HEART OF ASIA is organizing a Himalayan Fundraising Walk for October 3rd to October 19th 2011.
The complete trip will last 16 days and involved gentle walking in the Himalayan foothills of Himachal Pradesh, India. The walk will start in Dharamsala, home in exile of HH the Dalai Lama, and end in the Kullu Valley, taking in Heart of Asia's Indian project site near Tashi Jong whilst traveling through the stunning Kangra Valley. We are offering a unique and intimate opportunity to see exquisitely beautiful scenery, investigate one of Heart of Asia's projects, and to meet wonderful Himalayan people and notable Tibetan Lamas at a grass roots level.
The walk will cost £1,400, (not including flights, visa fees and travel insurance.)(Read More..)
Heart of Asia's News
2010
HEART OF ASIA TRIP TO INDIA:MARCH 2010
The HEART OF ASIA team will be visiting the SUPPORTALOO project this spring and touring the beautiful surrounding area – Tashi Jong, Tenzin Palmo’s
nunnery, Dharamsala, Andretta craft village and riding the narrow gauge
Kangra valley train, among other delights. Please contact us if you
are interested in future HEART OF ASIA tours to our project area in
India: info@heartofasia.org
Dzongsar Medical Emergency Fund,
We continued to provide an ongoing medical emergency fund of £2,000 for Dzongsar/Meshu area in 2010. This facilitates poor people who need vital medical treatment reaching the appropriate hospital, and pays for their treatment, accommodation and meals there
Health Care Books for Tibet.
This year Heart of Asia distributed 400 of Kunde Foundation's "Basic Knowledge for Health" books in eastern Tibet. Books were distributed in Yulong, Gebchak Nunnery, Rade village, Lachung Nang, Khampagar and Dru Gu.
Two Herbal Medicine Clinics for Drakyab County.
Heart of Asia is continuing to support the building of two Tibetan Herbal Medicine clinics in two very remote villages in Drakyab County, near Chamdo in The Tibet Autonomous Region.
Due to the very cold winters in Tibet freezing the ground it will take three years to build both clinics.
Heart of Asia is also funding a year of training in Tibetan Herbal Medicine in Chamdo for a nun who is sister of one of the Doctor's founding a clinic. She will learn how to diagnose conditions by checking a patients urine and the making up of prescriptions, and will be a support to her brother at the clinic.
Indian Medicinal Herbs for Dru gu
We are funding the purchase of important Indian medicinal herbs for the Tibetan Herbal Doctors practicing in Dru gu, in eastern Tibet. These lifesaving herbs, which will be bought in Delhi, cannot be sourced in Tibet.
Heart of Asia India: Supportaloo!
Heart of Asia's very successful toilet project continues to provide the poorest families of Bheth Jhikli village (next to Tashi Jong, in HP, northern India) with Indian style toilets. Since the project began in 2009 we have completed 51 toilets. This project is possible due to the dedication and hard work of our Project Manager Rana and his brother Raju. Our grateful thanks to them both!
For a look at our loos please visit the Toilet Gallery.
Gebchak Nuns.
Heart of Asia continued to contribute to the Gebchak Nunnery food fund and also gave a contribution to Wangdruk Rinpoche to help support his work in caring for orphans of the terrible Yushu earthquake.
See: www.gebchakgonpa.org
Herbal Medicine Training.
Heart of Asia is funding a nun from Yulong to study Herbal Medicine at Sichuan Provincial Tibetan School in Dartsedo. She will then be able to return to Yulong and help run the small herbal medicine clinic there that serves the local nomad community.
Our local facilitator.
Dawa, our local facilitator and outreach trainer, has in the last year been checking our projects in Tibet Autonomous Region, delivering health care books to clinics and monasteries and reporting on the Yushu earthquake.
In a three week trip in September Heart of Asia
visited Dzongsar-Meshu and Yulong in Ganze Prefecture,
and Gebchak Nunnery in Nangchen, Kham, eastern Tibet. The
trip was to visit and assess old and new project areas, meet
our partners in Tibet and to develop new contacts.
"A great night was had by everyone involved and Heart of Asia raised over £600, as well as raising our profile locally."
Continued support for the Dzongsar Medical
Emergency Fund.
Heart of Asia continues to provide
an ongoing Emergency Fund for Dzongsar and
sent its annual funding in January.
Two Clinics for Drayab County
Heart of Asia is
funding the establishment of two Tibetan Herbal Medicine
clinics in two very remote villages in Drayab County, near Chamdo
inside Tibet Autonomous Region. Tibetan Herbal Medicine Doctors
from the area will run the clinics. One has been trained by and
and worked with our partner in Tibet, Dr. Lodre Phuntsok
of Dzongsar Menkhang.The other doctor is a gifted Khempo recommended
by Dru gu Choegyal Rinpoche.
Continued support for the Gebchak Nuns.
In February Heart of Asia sent a further much needed contribution
towards the Gebchak Gonpa Food Fund.
At the request
of the Indian people of Bheth Jhikli village (next to Tashi Jong) in Himachal Pradesh, northern India, in January
Heart of Asia started a new project funding
the provision of much needed toilets. We
are helping families in the village who are
below the poverty line and who cannot afford
to build their own toilets. This year we
have funded 28 traditional style toilets,and
27 are now completed
Training a Tibetan Health Worker
In 2009 Heart of Asia will be supporting a year’s training for
Dawa, an educated young Tibetan translator, as an allopathic
Health Worker at Kamba University in Kangding. His training will
enable him to teach small groups of volunteers from his area
about basic healthcare, hygiene, nutrition, first aid and safer
motherhood and also to monitor the health of local mothers and
babies. He will also work for Heart of Asia as our local facilitator.
Due to the very sensitive situation that unfolded in Tibet from March 2008 our mentors advised us to wait a while before continuing our work there. We felt very sad, and also helpless, in having to put our projects on hold but we continued to hope that conditions would improve and we continued to fundraise so that we could sustain our vital work there in the future.
At the end of the year we were very heartened to receive a report from Dzongsar, outlining how they had used the Medical Emergency Fund established by Heart of Asia, and we felt encouraged to begin our work again.
In 2008 Heart of Asia sent a contribution towards the Gebchak Gonpa Food Fund. This fund helps provide nourishing food for 400 nuns at rereat centre in a remote part of Nangchen, in eastern Tibet, and whose food supplies were threatened by the gradual depopulation of their area.
Lela Mc Ternan generously organised Tipple for
Tibet: Partying for Charity at the Hush, Hush Bar in Bristol
on July 4th 2008. A wonderful night was had by all and the event
raised over £1,000 for Heart of Asia.
Our grateful thanks to Lela for this fund raising initiative!
Tibet 2008 Initiative, Brighton
Heart of Asia was one of the featured Aid Agencies at Brighton Buddhist Centre’s month long Tibet 2008 Initiative. H of A Director Diane Barker gave a short presentation at the Centre on August 16th 2008. Our grateful thanks to Pete Fountain for including us in his very worthwhile program.
Heart of Asia continued supporting the training of local young people as Tibetan herbal Doctors at Sichuan Provincial Tibetan school in Dartsedo.
Emergency Fund
Heart of Asia established an Emergency fund for the people of Dzongsar area. This will facilitate poor people who need immediate life saving treatment reaching the hospital in Derge, and paying for their treatment.
A Clinic for Thopa County.
At the request of Dru gu Choegyal Rinpoche Heart of Asia is investigating funding the establishment of a simple clinic in Thopa county.
Tibetan Nurse
This year Heart of Asia funded a final year of training for Kalsang Dolker, a young Tibetan woman from Lhasa studying nursing in India.
Exhibition of Prints and paintings by
Dru gu Choegyal Rinpoche
Heart of Asia also part funded a roof for the Dru gu School - now functioning after waiting 10 year for this final completion of the building! Some of the funds were raised by an exhibition , “Let our World be filled with love” - prints and Paintings by Dru gu Choegyal Rinpoche which was on view at the AJA Gallery in London in September and October.
To buy a limited edition print by Choegyal Rinpoche to support Heart of Asia Projects in Dru gu please see: Heart of Asia Shop
Our thanks to Maria Lancaster for her help in making this
inspiring exhibition possible.
Heart of Asia's trip to
Dzongsar-Meshu Sept 06
Heart of Asia delivered its second training
programme,lasting three weeks, in Dzongsar in Kham, eastern Tibet.
A volunteer health care expert delivered a very
successful training covering simple aspects of
hygiene, nutrition, first aid and issues around
pregnancy, birth and the post natal period. This was
followed by fieldwork in local villages.
See photos of the training.
Heart of Asia has delivered it's first formal 10 day training
programme in Dzongsar in Kham, Eastern Tibet. HOA Healthcare
Trainer Frances Howland has produced a report, published here
in MS Word format.
LOO project this spring and touring the beautiful surrounding area – Tashi Jong, Tenzin Palmo’s
nunnery, Dharamsala, Andretta craft village and riding the narrow gauge
Kangra valley train, among other delights. Please contact us if you
are interested in future HEART OF ASIA tours to our project area in
India: info@heartofasia.org 
