FOTWA SPONSORSHIPS
A SPONSORSHIP IS A GIFT OF A BETTER LIFE. Friends of Tibetan Women's Association (FOTWA) is committed to improving the standard of living of the Tibetan community in exile in India. You can help a granny in her golden years, a child attend school and learn a profession, an ailing patient receive medicine and a family stay together. Sponsorships for Elders, Families, Children, the Disabled and Tuberculosis Patients are $35 a month, paid quarterly, semiannually or annually. College Students are $70 a month.
ELDERS
In the traditional Tibetan family, elders are at home with the children.
Parents are able to work when elders care for the children at home. As the
keepers of old Tibet, it is vital that they pass along their oral histories,
customs and traditions to the young. They provide a living link to a threatened
way of life to youngsters who have never seen their homeland.
FAMILIES
Typically a woman rug weaver, working eleven hours a day, six
days a week, earns only $10 a month. A farmer's income varies with the monsoon,
a season with poor rains can mean less than $80 a year profit. Families often
have to leave the settlements and travel all over India selling sweaters to
make ends meet. Your sponsorship provides supplementary income so that
teenagers can pursue their high school studies and not have to leave to find
work to provide for their families.
CHILDREN
Education is not free for Tibetans in India. Your sponsorship
can send a child to school and provide for books, uniforms and general
expenses. The Indian school system leaves little opportunity for students who
haven't passed the national tenth grade board exams.
COLLEGE SPONSORSHIPS
The Department of Education of the Tibetan
Government in Exile offers scholarships to the top high school graduates,
however there are many qualified students who fall just short of the cutoff.
Your sponsorship of $70 a month is enough to allow a young Tibetan a chance at
a better life.
DISABLED
FOTWA is committed to assisting disabled children and adults.
Sponsorship may include physical therapy and purchase artificial limbs, braces,
crutches, wheelchairs or hearing aids. It also can help towards the cost of an
operation. Sixteen year old Tsamchoe Dolma, for example, needs eye surgery. She
suffered snowblindness and retinal damage during her trek out of Tibet.
TB PATIENTS
Tuberculosis is endemic among Tibetan refugees. Their lack
of resistance to infection is caused by poor sanitation, malnutrition and
contaminated water. Water lines run next to open sewers. Overcrowded living
conditions, lack of education in basic hygiene, minimal medical attention and
poverty has made TB one of the most serious health problems of Tibetans living
in India. TB medicines are costly, they are not donated by pharmaceutical
companies. Thubten, a farmer, made $60 one year, but the medicine he needed for
his wife cost over $150.
YES, I'D LIKE TO BECOME A SPONSOR.
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