Tibetan PeaceJammers Work With The Dalai Lama

A sour smell wafts up from the squatter’s camp called Churan Ghat near Dharamsala, India. The stench comes from the open waste between the rows of plastic tents. There are no government services. No one picks up the trash strewn in the muddy lanes.

Not far away, the Himalayan Mountains are capped with beautiful white snow. Rushing rivers of clean water run down those mountainsides. But in Churan Ghat, there is only one water tap for all 200 families and it only works two hours a day. Women and children have to line up for hours with cans and old pots to get their daily water. Since the children have to get water for their families, they can’t go to school. Without an education, they have no chance of lifting themselves and their families out of poverty.

In April 2007, seven PeaceJammers in Dharamsala decided to do something about conditions in Churan Ghat. They decided on an ambitious goal – they would provide clean, drinking water for the people of the tent city.

The seven of them, three boys and four girls, followed the Global Call to Action guidelines when planning a project. They studied the issue, found a specific problem they could solve and made a detailed plan. Then they had a chance to do something special – they took their plan to The Dalai Lama, one of the ten Nobel Peace Prize winners who have issued the Global Call to Action.

Meeting the Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama is both the spiritual leader for millions of Tibetans and the head of the Tibetan government in exile. China occupied Tibet in 1950 and the Dalai Lama was forced to flee his country in 1959. He settled in Dharamsala, India and tens of thousands of Tibetans followed him there. The young activists who wanted to bring water to Churan Ghat are part of that Tibetan exile community.

When the seven young people arrived to meet the Nobel laureate they were so nervous they were shaking. Many Tibetans consider him to be almost like a god. Yet when the young activists met the him, they found a rather ordinary-looking monk with an incredibly warm and welcoming personality.

The leader of the group, a tall 18-year-old boy named Loden explained the four goals of their plan:

1. Provide better access to drinking water for Churan Ghat by running a new pipeline to the area.

2. Educate the people about the prevention of waterborne diseases.

3. Give the residents clean water containers so they could cut down trips to the tap.

4. Improve education for the children in the camp, with tutors and book donations.

The Dalai Lama considered the plan carefully, asking detailed questions. Then he looked at each of the young people, smiling and nodding.

“This is very good, don’t you think?” he told them. “Very good. At its essence, water is a necessity for life. This is extremely good work and of great service to society.”

Overcoming Obstacles

Loden and his friends were very excited about the Dalai Lama’s encouragement and approval. They were eager to get to work and make their project a reality. They soon found, however, that it was going to be much harder than they had thought.

The plumber said he would not go to work unless the young people had a permit. But the local government would not give them a permit to build the pipeline. The people of Churan Ghat did not own their land, the officials said, so they could not build on it. Finally the officials agreed to let the project proceed.

Then there was the problem of getting the pipes. The GCA team needed 250 meters or 850 feet of pipe. This posed two problems. First, the pipes would cost money. Second, there didn’t seem to be a place to buy the pipes locally.

The biggest problem however, was finding a place to buy the water containers. The group needed to buy 144 containers. There was no store close to Dharamsala with that many. They would have to be ordered from a supplier in southern India and it would take weeks for them to arrive. Loden and the other project members resolved to be patient and work through every problem. They knew how important the project was for the people of Churan Ghat. They would not give up.

The Big Day

Finally after many weeks of worry and delay, the pipes were ready. But the water containers had not yet arrived. One evening at dusk, the truck carrying them showed up. The youngsters have to haul the large plastic containers from the truck to a large tent in Churan Ghat. That was just the start. The containers still had to be put together. It was a long job that took all night, working by the light of a gas lantern.

With the containers were set up and given out to the families, the work on the pipeline began. It took fifteen hours of hard digging. As the project neared completion, the residents of the tent city gathered round. The plumber used his wrench to bang the last pieces into place. He turned the tap and clean, healthy water poured out. Two small children came to the tap with their father to gather water in their container and they laughed and splashed about.

Two team members named Dechen and Tsundu tested the water quality from the tap. The results showed they had done what they set out to do– there was now clean, fresh water for the people of Churan Ghat. Loden and the rest of the team smiled with relief.

Later, Loden reflected on what they had done.

“When I told some of my other friends we were going to build this pipeline, they laughed at me,”

he said. But he and the other teammates knew that if they worked together and didn’t give up, they could accomplish something terrific – and they did.

See Loden and the Dharamsala team’s GCA project page.