Give a rural Tibetan youth an enriching summer!

After many months of long days and late nights preparing, we are excited to be just three weeks from the start of Summer Enrichment Program 2013! We share some highlights of this year’s program (July 12 - Aug 10, 2013) with gratitude for your support:

• Students from many Tibetan communities, mostly rural students lacking access to educational opportunities and infrastructure (many students travel several days to join this program!) 
• Participation by several blind students from Braille Without Borders – Tibet
• Volunteers from Tibet, China, Singapore, Canada and the U.S.
• Volunteers from universities including: Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, American, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Minzu University of China
• Core classes include English, Tibetan, Science, and Math, Elective classes from entrepreneurship to photography

Through curriculum design, expert guest speakers and activities, SEP this year will focus on two themes:

Environmental Conservation – Tibet is a key natural ecosystem in which some of the highest rates of climate change have been documented; and
Community Service Leadership – This is an expression of Machik's core value of building stronger communities through service to others.

Gifts of any amount will help this unique program promote intercultural exchange and learning among Tibetan, Chinese and global youth! 2013 SEP cannot happen without your support, Thuji che / Thank you!

Links:

• Summer Enrichment Program website

Dear Machik Friends,

This past year, we had the opportunity to serve as coordinators of Machik's Summer Enrichment Program.

From start to finish, putting together SEP 2012 was an incredible challenge!  We were learning on our feet and overcoming obstacles the whole way through - from our unexpected relocation to the city of Kunming, to the long search for a stage for the students' final performance.

But we have also never laughed, cried, danced or sung as much as we did this past summer.  It was especially a joy to work with students from the Shigatse School for the Blind. SEP opened our hearts in all directions and we will never forget the spirit of solidarity that connected us all - Tibetans, Chinese and young people from around the world.

Thank you for supporting our work in Tibet!  Check out this video Ellie made for us to remember SEP 2012.  And we hope you will see that this fiercely determined program shows what a better, brighter future for Tibetans and Chinese might one day look like.

Tenzing Wangmo Gyatotsang & Ellie McCutcheon
Co-Chairs, Summer Enrichment Program 2012

Links:

• Video and Information About Machik's Summer Enrichment Program

• SEP 2012 Report (PDF)