I've just added a new section to the website dedicated to Tara's Kids, a foundation I started while in China. The foundation tries to help bring education to those Chinese children who need it the most through providing the books and writing materials necessary for learning.
In our first project, a donation of $5,000 created an entire library of 3,000 books for an orphanage of handicapped children in Tibet, and provided several $50 scholarships for children to cover school fees for an entire year. It's a really important cause and it has been incredible to see how much of a difference each penny makes in the lives of these children.
Inspired by a statue of Tara, the Goddess of Compassion, Dr. John started Tara's Kids to help school age children who do not have the books or writing materials necessary to learn to read and write. Tara's Kids works with friends in the U.S. and in China to identify elementary-age children, schools and orphanages in rural areas of China, Tibet, and other places where they can establish libraries full of books, writing materials and give small scholarships to pay for school fees. Many children are unable to attend school because their families do not have the resources to send them.
The first library was established in an orphanage for handicapped children in Tibet. A group of student volunteers from the Agricultural University in Beijing selected and packed the books and then carried them personally on the 47 hours train ride to Tibet so that they would not have to spend any of the money on shipping. The students stayed with the children in the orphanage for a month, organizing the books, setting up the library and spending time teaching the children.
