Latest information from the TCVs and pictures: The year 2022

In April 2022 I was able to go back to Dharamsala for the FIRST TIME after the Corona years 2020 and 2021! What an event! And – In the luggage I had the new Tibetan Food Pyramid, not only in the 3 languages English, Tibetan (and German), but also with the additional brochure in the 3 languages!

Since we did not know during the planning of my trip whether we could already resume the nutritional trainings of the pre-Corona years and, moreover, the planning of the trip was very short term because of the Corona uncertainty, we had decided that we would dedicate the year 2022 entirely to the Tibetan Food Pyramid.

Various lectures on the Tibetan Food Pyramid followed in and near Dharamsala, all of which met with great enthusiasm:

– LHA (Social Work in Dharamsala)
– TDH (Tibetan Delek Hospital = Tibet. Hospital in Dharamsala)
– CTA (Central Tibetan Administration = Tibetan government in exile in India):
>>> Dpt. of Health (Ministry of Health)
>>> Dpt. of Education (Ministry of Education)
finally the new
– STSS (Sambhota Tibetan School Society = new authority, which is responsible for all Tibetan schools in India)

Everyone was enthusiastic and we delivered large posters of the food pyramid that we had printed at TCV Chautra. Finally, it was decided to print 10,000 of the additional brochures in English & Tibetan in a booklet: EVERY student of the 9th or higher grade should receive such a booklet in the future.

Finally, there was an opportunity to present the Tibetan Food Pyramid to all 8 school principals, who were also enthusiastic.

I was allowed to present the pyramid to the 9th, 10th and 12th classes of the *Upper TCV” in the headquarters of Dharamsala already in a 1-hour session and discuss it with them.

It was a very successful trip to publicize the Tibetan Food Pyramid and at the end, the training for 2023 was discussed and decided:

>>> We will continue where we left off in 2020, namely with the 2nd pass through TCV Selakui, TCV Bylakuppe in South India, TCV Choglamsar in Ladakh and of course – as always – the visit to our Snowland Farm in TCV Chauntra in North India.

The 2022 picture section, marked by lectures and information on the Tibetan Food Pyramid.

COWS AT THE STABLE JUST RETURNED FROM PASTURE 1

Preparation for the trip April 2022

COWS AT THE STABLE JUST RETURNED FROM PASTURE 2

Backpack and Snowland Bag…

Arrival in Dharamsala

Tea gardens on the way to Dharamsala

Trucks make traveling slow…

Dharamsala is located in the Dpt. Himal Pradech

Arrival at the headquarters of the TCVs

But – there is also the “Upper TCV”.

With the large sports field in front of the offices

Grandstands for the sporting events

Great interest prevails in matches

For the little ones there is a playground

Dogs have almost every TCV house

The older students are a little apart

The Tibetan Food Pyramid in large format, outside at the refectory

Headquarters: “realm” of the sponsorship secretaries: The folders fill several walls

The workstations are very simple

EVERYTHING is recorded on paper

But – of course there are also computers – Nevertheless, much is saved on paper

The new president Sonam Sichoe

Presentation of the Tibetan Food Pyramid at the meeting of school directors

The interest is great in the pyramid

Front left, the new director of education

The principal of Upper TCV organized 3 lectures on Tibetan Food Pyramid with the

9th, 10th and 12th grades (the 11th had exams).

Some still wear masks

Despite dog – great interest

Congratulations at the end

LHA – The Social Center in Dhasa

Dorji Kyi, President of the LHA

The environment of the LHA…

Here too – great interest

There was even audience from CTA (Tibetan Government in Exile), Tenzin Samten, Dpt. of Health.

CTA – Central Tibetan Administration: Tibetan government in exile:

Dpt. of Health: Ministry of Health

Also here you can see TCV children

We had a very good conversation

Tenzin Kunsag said: We are running into “open doors”!

At the steps 2 small TCVs…

Dpt. of Education, the next meeting in the government-in-exile.

Dankan Wangmo was equally enthusiastic and said that ALL schools need the Tib. Lm Pyramid

Lunch with my friend Migmar, my official companion of the TCVs

STSS (Sambhota Tibetan School Society)

Tsering Dhondup is the director of this new school board for all Tibetan schools in India

The Tibet. Lm pyramid is emblazoned on the canteens of the TCVs

The last lecture: In the Dpt of Health of the CTA.

They have a good lecture room in the middle of their offices!

You can even see them next to the kiosks

More details on feeding the approximately 7,500 kids in the 8 Tibetan Children’s Villages (TCV’s) in India.

A house community in a Tibetan children’s village generally consists of 25 – 45 children between the ages of 3-5 and 12-13, the house mother who is employed there, and usually a dog. The house mothers ( called “amalas” = mother in the Tibetan language) not infrequently also have children of their own, but they never live in their household, but either with another amala or completely outside the TCV. Generally (a few TCVs have a communal kitchen) she prepares the 3 main meals a day, runs the household and usually still maintains a vegetable garden. Of course, depending on their age, all the children help out, they wash the dishes, also help with the weekly laundry, shine shoes, etc. Nevertheless, one can only incredibly admire this tireless work of the housemothers: they get up very early so that the children have breakfast before school starts. Then they immediately start cooking lunch so that when the children come home hungry from school, they have something to eat right away.
In the afternoon, they clean up, do their homework, and as soon as they have a short break, they go to the garden or prepare dinner. So it’s easy to understand that they don’t have much time to study the books on nutrition training intensively….. In the years of the training weeks I could then never understand how they could organize it to come for a whole week (5 days) 2 times 3 hours to the lessons!

The older teenagers (10th – 12th grade, depending on TCV), i.e. the 14 – 18 year old kids, then move out of the small shared apartment and live together in larger groups in so-called “hostels”. However, they have smaller rooms (2 – 6) with more space for their own things and needs. They eat in the big communal dining room, and most of the time the food comes from the big kitchen, which also cooks for the staff at lunchtime.

In 2016, I gave nutrition lectures for 4 weeks at TDH (Tibetan Delek Hospital), the only Tibetan hospital outside of Tibet, in Dharamsala, for doctors and nursing staff. The director of the maternity training center at that time, Mrs. Kalsung Sharling, asked me to talk to her. She brought up her request to do a nutritional analysis based on various weekly and daily menu plans. It came out that the children are in any case calorically sufficiently nourished, i.e. receive enough food energy.

In detail, the nutritional analysis showed that the children are, on the whole, even more well-balanced than our children: they get significantly less but enough fat, have more than enough dietary fiber (which is usually much too little for us) and are fed a vegetarian diet. This is not because the Tibetans as a whole are vegetarians. They are Buddhists, but traditionally, due to the altitude (5,000 – 7,000 meters) and poor vegetation in Tibet, they fed themselves with sufficient (yak) meat. Therefore, even today in the lower climatic zones, they generally eat meat. In addition, the individual houses of the children’s villages do NOT have refrigerators until today (2021). Since it can get up to 45°C hot in summer, depending on the location of the respective children’s village, it is certainly better not to use meat. In addition, they are also cost-wise not able to offer meat to the children. Most of the time, the Amala has a very small refrigerator for itself, but it is not enough for the children.

If we go into the details of the analysis, we find that these young people of growing age get only 50% of their daily calcium requirement, girls of puberty age get too little iron, all a little too little of some B vitamins and probably also A vitamins and/or beta-carotene. Here it is not due to a lack of vegetables or salad (“salad” there is raw sliced onions, carrots or cucumbers, completely unseasoned), but rather due to the amounts and sometimes variety in vegetables. Many housemothers try very hard to grow vegetables in addition to their many jobs, but it depends on the area they have available and, of course, the time available.

And – the protein quality is quite good with the mostly Indian food (Indians as vegetarians know how to get enough protein by eating enough pulses like lentils, peas, etc. in combination with rice = so called Dal Bhat, and how to combine them favorably), but the quantity is just at the minimum. And – the protein intake is of course dependent on how many lentils are in the “dal”. If it is more of a soup, the protein content is also low. Therefore, in the course of my trainings, I got used to recite like a “Tibetan prayer wheel” “if I have to look for the lentils with a magnifying glass, there is never enough protein in it”.

In addition, the children usually get no or only very little milk (costs!) and also not every day an egg, but a maximum of 3-4 eggs per week. However, both would be essential in the present diet to ensure the protein supply (milk and eggs), calcium supply (milk!) and B vitamins and iron (eggs).

Here you can still find the full report 2017 – 2019 and many pictures from the 3 years of training so far!

Nutrition trainings in TCVs since 2017
Accompanying images to the text about nutrition trainings in TCVs

Eggs would also be responsible for a better supply of vitamin A, and beta-carotene can only be obtained with sufficient quantities of vegetables that are as colorful as possible. Of course, many vegetables (e.g. broccoli) also contain a lot of calcium, but firstly the quantities must be correct, and secondly the absorption rate is much worse. Vitamin C increases the absorption rate of calcium and also iron from vegetables, but for that you would need enough lemons to drip the juice on the vegetables. And – there it hapens again – in most TCVs they have started to plant lemon trees before my trainings, but – it is a laborious thing and needs again much of the scarce time.

In the spring of 2019, we decided to create a “Tibetan Food Pyramid” . Why? In my opinion, the Indian Pyramid, which of course also exists, is unsuitable for a variety of reasons. For example, white rice, which is eaten 2-3 times a day in India, is placed at the top with “sweets, soft drinks and chips & co”. Of course it would be better to eat whole grain rice, but it is simply unrealistic to place whole grain rice in the “brown level” and banish white rice to the top. Then no one will take the pyramid seriously. Also, extra calcium tablets are recommended (rightly so) if you don’t take enough milk and dairy products. But – again – that is totally unrealistic to recommend for TCVs. The Swiss Pyramid, on the other hand, recommends milk and dairy products 5 times a day. Again – see above – this is not realistic for the TCVs (and these amounts are also unnecessary). In addition, the Swiss Pyramid has fruits and vegetables as the second lowest (= second most consumed food). This is not only unrealistic, but also outdated. So we decided to create a special pyramid for Tibetans, which hopefully will be used outside the Tibetan Children’s Villages.

After no trainings could take place in the Corona year 2020, we used the time to design this pyramid. “We” in this case are myself and the Science Council of TCV Chauntra, which also includes the former director of maternal counseling training, Mrs. Karlung Sharling. She has a degree from USA in nutrition counseling and of course was very helpful, as well as the other science members of the AG.

By the end of 2020, we completed the Pyramid, translated it into Tibetan and German, and printed it in the spring of 2021 (see there)

Another problem we had discovered in the meantime is that SNACKING: All TCVs have small stalls or kiosks where children can buy something with their scarce pocket money. And – as with most kids in the world, but also because of the low cost – Chips (10 ruppees of the 30 g bag) and Soft Drinks (they otherwise only get water or tea) are extremely popular. So if I add to the daily nutrition calculation 2 bags of chips (this is absolutely not unrealistic as I have seen many times) and 1-2 bottles of soft drinks, it’s over with the “balanced” nutrition: The (bad) fat shoots up and quickly exceeds the 30% energy share and the (empty) sugar calories make the already too high carbohydrate share with bad carbs (because sugar is too quickly available) shoot up even more. The protein portion of the daily diet then goes down even more.

So next we are also planning Posters for Snacking.

So overall there is still so much to do. There are already initiatives from other Europeans, especially one from Hamburg, who are making an effort to offer fruit and fresh fruit juices at the same price as chips, soft drinks and other sweets in the stalls. That is already a good approach. We have deliberately not chosen to ban the chips, soft drinks and other sweets, because it would not lead the children to give them up voluntarily. They would have relatives and friends bring it to them and “hit” it all the more as soon as they have the opportunity. We rely on self-determination and our own knowledge. The future will show whether we are right.

All these measures require additional financial resources. Based on the 2018 cost analysis, there is less than 50 centimes available per child per day (0.44 CHF). Besides the very great support from ICT (International Campaign for Tibet) Germany, we are still looking for other organizations, to help us in our efforts.

If we want to give the 8,000 children a glass of fresh milk and 1 egg extra per day, we need 750,000 CHF/year based on NUMBEO (cost of living in India, February 2020). Here we are urgently looking for support from other organizations or even SDC, Swiss Development Aid.

http://www.savetibet.de/

The training materials, in the 3rd edition finally in color!

The training materials are currently (still) the PPT images that I use in the training. We have the book printed in Dharamsala, because it is cheaper there. A “real” nutrition book is planned for the training one day.

The training of the housemothers is successful and enjoyable

At the end we always take a group picture, in between we visit some houses to see the normal life of the children. There is always a lot going on, the children romp around the sports field, but also help their housemothers with their daily chores.

Since 2019, there has also been a week of block teaching in ITI (Selakui, North India) and with the older students in grades 10 – 12.

In the ITI (apprenticeship training), the apprentices come mainly from the areas of “Food Production” (cooks), “Food and Beverages” (service) and “Bakery” (bakers). There are 70 – 75 young girls and boys between the ages of 18 and 25 who attend the nutrition course. The interest is enormous and the breaks generally pass with lively discussions and questions.