Lhasa, Tibet
Welcome
mama Dadhon and baby dhodak Tamdrin ‘Mama’ Dadhon sold her family jewels, gathered the proceeds of the teahouse and with 300,000 Yuan and a lot of courage started Dickey´s Orphanage in Lhasa, Tibet´s capital on September 10th 2002. In Tibetan dickey means ‘fine’ and ‘happiness’.
At the moment Dickey´s is home to 80 children. They all get lodging, tuition and medical aid. Because a lot of the children don´t know where or when they were born, September 10th is everybody´s birthday – a big party! The parents of these children died because of illness of accidents. Some children were abandoned because their parents saw no way out of their miserable situation. At Dickey´s these children are given a chance to a new start in life.
Mama Dadhon received financial support from local business men and international donations. There are, however, no official government grants. The local military hospital provides medical supplies. As such Dickey is a private initiative. They have a staff of 8 people, including the schoolbus driver. Thanks to a recent substantial donation, Dickey´s Orphanage can now start fullfilling its dream of building a proper home.
Dickey´s Orphanage was able to purchase 2000m² of land. They also bought part of the building materials. The architect has developed a design for the new orphanage. The children are happy with the new location and look forward to move before Losar, the Tibetan New Year in 2007. The orphanage staff are working with the constructors to help minimize the costs. The building should have a capacity to house 250 children. The most important thing is that every child will have its own bed
Children safe
Despite recent turmoil in the region, the children and staff at Dickey’s are all safe and ok. The new home is located quite far from the downtown area where most of the troubles took place.
Photo expo in Antwerp
Friday January 18th starting at 8pm is the opening night of a photo exhibition at Café Multatuli, Lange Vlierstraat 9 in Antwerp, Belgium. During the exhibition, which ends at Easter, photocards are on sale to support the Dickey Orphanage.
Medical team visits the orphanage
From July 15-28, 2007, family physician Dr. Minh Han in a team of 19 people from Innovative Humanitarian Solutions went to Lhasa, Tibet to care for the people there. Specifically, they wanted to study and find a cure for Kashin-Beck Disease, a debilitating arthritic condition beginning in childhood. But, they also wanted to see what other needs were there that they could make an impact on. So, they ended up doing much more than just seeing patients in villages.
The team visited the Dickey Orphanage on July 22. They brought medical supplies for treating the kids as well as donated beanie babies, toothpaste, and toothbrushes. Most of the kids had diarrhea from a recent picnic. Some had perforated eardrums from untreated ear infections. Most of the kids though were happy and healthy. As the medical staff took care of the kids, the rest of the team played ball, colored, taught English songs, and horsed around with the children. At the end of their time, the children lined up and sang several songs to them. They felt that were definitely the ones who were more blessed through their visit to Dickey.
Read more about their work here: http://minhsmissions.com, Innovative Humanitarian Solutions