Volunteers (Gap Year or Mature Traveller / Volunteer)

In and around Dehradun and Dharamsala in Northern India there are well established communities of Tibetan exiles and some of these people are very poor. Because of the passage of time less international help is given to the plight of the Tibetan people. We want to develop ways to help the Tibetan people help themselves. If you want to make a difference in your gap year or mature gap year(s) this is a very rewarding project.

We have recently established small scale tourism in the form of homestays in Dharamsala - where the visitor stays with local people in their own home (many gap year students use this low cost option when visiting the area). We are already doing this successfully in a number of other countries (Arizona USA, Samoa, Tanzania and Thailand for example). This form of tourism is supplemented by the sale of handicrafts from local Tibetan workshops, thereby providing work for a large number of Tibetan people.

In conjunction with our local partner organisations you will be helping to train the new host families or you may be in a search to find additional suitable Tibetan families / homes and individuals to act as host families and English-speaking guides. The households chosen are in general more attractive to travellers if they are undeveloped and they must provide an insight of what life is really like for the average family, ideally modelled on a home in Tibet.

In most cases you will be working with very willing and able people, but they need to taught about what a foreign tourist is likely to expect / demand from a homestay. We are not looking for homes that are ultra clean and tidy, but there is a minimum standard which needs to be met - hygienic toilet facilities, warm dry and reasonably comfortable bedding area, with privacy if possible. Also you need to ensure the type of food to be provided is cooked in sanitary conditions and served in an appetising format, always allowing for local traditions. We are not looking for a sanitised holiday experience, but we do not want too many stomach problems, etc..

Guide Training
The potential English-speaking guides do not need to belong to a host family. Some guides will need English lessons and all will need to be trained in providing tourism services. The guides main activity is as an interpreter, but will also be providing a range of activities throughout the homestay, such as guided tours, cultural exchanges and walks into low risk areas. (we already have high altitude group leaders for specialist treks etc.).

English Language
In an ideal situation each host family would have an English speaking member to facilitate ease of communication, but in many cases an outsider will be needed to translate for the guests. The English-speaking guides need additional English lessons.

There is an existing high quality craft centre at the Norbulingka Institute near Dharamsala and a basic facility at the Women's Craft Centre near Rajpur (Dehradun). We need volunteers to work with our local Tibetan partners to help set up additional workshops and to analyse / suggest improvements to existing operations.

In the UK we need to further our efforts at marketing the goods produced. Oxfam have asked us to produce a cataloque and we need help on this - donations of free or reduced cost printing would be wonderful, as well as time given for designing and setting up the layout.

We are looking to establish workshops in each community eventually, and volunteers will need to scout for suitably skilled workers. Finances will be raised to fund the building of craft workshops, but initially most groups may need to start of as a cottage industry - where goods are made at home.

The Tibetan community members will have significant roles in all the above projects and the whole Tibetan community needs to benefit, not just those directly employed. The families who host the visitors will receive a payment and a share of the proceeds will be paid to the community itself.

These ideas have been discussed with representatives of the Tibetan Government in exile (in April and December 2001) and they are very interested to progress the scheme.