SMD School Plays A Great Role In Making The Lives Of Many Students

SMD is a new and a wonderful world for many poor students like us. It has given us things we never imagined. As many of us are from remote places like Dolpa, Nubri, Tsum, Manang, etc., we were ignorant of sophisticated technology like electricity, computers and transportation. It’s difficult to be in such a place, but SMD is a school that helps us to get through it. The School has done a lot of things for us that we couldn’t get in our villages: an education with good facilities such as health care, good food and safe water. What we get here is much better than in our villages, so we’re happier here than at home.

SMD has many open activities that students can learn according to their wish: learning musical instruments, singing, dance, games, making friendship bracelets, dorjes, (lucky charms) knitting hats and gloves and so on. We have extra classes, like Leadership Class which is conducted by a Canadian man named Peter Dalglish, where we can learn about global issues, and great leaders and we can learn to be leaders ourselves. We also have a World Today class that teaches us about human rights and current issues. It’s conducted by some of our Seniors and sometimes by volunteers. We’ve got Friday Night Group that is conducted by the director of our school, Shirley Blair. In this class we learn about basic meditation and Buddhist dharma.

We students have Kid Power, so, with our creativity, we have formed many clubs, such as the Health Club, (we volunteer in the clinic) Reading Club (we get kids reading) the Student Council, (we send representatives and recommendations to the Management of the school and we run the school Canteen) Eco-club, Roots and Shoots, and the Thrangu Express Club (newspaper). All these clubs help us go forward with our talents.

We have lots of indoor and outdoor games and have girls’ and boys’ teams in soccer and basketball. We celebrate lots of occasions with different programmes, performing dances and songs and speaking to an audience. Sometimes we have talent shows. This year particularly, we got circus training by a volunteer called Steve Groh.

The most fortunate thing for SMD students is that intelligent ones, with hard work, a compassionate heart and lots of participation in school activities can get an opportunity to study overseas, but with a contract that after they’ve finished their education, they will come back and give service in their community. (village)

Till now we have ten students overseas and lots more are going soon. The students who get a scholarship grow so much. They share their experiences with us when they come back, and teach us a lot of new lessons. The students who can’t go overseas can get a chance to study in the Kathmandu valley. According to their interests, they go for different training and education.

The reason we are here is because of Ven. Thrangu Rinpoche, the great Buddhist scholar. Without Rinpoche, this school wouldn’t exist and we wouldn’t be here studying. We would be back in our villages, doing heavy physical work, getting married at a young age and living a miserable life. We students are very grateful to our Rinpoche and to all those people who play a great role behind him. Without those friends and helpers, Rinpoche’s aims would be incomplete. We remember all those people always in our prayers.

In this way, SMD has played a great role in fulfilling many children’s dreams.

By Pema Choden B280
Grade 9

Follow this link to Thrangu Rinpoche’s documentary, “Visit to East Tibet 2006” on youtube.com