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Date: 4/27/2022
EAST LONGMEADOW – Scores of children walk up a flight of stairs each day at the Bon Children’s Welfare Centre in northern India on their way to school and play. Above their heads, a concrete overhang is cracked and splintering, with green plants growing from the fractures in the blue building.
Cheri Brady, founder of Heart Mantra, an East Longmeadow-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit that raises money for the needs of Tibetan people and refugees in Nepal and India, said the overhang is just one problem at the centre that houses about 100 children.
The Bon Children’s Welfare Centre is located in a Tibetan Refugee Settlement Area of Dholanji, India, in the northeast foothills of the Himalaya Mountains, an eight-hour drive north of Delhi.
The centre is a home for orphans and what Brady described as “semi-orphans,” Indigenous Tibetan children from Dolpo, Nepal. Living at the centre allows the children to receive an education, something not available in their rural, farming communities. Brady said living at the centre improves the children’s health outcomes. Life expectancy in Dolpo is short, she said, and many people develop lung conditions due to cooking indoors over open flames with poor ventilation.
Children as young as two or three are brought to the centre and raised there, Brady said, adding, “They always have older children they will assign to them,” who become like older siblings.
The centre was built in 2000. Defects in the construction soon led to water damage and the building is now crumbling, with a lack of structural integrity creating safety concerns, including electrical fires, mold and ceilings that are falling.
Although the centre is run by Central Tibetan Administration, it is overseen by the Yungdrung Bon Monastic Centre Society’s Menri Monastery, which also provides for the children’s education at the Bon Dialectic School. All the children receive education until high school at the school.
“The monastery does the best they can, but they don’t have much,” Brady said. The expected cost of the building repairs is $20,000.
Brady explained that there is an urgency to rebuild the centre. “We want to try to get the money as quickly as possible,” she said, “the rainy season begins in June,” and there are concerns that portions of the building may collapse.
“These children need our help for a safe place to live, sleep, learn and play,” Brady said.
Heart Mantra Foundation raises money through donations, using social media, letters and email to let people know about the needs of Tibetan people in India and Nepal. While the organization does not usually run traditional fundraisers, Brady said the foundation has partnered with a Tibetan artist named Norbu Wangyal. Wangyal grew up at the centre and his college education was funded by Heart Mantra Foundation. Norbu donated his skills and created a painting to raise money for the centre. The first 10 people who donate $1,000 or more will receive an 8 inch-by-10-inch print of the painting.
“The painting has never been viewed by the public. This quality print is only available through Heart Mantra Foundation,” Brady said. Wangyal’s artwork can be seen at www.instagram.com/wangyalnorbu.
Brady said that she is aware of the critique that people should donate to their own communities before helping others. “I think we can help people everywhere, any way we can. I believe in giving back to your community, but I don’t think it’s an exclusion of helping others in other places,” Brady said.
One reason Brady said people are willing to donate to Heart Mantra Foundation is that 100 percent of the contributions go directly to the people who need it. Heart Mantra takes no administrative costs from the donations. Brady explained that the donations are wired to the monastery and earmarked for the centre project, and she is sent receipts for all items and services bought with those funds.
“People want to know where their money is going,” Brady said, noting scandals involving national charities have shaken people’s trust in giving to organizations. “Donors are just normal people who want to help, and they just give what they can,” she said. “You can’t help everyone, but if you can make a difference, you step in and make a difference for the people you can.”
Donations to the centre can be made in three ways: with a check payable to Heart Mantra Foundation, PO Box 62, East Longmeadow, MA 01028, at www.heartmantra.org or Heart Mantra Foundation’s Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/heartmantrafoundation.
For more information on the Bon Child Welfare Centre, visit https://ybmcs.org/bon-children-welfare-centre.