Sambhota Primary School for girls and orphans

The Dzogchen nomads have no education system as we would understand the term. The population is largely illiterate. There is a school in Kanzi, the region's main town, which is attended rather irregularly by no more than a dozen pupils from the wealthier families. Understandably, it is not easy for nomad families to send their children there.

Although the living conditions of the population as a whole are already far from easy, girls are at an even greater disadvantage. Although there is no framework for normal schooling, it is still possible for boys to get an education in a monastery. No such opportunities exist for girls and women.

The first project of the Zangdok Palri Programme was designed to create a school in the Dzogchen region . The project aims to provide the infrastructure and organisation needed to give Tibetan girls in the region access to education and training.

In substance, the project involved the building of a school with the capacity to educate some 40 girls in three classes. The school is located at the periphery of the Dzogchen village.

The project has being launched at the request of the nomad population, as represented by a local organising committee made up of Tibetans. The Chinese authorities have agreed to the building of the school.

The Zangdok Palri Sambhota Primary School and Orphanage was inaugurated on July 2002.
The school is made of several buildings:

1. The school building

The school building is composed of: 3 large classrooms, 1 kitchen, 1 dining room, 1 office and 1 store room

2. A Library building

3. The dormitory, constructed as 15 rooms, each 4 X 3 metres, designed to house 2-3 children.

The all compound is walled in by a 3 m high wall.

The school is one-storey concrete building with an area of 234 m² . There are three classrooms and four other rooms: kitchen/dining room, an administration office, a storeroom and a bedroom for the school superintendent.

Members of the Programme Management Team travel regularly to Dzogchen for an annual Programme Review meeting.