to live on. Our grant provides stipends for seven elderly Tibetans per year.

Stipends
Each year, the grants we send provide Lodrik elders with the extra money they need to make sure they have the necessary food and housing they need. The comfort and security this provides is invaluable for those who have little or no other means of support.

Meet Lobsang Monlam, one of the elderly Tibetans who has been receiving a living stipend from Tibet Relief Fund…

Medical grants
As well as helping with the daily cost of living, we send extra money to help pay for medicines and medical treatment. The expense of paying for an operation or for long-term medicines is not something most of the Lodrik residents can afford for themselves or their families. The grant we give means there is money available is someone should have an accident, need prescription medicines or need help with other medical expenses. The amount of people helped by the grant changes each year depending on how much treatment costs -but in an average year, we manage to help around 30 people.

Meet Kunga Chime who was helped by our medical grants after he had a nasty fall last year…

Kunga is 83 years old and lives in Paljorling Settlement. Kunga is one of the healthiest and most active elders in the community and goes for a walk each and every day. On one of his more recent walks he slipped and broke his hand. The break was severe enough that it needed surgery. Using the emergency medical grant from Tibet Relief Fund, Kunga was able to pay for the operation he needed and for his stay in hospital too. Kunga is not back fully recovered and is back to taking his daily walks around the temple.

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