The Snowland Children Foundation’s largest project to date
The Snowland Farm at TCV Chauntra in Northern India (near Bir)
Short summary as a reminder and outlook 2020 onwards
In 2016/17, based on nutritional analysis of the then 8,500 children in the 8 Tibetan Children’s Villages in India, we had decided to start a pilot project: At TCV Chauntra in northern India near the Bir International Paragliding Center, we wanted to build a first cow shed for 15-20 cows so that the children would have fresh milk every day and thus significantly more calcium and also more protein. Our analyses had shown that calcium was clearly too low, covering about 50% of their needs, and that protein was also at the lower limit. Details can be found in the attached detailed final report of 2020.
The TCV Chauntra was particularly suitable for ve4rschiedenen reasons. Firstly, they have enough space on the school campus, secondly, there is a lot of grassland to graze on in the surrounding area and finally, there is a very active and committed school principal there, Passang Tsering-la, who wanted to take the project into his own hands.
We had designed the project for 3 years, i.e. from 2017 – 2020. In the meantime (2019) the cow shed is in place and since fall 2019 there are 5 cows and also calves. Thus, at the end of 2019, the original pilot project was actually finished and also the total budget of 75,000 CHF was reached, which additionally covered the running operation for the first year, i.e. until the fall of 2020. Therefore, here under “Successes” you can now also find the 6-page final report with additional 26 pages of pictures!
But – and now comes the “but”: The Tibetan Children Villages (TCVs) in India are in deficit since 2018 with about half a million $/year. There are many reasons for this: the long time since their foundation now exactly 60 years ago (1960), the decreasing interest in the world in Tibet (so many other refugee flows) but above all the Chinese activities, which are designed to ensure that the Tibetans in exile are not supported. Against this background, we can hardly expect TCV Chauntra to additionally finance the operation of the cow barn.
Thus, the Board of Trustees of the SNOWLAND CHILDREN FOUNDATION has decided to seek additional funding for the ongoing operations for the next 3-4 years. We had asked the 3 big donors of the first round if they would give us another support for the running costs of Snowland Farm. We were successful with two of them:
– The Corymbo Dachstiftung donated another 5,000 CHF.
– the Heinrich Harrer Foundation in Liechtenstein has given us another 15,000 CHF!
Thus we are in the position to guarantee an additional financing of the running costs of the cowshed until the end of 2022 at the latest!
We are also looking for further cow sponsors (1,000 CHF per cow and 2 years maintenance) or cow godparents (200 CHF per year). The cow sponsors may choose the name of “their” cow and the name of the first calf. Their name will appear under the name of their cow in the cow pen. Once the small herd of 15-20 cows reaches its final number, the calves can be sold each year. With this, the cowshed can then be +/- supported. At the moment the costs are about 800 CHF per month or 200 CHF per cow per month.
Here you can find the report and pictures, as well as a report in the winter issue “METOK” of all TCV’s in India.
Final report of the pilot project “Snowland Farm in TCV Chauntra” (6 pages) Final report of the pilot project Chauntra – Snowland Farm – and the accompanying pictures of the pilot project TCV Chauntra (26 pages): Accompanying images to the final report TCV Chauntra and the report in the TCV journal METOK :Metok – Winter 2019.
IMPORTANT: You will continue to find the project under ongoing projects, as we are just not “leaving it to its own devices”. We will continue to monitor and supervise it closely for the next 2-3 years and will certainly travel to Chauntra once again as a group of three in the fall of 2021 (if Corona allows us to do so) to check on the ongoing operation and to help if necessary.
