Our Projects
The duty to serve knows no boundaries.
Social inequality has a devastating global impact. Extremes of advantage and disadvantage co-exist in all societies, as illustrated through wealth versus poverty, health versus sickness or literacy versus illiteracy. It is the duty of the individual to reach out and positively contribute to another, in order to work towards a state of equilibrium and the holistic improvement of society. Since our inception in 1987, the Lions Club of Pokhara Annapurna has served our community and our society in many ways.
In recognition of the eternal value of education, our primary focus has been to support education wherever possible.
We have also completed projects in the fields of health, community development, opportunities for women, adult skill development and provisions for children.
While our desire to be of service remains unchallenged, the reality is that our endeavours are limited by our available funds. Please donate and enable us to continue our social service.
Our Programs
The International Youth Mobilization for Social Service Program was born from our desire to ensure that children have access to uncontaminated drinking water.
This program coordinates the underground installation of heavy-duty plastic water tanks in government-run schools in the Pokhara Valley. Once installed underground, these tanks are will last for 80 to 100 years, and are totally safe from contamination. Contaminated drinking water spreads serious diseases, such as protozoa worms.
Our secondary aim is to encourage young global citizens to become more engaged in social service work. This people-to-people exchange system provides a life-changing experience, creating opportunities for young people to develop new friendships and gain a greater understanding of another’s culture.
The Educational Placements for Teachers Program offers teachers or university education students the opportunity to spend three weeks teaching in a Nepali school.
This experience facilitates intercultural collaboration, as the Nepali and international teachers work together and learn from each other. During their stay, the teachers live with Tibetan families at the Tashi-Ling Tibetan Settlement in Pokhara. This homestay enables the teachers to become acquainted with the Tibetan people and culture as well and offers the Tibetan families a source of income.
This experience is particularly useful for any teacher interested in learning to work with students who speak English as an additional language or dialect.
This program offers foreign nursing students the opportunity to undertake a placement in a Nepali hospital and participate in conducting a health camp at a remote Nepali village.
While on placement, nurses will be able to attend lectures from Nepali doctors on a variety of topics, including community health, tuberculosis, HIV and maternity. Following this, the nurses will assist doctors to conduct a health camp at a rural village, where isolation and poverty prevent many from accessing health services.
This program plays a critical role in providing village healthcare. Aside from general medical checkups, these health camps provide specialist services such as gynaecology, optometry, paediatrics and orthopaedics. Our latest camp drew 700 patients. Many of these people had travelled a long way, over difficult terrain, to attend this health camp.
Our Child Sponsorship Mission
The duty to serve the people is eternal. With this belief in mind, the continuing mission of the Lions Club of Pokhara Annapurna is to provide, support, facilitate and nurture education. Education is fundamental to the development of a nation. A country’s literacy and numeracy rates, as cornerstones of learning, significantly impact personal growth, cultural and economic development, global position and overall ability to change. Thus, education enables citizens to expeditiously advance not just their own personal identity, but the identity of their community and society.
The literacy rate in Nepal is very low. Consequently, many children end up working in the fields or looking after cattle. Unaware of the value of education, some parents force their children to work as child labourers or sex workers, in the hope that children sent to work will take what little income they earn back to their families. The children forced into this virtual slavery are thwarted from obtaining an education. Political insurgency also threatens the future of Nepali children. Many have been orphaned or semi-orphaned due to the clash between the Maoist insurgents and the Nepal Government’s security forces. Without guidance, these children become street kids, and grow up learning to commit crime in secret.
We saw the need to take these children out of the cocoon of ignorance and show them their way to becoming responsible, reliable citizens. Uneducated young adults struggle to find a job in a country they are unaccustomed to. Without the requisite skills training and education, opportunities are scare and assimilation is difficult.
We wholeheartedly believe that educated people can help educate others, creating lasting change for individuals and societies. Moreover, we consider it our duty to do so. Thus, the ‘Scholarships for Deprived Children’ program was born.
We heartily request donors and contributors to sponsor a child and make a difference.
Sponsoring an underprivileged child involves funding tuition, uniforms and textbooks for a minimum of three years. The Lions Club of Pokhara Annapurna carefully screens each child and sends their information and photograph to individual donors. Once a donor chooses a ward, the club acts only as a bridge for handling the funds.
The Lions Club of Pokhara Annapurna does not charge any form of marketing or administration fee. ALL the funds go to the educational needs of the child.
However, as we are a volunteer organisation, donations to our club are always welcome. The relationship between the sponsor and the ward is their mutual responsibility. We encourage sponsors and wards to keep in contact through letters or emails. Each sponsor will receive bi-annual academic reports on the progress of the student whose education they have financially supported. Photographs of the children will also be provided to the sponsors. The Lions Club of Pokhara Annapurna is available to answer any inquiries made regarding the child’s progress in school.
A commitment to a minimum of three years sponsorship is required. This enables each child to progress to the next stage in their schooling – even three years schooling will make a huge difference.
Education Cost per child per annum
Primary and Lower Secondary Section – Day Scholar: $250 USD
Primary and Lower Secondary Section – Boarder: $400 USD
Secondary and Higher Secondary Section – Day Scholar: $350 USD
Secondary and Higher Secondary Section – Boarder: $450 USD
College Education – Day Scholar: $550 USD
College Education – Boarder: $650 USD
Previously Sponsored Children
Meet the Lions Club Program Coordinator: Lion Sonam Sangpo
- ssangpo@gmail.com
- 985-6020153
Sonam Sangpo is the Lions Club of Pokhara Annapurna Program Coordinator, and has over 20 years’ experience in planning complex humanitarian aid projects with isolated communities in Nepal and India. This is his story…
Sonam was born in Ngari in Western Tibet in 1952. He grew up in a nomadic family, as a shepherd. After the Chinese invasion of Tibet, Sonam was forced to flee his country, escaping across the Annapurna mountains into Nepal. He was then only eight years old. Since 1959, Sonam has lived as a refugee, and yearns for the day he can return to his own country. As a child living in Nepal, Sonam attended the SOS School in Pokhara, where he was quickly identified by two English teachers as being very bright. Sonam learned basic English and then became a waiter at the famous Annapurna Hotel in Pokhara. Ten years later, Sonam was promoted to Senior Manager of the hotel, and became fluent in four languages.
Like all Tibetans, Sonam is a devout Buddhist. After establishing his own hotel, The Tibet Resort, he began a lifelong career as a social worker, and has devoted his time to helping reduce poverty in Nepali and Tibetan communities in Pokhara. Over the past three decades, Sonam has worked extensively for the Lions Club of Pokhara Annapurna and the Nepal Red Cross association, helping to provide clean drinking water, build and refurbish schools, improve sanitation, establish social enterprises for women and generally improve the lives of people in need. In 2011, Sonam was honoured with the Outstanding District Chairman award, by the Lions Club International. Sonam has also worked tirelessly with human rights organisations and government officials to raise awareness about the plight of the Tibetan refugees, and has been officially honoured for promoting religious harmony in the Pokhara valley.
As a Tibetan refugee without citizenship, Sonam is a living example of the Lions mission towards social service and humanitarian values.
This biography was adapted from Sonam’s Global Action profile, where he works as Project Director.