SOCIAL PROJECTS

www.machik.org

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Kham (Tibetan: ཁམས; Wylie transliteration: Khams; Simplified Chinese: 康巴; Pinyin: KÄ�ngbÄ�), is a region presently divided between the Chinese provinces of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, and Sichuan where Khampas, a subgroup within the Tibetan ethnicity, live. It is also one of the three traditional provinces claimed by the Tibetan government-in-exile. Read More: > HERE <

Education and capacity-building form the core of the Machik mission. Learn how a ground-breaking school is helping revitalize a community in a rural Tibetan township.

Located deep in the heartland of Kham, Chungba was, until a few short years ago, a typical rural Tibetan community. With no electricity, running water, telephone, internal roads and virtually no literacy, this mountain community was unequipped to manage the rapid changes arriving at its door. Today, an investment in a primary school has stimulated a broad-based effort to revitalize the community while setting a new standard for rural Tibetan education across the prefecture.

We are deeply saddened by the recent earthquakes in Tibet. In the first four days after the earthquake we raised and sent $38,000 for relief aid. We hope you will let your family, friends and colleagues know that the Tibetan people of Jyekundo need our continued help.

Thank you and we look forward to staying in touch.

The Chungba School Story – Since it first opened its doors in 2002, the Ruth Walter Chungba Primary School has challenged regional stereotypes about the potential of rural Tibetan children. In its first year of operation, the students of Chungba achieved the highest results on county-wide standardized exams, despite being the first generation in Chungba ever to have access to formal education. Surprised by the results, county officials ran a second round of standardized exams for the Chungba school. And the tests results were even higher.

Today, with a residential community of 340 students and staff, the Chungba Primary School has become a model for rural education throughout the eighteen counties of the Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture – a region of nearly a million Tibetans. New resources and creative programming have played a role in the success of the CPS projects that include an annual Chungba Summer Learning Program, a traditional Tibetan dance program, a library, an organic greenhouse and other green technologies to promote conservation and environmental consciousness. Watch an introductory video clip of the CPS. The Chungba Summer Learning Program in particular has offered the Chungba kids an array of resources to expand their knowledge of their world and to learn about new forms of knowledge production. These include learning about both traditional knowledge, such as Tibetan storytelling, as well as the use of new digital media.

These images of the Chungba Primary School from 2004-5 were edited by Tsering Perlo , documentarian and founder of Rabsal, an association of young Tibetans dedicated to the revitalization of Tibetan culture. // Pilgrimage Through Kham: A Medical Mission in Tibet

Born in a Tibetan refugee camp in India, raised in Canada, holding a Ph.D. from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), Losang Rabgey has found her life’s work in remote Tibetan villages of farmers, seminomads, and nomads.

An anthropologist specializing in contemporary Tibetan culture and gender relations, Rabgey explains, „I believe that whatever kind of theoretical, research-based work you do, it must be grounded in local knowledge. It’s critical to have a hands-on understanding of what life looks like and feels like to the people you work with.“

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http://playingforchange.com

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www.playingforchange.org

The Inspiration – Playing for Change is a multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music. The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal power to transcend and unite us as one human race. And with this truth firmly fixed in our minds, we set out to share it with the world.

The Production – We built a mobile recording studio, equipped with all the same equipment used in the best studios, and traveled to wherever the music took us. As technology changed, our power demands were downsized from golf cart batteries to car batteries, and finally to laptops. Similarly, the quality with which we were able to film and document the project was gradually upgraded from a variety of formats– each the best we could attain at the time—finally to full HD.

One thing that never changed throughout the process was our commitment to create an environment for the musicians in which they could create freely and that placed no barriers between them and those who would eventually experience their music. By leading with that energy and intent everywhere we traveled, we were freely given access to musicians and locations that are usually inaccessible. In this respect, the inspiration that originally set us on this path became a co-creator of the project along with us!

The Effect – Over the course of this project, we decided it was not enough for our crew just to record and share this music with the world; we wanted to create a way to give back to the musicians and their communities that had shared so much with us. And so in 2007 we created the Playing for Change Foundation, a separate 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation whose mission is to do just that. In early 2008, we established Timeless Media, a for-profit entity that funds and extends the work of Playing for Change. Later that year, Timeless Media entered into a joint venture with the Concord Music Group through the support of label co-owner and entertainment legend Norman Lear and Concord Music Group executive vice president of A&R John Burk. Our goal is to bring PFC’s music, videos and message to the widest possible audience.

Now, musicians from all over the world are brought together to perform benefit concerts that build music and art schools in communities that are in need of inspiration and hope. In addition to benefit concerts, the Playing for Change band also performs shows around the world. When audiences see and hear musicians who have traveled thousands of miles from their homes, united in purpose and chorus on one stage, everyone is touched by music’s unifying power.

And now, everyone can participate in this transformative experience by joining the Playing for Change Movement. People are hosting screenings, musicians are holding benefit concerts of every size, fans are spreading the message of Playing for Change through our media, and this is only the beginning. Together, we will connect the world through music!

> Playing for Change Utube Channel <

Playing for Change Foundation: Several years ago, a small group of filmmakers set out with a dream to make a documentary film about street musicians from around the world. That dream has grown not only into a reality, but into a global sensation called Playing For Change, and has touched the lives of millions of people.

While traveling to around the world to film and record these musicians, the crew became intimately involved with the music and people of each community they visited.

Many of these people lived very modestly in communities with limited resources; nevertheless, they were full of generosity, warmth, and above all they were connected to each other by a common thread: music.

In an effort to ensure that anyone with the desire to receive a music education would have the opportunity to do so, the Playing For Change Foundation was born.

The Playing For Change Foundation (PFCF) is dedicated to the fundamental idea that peace and change are possible through the universal language of music. www.playingforchange.org

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www.upaya.org Zen Center Santa Fe, NM

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www.dharmakirti.org

AWAM is a Sanskrit word for compassion coupled with wisdom. AWAM Foundation is a non-profit organization incorporated in the state of Arizona, established to provide support to an orphanage and elder center initiated by Khenchen Lama Rinpoche in eastern Tibet. The activities of the AWAM Foundation are guided by compassion and wisdom and aim to manifest and propagate these deepest values. The foundation aims to engage in fundraising projects that would provide basic needs, housing, medical care and education for the orphans and elders. Importantly, AWAM Foundation focuses on long-term projects directed towards future self-sufficiency of the orphanage and elder center. In our activities, we respect, encourage, and support the traditional Tibetan values. The foundation is governed by three volunteer board members following the guidance of Khenchen Lama Rinpoche. Please consider supporting the worthy activities of AWAM Foundation.

Kham (Tibetan: ཁམས; Wylie transliteration: Khams; Simplified Chinese: 康巴; Pinyin: KÄ�ngbÄ�), is a region presently divided between the Chinese provinces of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, and Sichuan where Khampas, a subgroup within the Tibetan ethnicity, live. Read More: > HERE <

In 1999, Khenchen Lama Rinpoche established an orphanage and a shelter for older people near Jewo monastery in Tibetan province Kham. At that point there were 30 children and 10 older people who did not have any family or government support to provide for them. Moved by their suffering, Khenchen Rinpoche decided to launch a project that would provide the basic needs of food and shelter for the orphans and elders and help them cultivate wisdom and compassion that would guide them to a better future. Arrangements were made for the children to receive basic general education, training in Tibetan and Chinese languages, as well as meditation. In addition, elders interested in meditation received practice instructions from Rinpoche and were supported in their desire to engage in deep meditation practice. Over the last nine years the orphanage and shelter for older people grew in size. Currently, there are 150 children, seven to eighteen years old, and 30 older people between sixty and eighty years of age. While the progress of children and elders in their study and meditation practice is encouraging, there is increasing need to provide for them. In response to Khenchen Rinpoche’s request and under his spiritual guidance, Rinpoche’s students in Arizona established the AWAM Foundation.

HEALTH CLINIC: Because of the secluded location of the orphanage and the elder center, access to medical care is very difficult. The closest hospital that can provide appropriate care is one-day drive from the orphanage. There is a great need for a small hospital, since swift access to medical care is a necessity for small children in the orphanage as well as the elderly. The health clinic would also serve lay Tibetans who inhabit the surrounding areas in proximity of the orphanage. The clinic is planned to include both treatments in traditional Tibetan medicine and Western medicine.

www.upaya.org Pilgrimage Through Kham: A Medical Mission in Tibet

DHARMA TARA YAK FARM – In an effort to make the orphanage and elder center more sustainable, Rinpoche and his students developed a project aimed at providing long-term food contribution to the orphanage through an orphanage-owned yak farm. The Dharma Tara Yak Farm is managed free of charge by a local businessman in Tibet and is providing the orphans and elders with dairy products – the main part of diet in Tibet. Yaks purchased for the orphanage and elder center will never be killed for meat. Between 50-70 yaks are needed to provide for the 180 orphans and elders. Any excess dairy products will be in the future sold for purchase of other food articles for the orphanage. Khenchen Rinpoche is very hopeful about this project because it will provide for the orphans and elders as well as help sustain the traditional way of care for yaks. With recent changes in Tibet, increasing numbers of yaks are being raised for meat and slaughtered in a cruel way.

To launch the project, one of Khenchen Rinpoche’s students donated funds for the first 15 yaks in May 2008. Funds for additional 5 yaks were donated by Rinpoche’s Chinese students. Most recently, Rinpoche’s students from the Dharmakirti College in the USA made a donation for purchase of additional 5 yaks. The herd has currently 32 yaks because 7 baby yaks have been born since May 2008 and this number will grow every year (see picture below). We are very grateful to those who contributed to this project so far! Thanks to your support the start of the project has been a great success!

EDUCATION – When Khenchen Lama Rinpoche started the orphanage, one of the main priorities was to make sure that orphans receive the best education available in the area. To this aim, arrangements were made to cover the basic educational needs for the orphanage. Currently, there are four teachers: 2 monks from a near monastery and 2 local teachers. The curriculum focuses on reading and writing in Tibetan language, Tibetan history and culture, basic algebra, and Chinese language.

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> What is authentic Judaism ? <

www.rzlp.org

www.naropa.edu

http://migdalohr.org/

www.yesodfoundation.org

The Reb Zalman Legacy Project is a collaborative effort of the Yesod Foundation and Naropa University to preserve, develop and disseminate the teachings of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, better known as „Reb Zalman,“ an innovative leader in ecumenical dialogue and founder of the Jewish Renewal and Spiritual Eldering movements.

To this end, we hope to develop a unique on-line educational tool, giving users access to a virtual library of profound dimensions; a physical archival collection housed at Naropa University, providing a beautiful space for study, contemplation, and spiritual fellowship; a Contemplative Judaism M.A. program based on Reb Zalman’s teachings at Naropa University; ecumenical, spiritual direction, and eldering workshops; and new books, booklets, CDs, and DVDs, developed from the wealth of Reb Zalman’s material archive.

Important areas of intellectual and spiritual development to us are Deep Ecumenism (inter-religious dialogue), Paradigm Shift, Contemplative Practices, Ecology and Gaian Awareness, Spiritual Eldering, Psychology of Religion, Transpersonal Sociology, Jewish Mysticism, Hasidism, Jewish Renewal, Storytelling, and Sacred Music.

The Reb Zalman Legacy Project is a container that supports the evolving understanding of all of these ideas with the teachings of Reb Zalman as its core and foundation. We intend to preserve not only Reb Zalman’s body of work, but also his process of renewal, so that his teachings will not become calcified and exist with meaning primarily for our generation alone. Therefore, with an eye to the future, we are building open access-pathways to primary texts, inviting new commentary, and providing new possibilities for spiritual fellowship. „To Preserve, Develop, and Disseminate“

Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi: Healing the Planet, Rabbi Grossman for underprivilged children

Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, better known as „Reb Zalman,“ was born in Zholkiew, Poland, in 1924. Raised largely in Vienna, his family was forced to flee the Nazi oppression in 1938. After almost three years without roots, they finally landed in New York City in 1941, settling in Brooklyn, where young Zalman enrolled in the yeshiva of the Lubavitcher Hasidim. He was ordained by Lubavitch in 1947. He later received his Master of Arts degree in the Psychology of Religion in 1956 from Boston University and a Doctor of Hebrew Letters degree from Hebrew Union College in 1968.

He taught at the University of Manitoba, Canada, from 1956 to 1975 and was Professor of Jewish Mysticism and Psychology of Religion at Temple University until his early retirement in 1987, when he was named professor emeritus. In 1995, he accepted the World Wisdom Chair at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, officially retiring from that post in 2004.

Throughout his long career, Reb Zalman has been an unending resource for the world religious community. He is the father of the Jewish Renewal and Spiritual Eldering movements, an active teacher of Hasidism and Jewish Mysticism, and a participant in ecumenical dialogues throughout the world, including the widely influential dialogue with the Dalai Lama, documented in the book, The Jew in the Lotus.

One of the world’s foremost authorities on Hasidism, he is the author of the new book, A Heart Afire: Stories and Teachings of the Early Hasidic Masters (co-authored by Netanel Miles-Yepez), and on Jewish law, he has written, Integral Halachah: Transcending and Including (with Daniel Siegel). Reb Zalman currently lives in Boulder, Colorado, and continues to be active in mentoring his many students the world over.

For a complete biography and chronology of Reb Zalman’s life, please visit our „Life“ page. To see a complete list of Reb Zalman’s published works, see our „Works“ page.

Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Grossman is a sixth generation Jerusalemite, born in 1946. A dramatic turning point in his life occurred in 1968 when he decided to move to the Lower Galilee town of Migdal Ha’Emek to provide the socio-humanitarian aid sorely needed there.

Migdal Ha’Emek had been established in 1953 as a development town designed to accommodate part of the great influx of Jewish immigrants from the North African countries. The town’s population grew in size much faster than the evolving socio-economic and educational infrastructure. The resulting shortage of jobs and lack of sufficient school facilities and teachers had a devastating effect on the inhabitants. Migdal Ha’Emek quickly became known as one of the prime centers of criminal activity in Israel.

Rabbi Grossman’s arrival on the scene was without fanfare. He had no welcoming committee and no mandate from the people or from the administration. Furthermore, he had no budget nor staff or even an office. He joined in the conversations of idle youth hanging out on the street corners and, after gaining their confidence, began organizing private classes for them. But he knew that to get to the core of the problem, he would have to tackle it at it’s roots.

Rabbi Grossman became a steady and frequent visitor at the town’s discotheques and pubs, engaging the young clientele in dialogues. Slowly but surely the tough exteriors began to peel away and there began to surface the gentle side of the members of the new generation searching for their true identity.

Migdal Ohr (Hebrew for „Tower of Light“) was established in 1972 for the express purpose of providing education and social guidance to the children from underprivileged and troubled homes ifrom across Israel. Overcrowded apartments, one-parent families, homes with drug problems, impoverished, crime-ridden families–these are the target populations from which Migdal Ohr draws its over 6,000 pupils at all levels of the educational spectrum. Its goal – to transform these students into proud and productive citizens of Israel.

www.migdahlorg.at

Migdal Ohr, Israel’s largest youth village, provides a nurturing home and outstanding education to over 6,500 orphaned, impoverished, underprivileged and new immigrant children. At Migdal Ohr, the children’s individual needs are met with love, warmth and tremendous sensitivity.

The Young Leadership Committee is dedicated to upholding the values and promoting the mission of Migdal Ohr. By developing creative programming, the Committee attracts young Jewish professionals, educates them about our mission, and encourages increased involvement.

The Young Leadership Committee is open to everyone interested in generating awareness for Migdal Ohr and affecting change in the lives of others. Our dynamic members come from varied backgrounds, and offer a broad range of perspectives and experiences. Together we plan and attend fundraisers and social events, meet hundreds of young adults in the New York area, and, best of all, help save children in Israel.

MIGDAL OHR EDUCATIONAL CENTER – The following is a brief description of some of the educational and social facilities provided by Migdal Ohr:

• (a) Day Care Centers which provide tender, loving care to infants aged three months to three years old. These facilities offer the mothers of large families the opportunity to work and help their husbands support their children.
• (b) Kindergartens, where pre-school age children get a proper start on the educational path.
• (c) Primary and Secondary school systems, for boys and for girls, with full dormitory facilities, laboratories, computer centers, libraries, and youth centers, where emphasis is placed on individual attention to the child’s needs.
• (d) Teachers‘ Seminary for single and married men, to develop the rabbis, educators, school administrators and rabbinical court judges required by Israeli society.
• (e) Prisoner rehabilitation programs in Israel’s prisons. The recidivism rate among the „graduates“ of Migdal Ohr’s rehabilitation activities stands at about 10%, a sharp contrast to the 90% in the general prison population.
• (f) Occupational Training Center offering adult education courses responsive to the requirements of government and industry for off-campus residents of northern Israel. Courses fall into three categories:
• (I) OCCUPATIONAL DIPLOMA COURSES
• (II) EDUCATION EXTENSION COURSES
• (III) COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES

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