Program Description: TVP’s Scholarship Program is modeled after Kham Aid Foundation’s scholarship program. They have closed their operation at the end of 2010. They have transferred the scholarship program with 29 students to Tibetan Village Project. The program primarily provides scholarships for students in high schools (grades 10-12), vocational training and colleges, as there are no government subsidies. The cost of tuition in these students is prohibitive for rural Tibetan families, especially those who are outside the cash economy or where the children have lost one or both parents. The majority of the students in our program are girls, and we do make exceptions in supporting the most needy students outside of our target area.

How much cost to support a student? Costs vary from place to place and from child to child, depending on the school, entrance exam scores and the distance she must travel from home.  To ensure fairness to sponsors and to minimize the administrative cost of tracking grants, we charge a standard fee.  Where are students from? As of 2011, our scholarship program supports about 50 students. Although we have students from all regions of Tibet, most of the students are from Ganzi Tibet Autonomous Region (Kham) as it was Kham Aid’s focus area. Others are from Yushu as they have lost their support system due to the devastating Yushu earthquake of April 2010. These students are in danger of dropping out of the university having lost both or one of their parents and family members in the disaster. Our goal is to pay the students tuition and other costs such as housing, food, books and supplies and transportation.

• 650 USD for a high school student
• 700 USD for a high vocational training student as a nurse and a teacher.
• 900 USD for a college student seeking associate and bachelor degree

Where does my money go? Your donation goes toward tuition, books, transportation, food and lodging in a school dormitory for one academic year. It pays for a staff time to collect, translate, and forward your student’s annual letter to you, answer your questions by email or phone and manage the program.

Who does support students? Although foundations and businesses occasionally support the scholarship program, caring and compassionate individual sponsors are the engine of this program. Here is what we do:

1. TVP identifies a student, collects their story and photos, and then translates them into English.
   
   
2. TVP sends the story and photo of a student for potential sponsors by email and eNewsletter (we do not post all students information on the website for obvious reasons of security) along with scholarship program information.
   
   
3. Sponsor fills out the scholarship form and sends that to TVP along with payment (check, credit card or wire transfer).
   
   
4. TVP sends donation receipt to sponsors and money to students (sometimes we send money to school directly depending on how it has been organized).
   
   
5. TVP has a scholarship program coordinator in Tibet that administers funds, monitors student’s progress and provides necessary support if student is sick or finding things difficult in school.
   
   
6. TVP assesses students’ progress, collects update letters and photos; translates them into English; and sends them to sponsors once a year. Sponsors can make a commitment to support a student for entire school years or one can renew their commitment annually.

In order to avoid high administration costs due to the complexity of the situation in Tibet, we are not able to facilitate regular communication between students and sponsors. However, we do make our best efforts to translate sponsors letters to students once a year and manage the overall program. Please be sure to read more about the scholarship program information including the Policies on letters and visits.