dear friends

Less than a week ago I returned from visiting our Summer 2006 projects in Amdo. I arrived in Xining, Qinghai, and met with Tashitso, project manager for the 'Pros Sgang Primary School Book Project and with other members of the Shem Group . Thanks to your kind donations, Tendel Group was able to fund the book project, which will provide a basic library of approximately 1000 books and textbooks in Chinese and Tibetan for a remote primary school located in 'Pros Sgang Monastery.

While in Xining, Tashitso and I visited the small Tibetan bookstores where she purchased the first half of the books for the school, and arranged to have them shipped by truck to Banma. The remaining books are mostly textbooks, and are being purchased locally in Banma.

On June 6, we left on a grueling 20hour bus ride to Banma County Town. Banma is in Golok prefecture, Qinghai Province - 857 long and mostly unpaved kilometers from Xining through a spectacular sprawling landscape dotted with yaks, meandering rivers, and nomad tents.

"Without this(library), these children will be illiterate. We want to help them have a future," said a monk at the local monastery.

After a day spent recovering from our trip, Tashitso and I were warmly welcomed by monks from the monastery, who very kindly arranged to take us up the mountain to their school. The 'Pros Sgang Primary School is located in, and administered by, the 'Pros Sgang Monastery. Teachers are educated monks who are all unpaid volunteers. The school was established in 2002 in order to provide a primary education to children who would otherwise have little or no opportunity to obtain an education. Currently, about 50 children attend the school. All of the children board at the school. The average household income in this area (Garima Village) is approximately 25 U.S. dollars a year. This income is derived mainly from yak raising and from seasonal harvesting of caterpillar fungus. The low cash income effectively means that villagers cannot afford to send their children to the public primary school. Additionally, they feel that their children get a better education at the 'Pros Sgang school.

Our visit to the school brought into sharp focus the gap between the aspirations of the teachers and students at the school and the reality of their daily lives.

The lama and monks who teach at the school proudly showed us the new library in the traditional style, which is waiting for the books to arrive, and which will be the centerpiece of the school when it is completed.

Plans for the school will bring new living quarters for the students, as well as an expansion to include female students.

At present, students sleep on boards which are raised off of the floor by various contrivances of rocks and (at times) tin cans. Rooms are crowded - up to 18 students sleep in a room. Bedding is inadequate and insufficient. The rooms have no heat, little lighting, and the students have essentially only the clothes on their backs. They have no basic toiletries and hygiene is a problem.

The school has no toilets or outhouses, no facilities for bathing or heating water, and no running water. Water is carried daily from a spring below the school. When the weather is nice, the students may take a bathing outing at a river about a one hour hike from the school.

The average household income in this area (Garima Village) is approximately 25 U.S. dollars a year.

The monks described the diet of the students as "inadequate." Food is scarce, and money to purchase it with is even more scarce.

Students sit on the floor for lessons. Classrooms have no chairs, desks, blackboards, heat or lighting. In short, there are no school supplies beyond the room in which to hold class.

The teachers and residents of 'Pros Sgang were deeply grateful for the long journey we made to the school to see and record first hand the conditions there. They asked me to express their profound thanks to our donors for funding this book project.

In short, the importance of the library to the school is immense. It represents the faith that the monks and villagers place in literacy. The monks of 'Pros Sgang are committed to their school: "Without this, these children will be illiterate. We want to help them have a future."