Page Title

Programs

Below is a sampling of programs TFI assisted in 2006 during a humanitarian trip to India.
Some provide tools such as educational resources in impoverished village schools, some offer
life-saving health care to families who would not otherwise obtain treatment, and others give safety to
those seeking refuge from oppression. All provide valuable services to those in desperate need.

If you see a program that you would like to assist,

or if you know of any international organization in need, please contact us:

info@theforgottenintl.org

We would love to hear from you.
Together we can work to make a difference!

Butterflies
New Delhi, India
www.butterflieschildrights.org

Butterflies is a volunteer organization reaching out to street
and working children in Delhi since 1989. Their main goal is
to provide children with the skills and knowledge to protect
their own rights and develop into respected and productive
citizens of society. It is their belief that every child has a
fundamental right to protection, respect, and the opportunity
to participate in his or her own growth and development.
The organization is in contact with over 1,500 children living
and / or working in bus terminals, railway stations, markets,
and parks. They have arranged monthly Children’s Council
Meetings guided by an adult Child Rights Facilitator where
children come to discuss the issues which affect their lives,
share their concerns and find collective solutions. Butterflies
also offers assistance with coping and management skills in
the face of each child’s current situation and responsibilities.
It links these children with much-needed services such as
health, legal aid, counseling, financial, cultural, arts, sports
and vocational training in order to empower each one to be
self-reliant and independent.

Harmony Through Education
Dharamsala, Northern India
www.harmonythrougheducation.org

Harmony Through Education (HTE) focuses on funding
projects to create and /or improve existing schools for
physically and mentally challenged children. In Gamru,
Dharamsala, HTE involves and instructs parents of mentally
and physically challenged children on how to best meet their
child’s needs, while assisting the local community with seed
funding, professional expertise and training to eventually run,
manage and fund their own schools. In addition, the project
facilities are used for parent / teacher meetings, adult
education, health and environmental education, community
improvement and general empowerment meetings. In doing
this, HTE contributes to the well-being of the entire
community, while enhancing the lives of children who
otherwise would have little or no opportunity to progress.

The Greenfield Paramount School
Kusumpur Village, New Delhi, India

Founded by women who live in one of the poorest slums in
Delhi, the school offers basic education to children ages 4 to
12 at a cost of 2 Rupees a week (5 US cents). Even at this
price, many parents cannot afford to pay. Nevertheless, no
child is ever turned away. All children are provided uniforms
and learn basic skills in rudimentary lean-to classrooms. They
have few school supplies, take lessons on long wooden
benches, and have bathrooms facilities that are simply holes in
the ground. Yet, these children come to school every day and
work with teachers who get paid almost nothing in order to
build a better future.

Swati Kanak Durga Center
New Delhi, India

Swati is a community center and school, as well as a technical
training and skills academy for some of the poorest children
and youth in New Delhi, India. The center’s school serves
about as many girls as boys and works to build up their self-
esteem and confidence. The children are treated with the
utmost respect, learn to love school, and are given time to play.
They are fed daily and provided with needed health care and
immunizations. Additionally, they are taught the importance of
community and the need to protect the environment. The
younger children are always sent to school clean and ready to
learn, while the older students spend hours each day honing
their language and computer skills. The center has four simple
classrooms, three computers, a few typewriters, an all-
purpose room, and a dirt area in which to play.

Pingalwara
Punjab, India
www.pingalwaraonline.org

Pingalwara is the vision of much revered humanitarian Bhagut
Puran Singh, a man who dedicated his life to helping the
disabled and destitute citizens of India. He created a home for
the homeless, underprivileged and mentally challenged where
they can come to live, and die, with dignity. Today, his vision
has expanded to five separate facilities stretching across the
Punjab state of Northern India. They provide shelter to over
1,000 people suffering from mental and physical disorders and
disease. Donations help fund treatment clinics, education and
rehabilitation centers, and insure proper cremation rites are
performed. Above all, Pingalwara provides home-like
comforts to those who would otherwise be abandoned by
society.

Khalsa Public School
Khaira Majja, Jalandhar, India

Located in the Punjab region of India, this school, with nearly
1,000 students, serves children of the local Dalit community.
Dalits are people who make up the lowest caste in India and
are often described as "untouchables." They are extremely
poor, often persecuted, and live in slums, in plastic tents, or
just on the street. The children have completed elementary
school, hope to continue their education, and one day escape
the poverty they have always known. Encouraging equal
educational opportunities fifty-five percent of the students are
young girls. All students work extremely hard and have
dreams for a brighter future. The school operates largely on
charity and the dedication of its committed staff. Teachers
sometimes go without pay for months and still continue to
work with students. All this in spite of the fact that they
have no electricity, no hot water and, of course, no library, no
books and no computers.

Lha
Dharamsala, Northern India
www.lhaindia.org

Lha, the Tibetan word for fundamental goodness, is a
grassroots, social work organization working to facilitate an
easy transition for displaced Tibetan exiles in and around
Dharamsala, India. The organization helps create educational,
cultural and social bridges for refugees by offering free year-
round language and computer skills courses. Their
community development projects also aim to provide clothing,
shelter and clean water to anyone in need. Lha’s ultimate goal
is to establish community connections and increase the quality
of life for the greater majority of the population, while
simultaneously preserving the cultural traditions of Tibet.

Tibetan Children's Village
India
www.tibchild.org

Tibetan Children's Village is a self-contained integrated
community with family homes for children, schooling facilities
and vocational and teacher training centers. Originally, it was
established as a transit care center for the thousands of Tibetan
children orphaned or separated from their families leaving their
homeland during the Chinese occupation. In the 1990's China,
forced by international condemnation of its human rights
violations, loosened their border policies. Refugee children
flooded the main TCV at Dharamsala, smuggled by parents
trying to send their children to freedom. The overcrowding
forced the development of more educational facilities and
included a multi-trade vocational training center. In 2004
another TCV School was constructed in Dehradun. Today,
both are complete facilities providing children with education,
family life, support and love. Tibetan Children’s Village is the
single largest Tibetan refugee organization, providing education
and training to over 33,000 Tibetan children and live-in care to
over sixteen-thousand children all over India.

Tibetan Delek Hospital Dharamsala,
Northern India
www.tibet.net/delekhospital

Nestled in the hills along the northern Indian Himalayas, Tibetan
Delek Hospital has been providing health care services in
Dharamsala since 1971. The hospital offers inpatient care with
70 patient beds, a pharmacy, laboratory and tuberculoses clinic.
It also provides dental, eye care and emergency assistance.
Medical services are made available at minimal or
complimentary rates depending on genuine need. Furthermore,
the hospital provides a half-day of outpatient consultations and
treatment to postnatal and tuberculoses patients, children under
five, and those in need of immunizations. These part-time
doctors see on average 30 to 40 patients per day. Also, the
hospital’s Public Health Office works to promote preventative
health care, AIDS education, anti-smoking campaigns, diabetes
and blood pressure camps, and their community health project
provides mobile health care to all nineteen Tibetan settlements
in Himachal Pradesh.

Tibetan Nuns Project
Dharamsala, Northern India
www.tnp.org

In 1991 a group of 66 refugee nuns appeared overnight on the
streets of Dharamsala, India. They had completed a two-year
pilgrimage from eastern Tibet that ended in a grueling journey
over the Himalayas. Ill and exhausted, the women had nowhere
to go. The Tibetan Women's Association organized emergency
assistance to provide for their basic needs, and eventually the
Tibetan Nuns Project (TNP) was formed to find long-term
solutions and secure housing, medical care, and most
importantly, education for the refugee nuns. TNP is now
dedicated to improving standards of life, including food,
sanitation and medical care in Tibetan nunneries, while
encouraging nuns to achieve self-sufficiency through
educational training opportunities. The TNP continues to assist
recently arrived refugee nuns from Tibet and establishes
facilities fro Buddhist nuns from many traditions.

Tong-Len Charitable Trust
Kangra Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India
www.tong-len.org

Tong-Len is a registered charitable trust aiming to help
impoverished communities from the poorest regions of India
escape from poverty and ill-health. Their child sponsorship
program makes it possible for the children of street beggars to
go to school and pays for their school fees, uniforms, books,
clothes and medical care. Tong-Len also supports an informal
teaching program in impoverished encampments which offers
basic education to residents and children with special needs.
Furthermore, they organize community information seminars
about public health, hygiene and environmental management. In
the next five years, Tong-Len hopes to introduce a
comprehensive health care program with the aim of reducing the
spread of disease, expand their current educational program to
include a greater number of students, encourage more
income-generating activities in the camps and provide basic water
and sanitary facilities.

Youth Net
Kohima, Nagaland, India

Located in one of the poorer areas of India, Youth Net was
founded by a young Indian attorney who grew up in Nagaland. It
is a children’s rights and advocacy project committed to educating
young people about the problems they face and provide them
with the necessary skills to affect change. Youth Net gets young
people involved in the electoral process and teaches them skills
for work in journalism and politics. The organization cares most
about alleviating child exploitation, stopping child labor, and
promoting universal education, effective citizenry and voting
rights. Long term, they seek to create an India where wealth is
shared more equitably and life is not so difficult, particularly on
the young, the weak, and the impoverished.

The Forgotten International
San Francisco, California
United States
info@theforgottenintl.org