Marlies Bosch
NEWSLETTER SPRING 2006
This year started well. During the Board meeting on February 26th we could share
a lot of positive developments within our Foundation.
New Boardmembers
We have been able to welcome a few new Board members:
Giny ten Brummelhuis has visited Ladakh frequently, she knows the Ladakh Nuns
Association and Dr Palmo, and she agreed to become part of our Board. Last year
she organized a meeting for people who were interested in nuns in Ladakh. The
DFLN gave a Powerpoint presentation.
Doris Eddelbüttel is a very active fundraiser in Germany and has agreed
to join the Board as well. She visited Ladakh again this past January, and she
went over the estimates of the new buildings for the nunnery with the manager,
Mr. Ishe. In her
Newsletter you can read her findings. She also
sent posters and flyers to all Buddhist Centers in Germany. We still get donations
because of that mailing. Then she sent a letter to all Roman Catholic nunneries
in Germany, asking for support of their fellow nuns in Ladakh. The response was
overwhelming.
We are happy to announce that also Mr. Joe Lea, librarian at the York Correctional
Institute and lawyer, has agreed to become out other American board member. We
already have an American president, we have an American Bank Account, and with
another American Board member we are sure things will develop more in the United
States! Mr. Lea will be an welcome asset to our board.
Developments
Like Doris, the DLFN decided to sent a mailing to the Roman Catholic nunnerys
in the Netherlands. Up to now we received € 6000.00 in donations for the
new nunnery close to Thiksey, which by now has a name:
Gaden Chhatnyanling.
In December we applied for a Grant with the Government Organization, called
Cordaid. We are pretty sure we will
receive € 12,500.00 for a new school / multi purpose building the nuns will
need when 22 of them will be living there this summer. The DFLN will have to
match that amount. Due to gifts form German and Dutch nunneries and others we
already accumulated the sum of €
9000.00, so we will have to work hard to gather the missing € 3500.00. We
are convinced that is going to happen. Your donation will be very welcome!
For this summer we already have a number of volunteers going to Ladakh to help
out. We have two anthropologists, doing a new survey on the situation of the
nunneries compared to 5 years ago. This will help the Ladakh Nuns Association
for their policy for the next 5 years. One woman is going in order to help the
nuns to develop healthier cooking methods, consisting of local ingredients. More
German and American students will help building, which was a lot of fun for 4
of them last year, so it should be fun this summer!!
In the mean time we have found some sponsors for a group of nuns whose nunnery
turned form Tibetan into Theravadan. They wanted to stay in their own tradition,
so some of them moved to the Kopan nunnery for studies. The nunnery itself has
no more room, so they live outside. We sponsor a number of them, and are looking
for some sponsors to back up these nuns, who want to return to Ladakh after they
finish their studies and become teachers to other nuns.
They will need
$ 325,- p.p. per year.
For the nuns who now live in the new nunnery the LNA is looking for temporary
sponsors. Until the building is finished, and when also younger, graduated nuns
have moved in who can support their sisters financially, and until the guest
quarters have been finished, the nuns need some support. After that they will
be self-supporting, that is their and our aim.
About $ 225,- p.p. per year will be sufficient. Off course every donation
will benefit all nuns.
Plans 2006
We are organizing a Ladakh Festival in Holland on May 13th and 14th, in order
to gather the additional € 3500.00, but also to inform the Dutch people
about the situation of the Ladakhi Nuns.
The group of Wesleyan students who worked at the site last year (see their
Essays on
this site, and the
Photos Ben
Fash made!!) is organizing some fundraising activities during parents weekend
at Wesleyan University.
Doris Eddelbüttel discovered a large gap in how the monks and their monasteries
are known, and how people know about nunneries, all 28 of them in Ladakh alone.
So the LNA is developing posters and flyers to inform the tourists who visit
Ladakh in the summer, and to invite them to a weekly presentation about the situation
of nuns in this region, given by one of the nuns, who is a staff member of the
LNA. We hope of course that this will also result in some financial support by
tourists. If you have any questions about our work, or if you want more information,
please contact us at:
info@ladakhnuns.com.
We will be only too happy to be of service.
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