Hello and Tashi Delek.
Time to think Rice…but first a quick update of what has been occupying my last several months.
I first would like to apologize for the long absence in not updating you all. Since I have been in the north the project of rice delivery has taken a break while I give in other ways to the Tibetan community with the use of my social work skills. I have been blessed with the opportunity to do volunteer work with Tibetan Women’s Association which is an amazing women’s run NGO. The types of things I have been able to do with them is report writing/editing, grant writing, and most exciting is attending different training and workshops.
Two workshops that were very informative and exciting were first the Dukar Project (pilot training) which is an organization I am happy to now have affiliation with. The project is under the umbrella of The International Center for Mental Health and Human Rights based out of Austin Texas. Gaea Logan is the director of the program and is offering a training program for mental health workers in the Tibetan community. This is a very exciting program and I look forward to the further develop and involvement. I provided the organization with a pretest/posttest evaluation to measure the best practices of effectiveness which showed positive results of the initial training for increasing confidence levels of mental health workers to provide mindfulness counseling. I am blessed to have met Gaea through TWA since the results of my research in 2009 furthered my awareness of depression and anxiety concern in the community. It is wonderful to see the development of a program to address this area. Take a look at their website and note the Dukar Project.
Also I had the opportunity to attend a Human Rights workshop offered by Human Rights Law Network. This was a collaborative effort of HRLN, an Indian based Human Rights organization, and the four leading Tibetan NGOs. The workshop focused on informing the Tibetan attendees of the Indian Laws and the fundamental rights of Tibetans in India. This provided me with a new level of knowledge regarding the Tibetans living in India and their legal status under Indian Law. I was responsible for reporting on the weekend event which allowed me to further develop my skills with the use of applying an analytical perspective to reporting as well as providing a program evaluation.
NOW for the update on the Pennies for Partnerships Project with Organic Farmers.
I am awaiting what is referred to as a PAP (protected area permit). Many of the Tibetan settlements in India require a special permit to stay in the Tibetan community and it takes a minimum of 3 months for processing through the Indian government. I am anxiously awaiting the approval in order to return to the south to coordinate the next Rice purchase and delivery. At this time I am happy to announce this will be the LARGEST distribution and it follows the anticipated growth of doubling each delivery size thanks to the generosity of you the gift givers. Depending on the opportunity to secure the price it appears 100+ households will benefit from your gifts to Pennies for Partnerships.
At this time I have yet to establish the logistical costs for such a large distribution and it is difficult to do from afar. I will however be looking for a donor that might be interested in contributing to the logistics as to this point all donations are secured to address hunger. In the past these costs have been minimal at around 3% of the total amount of rice purchased. If you know of anyone that might be interested in donating to the operational/logistical costs please provide them my contact information. penniesforpartnerships@gmail.com or 1lhdawg@gmail.com or they can make a comment of this blog for me to contact directly.
With the current donations and the possibility of adding an additional 100 households we are looking at, to date, the Pennies for Partnerships rice project will accomplish an outreach to 214 households. This constitutes the following breakdown:
214 households to be served (once distribution is completed in September) 25 kg bags of rice each.
Which is 11,770 pounds of rice or 5.9 TONS of rice gifted to those in need by Pennies for Partnerships gift givers.
Of course we hope this number will be increased as we gear up again and hope you will share this news with others who may be interested in supporting the project. Also I apologize but the give now button on the left is not working so if interested in contributing please contact directly. I am in need of some web maintenance but the administrator is currently occupied with other projects so I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause but soon I hope to provide a direct link for an online gift giving option.
Additionally, I am awaiting (hopefully) good news from a potential partnership with an Arkansas based nonprofit organization who may take this project under their umbrella. If so this will be a wonderful opportunity to partner with an organization that also manages projects to assist Tibetans in the same settlement (Mundgod) and the mission to preserve the Tibetan Culture. More details to be provided hopefully soon on this development.
Once again I want to remind you all how very very appreciative I am of your support to the program and I promise soon you will see the results of your gifts in the distribution to those in need as well as to the Tibetan Organic Farmers.
Much respect and gratitude to you all.
Kind regards,
Leann
Please spread the word… Pennies for Partnerships mission includes economic development for poor organic farmers, address hunger and food insecurity, and outreach for community inclusion between oppressed populations.
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