Solutions in Action - Environmental Projects

Workshops
Our programs provide critical environmental health information & training, including clear examples of practical solutions to harmful human activities and available alternatives to toxic materials. This empowers each individual to make wise choices for the health and future of their communities.

We have offered our workshops for Tibetan Students at schools such as the Tibetan Transit School, Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, Tibetan Childrens' Village, Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts, for The Tibetan Welfare Office and for Monasteries such as Dolma Ling Nunnery, Ganden Choeling Nunnery, Ganden & Drepung Monasteries in South India, as well as for all the local Indian Grammar schools in the Upper Dharamshala area.

The words of one of our former environment students demonstrates the essence of our courses:
"Before I did not know which things are toxic and non-toxic,... also (about) conservation of resources. (My) actions will be to help the environment and to instruct other people how (the) environment is important and how to contribute for it."

Wang Du, Former Environment Student, age 26, TCV Youth Education Center

Over the years we have provided Environmental Training, Staff and Service for the Environment & Development Desk (EDD) of the Tibetan Government in exile's Department of Information & International Relations (DIIR), upon request. Some of these programs have included:

"Your teaching is a great seed for the future. You are both teaching 25 students who will become teachers about the important subject of environment and how to solve environment problems. This education will continue to grow, for our students will also teach others and so on through generations."
Lobsang Tenje, Teacher, age 30, Institute of Buddhist Dialectics' Teacher Training Center

We at SIA, understand that by training teachers, we can reach all of the local population more swiftly & effectively . Since 1995, our Teacher Training workshops & courses have been offered upon request of the Environment & Development Desk (DIIR), Institute of Buddhist Dialectics' Teacher Training Center, the Tibetan Childrens' Village Teacher Training Center, WWF INDIA, the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts.

Teacher Training for Indians of the Dharamshala Area
Recently, we offered a Teacher Training organized by Dharamshala area NGO, "Dhualadar Public Education Society." This program offered classroom and hands-on Teacher Training for 8 local Health Care Educators, 2 Local Teachers & several others who will help to pass on this critical environmental health care information to 1,000's of students in over ten local Indian schools. We will also offer a training for local Indian schoolteachers in how to inculcate environmental education and ongoing follow-up activities into their required classes, building further on our work with WWF India's training courses in the past. For these courses, we developed a Teacher Training Curriculum and Resource Guide which will be used in this and future training courses for the Dharamshala area Indian community.

Upcoming Training Programs:
This year we have been requested by the Tibetan Minister of Health (Kashag) to train Health Care Staff, representatives of settlements throughout India & Nepal, and by the Tibetan Womens' Association to train their Executive members from each Tibetan Settlement. Project.

Environmental Education Curriculum Development:
Our Environmental Educators develop educational materials including course guides, factsheets, posters and hands-on displays to complement and support our programs & events. Our "Preventative Environmental Health Care" Teacher Training Guide, translated in Tibetan, has been submitted for use in Tibetan Communities to the CTA Department of Health, Tibetan Transit School. Our factsheets and resources have been offered to the Tibetan Welfare Office for use in their upcoming "Environment Center."

All materials are continually developed and distributed during educational programs. Recently, we have developed a version of our Teacher Training Guide for use in the Indian Community.

Each year, thousand's of international visitors come to Dharamshala to see His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the beautiful Himalayan Mountain ecology. Unfortunately, the local community is overwhelmed with the amount of refuse left behind to clutter overflowing garbage bins, open sewage drains and burnt on hillsides. This poses a serious health hazard for locals. The local Indian Municipality and Tibetan Welfare Office (TWO) have dedicated their time and funds towards dealing with collection and recycling of this waste.
Greenpage in Contact Magazine

To address this growing problem, we encourage tourists to REDUCE the amount of garbage they create and leave behind!! To do this, we write articles for local publications including, CONTACT Community Newsletters' Monthly Green Page, as well as handouts for tourists, encouraging them to refill their water bottles or to bring their used batteries or recycle-ables to TWO's Green Shop.

We make announcements and post signs at the Dalai Lama's teachings to encourage appropriate disposal of cells and other eco-friendly behavior. In the past, we have also cooperated with the TWO in organizing tourists to participate in community cleanups.

In Tibetan Communities, Monks and Nuns are held in high esteem. They are meant to embody the ideal of human virtue and appropriate behavior. Thus, how the Monastic community works with their environment becomes a community wide example. Realizing this, we have recently concentrated more effort in educating and supporting eco-friendly behavior amongst the Tibetan Monastic Community.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama on Environment:
"Now in order to succeed in the protection and conservation of the natural environment, it is important first of all to bring about an internal balance within human beings themselves. These days we are very much involved with the external world, while we neglect the internal world....

These days, not only individuals but governments as well, are seeking a new ecological order. But unless we work together no solution will be found. Mother Earth is giving us a lesson in universal responsibility, she is telling us to cooperate."
From Ecological Responsibility: A Dialogue with Buddhism

Environmental Education & Consultation
Representative staff and teachers from Drepung and Gaden Monasteries, joined 52 heads of local Tibetan institutions to participate in a week-long Preventative Environmental Health Care Teacher Training Workshop, held Jan. 18-22, 2,000. Taught by Solutions in Action's experienced educators, the program was organized in cooperation with the Tibetan Department of Health, The Gere Foundation & the Settlement Representative and Health Coordinator. Participants learned practical means to fulfill the Dalai Lama's message to "Care for our Environment." Environmental Education and Action Plans were developed during the training, initiating various programs and legislation to reduce health risks in the Monasteries and Settlement.

Following the training, over 6,000 monks were educated by those Monastery Staff trained during the workshop. Monastery leaders subsequently took actions such as banning the burning or random throwing of garbage in the Monastery and the use of the black material inside of batteries as ink for calligraphy and printing.

Immediately following the training, the Settlement Representative (Local Rep. of the Dalai Lama's Government in Exile) single-handedly educated 1,055 families on the dangers of plastic and batteries. Together, we drafted an agreement to ban burning of garbage at Kindergartens and other public areas during business hours, and a step-by-step plan aimed at collection of recyclable materials instead of dangerous burning. Village Leaders & Health Educators promised to hold community education meetings to reach the remaining 7,000 Mundgod residents.

An additional Environmental Health workshop for 30 local business owners was also held, upon the request of the Settlement Representative. During the workshop, business owners agreed to each purchase and manage their own garbage bin in the dirty town center and to work towards cleaning this area.

Also upon request, we offered a preliminary assessment of local drinking water quality; consultation on local solid/toxic waste management & other potential environmental health concerns for the Monasteries and Settlement during our seven week visit!

Our Support for Mundgod's Environmental Health is Ongoing!
This year we may further offer services to assure follow-up, implementation of developed action plans and for Environmental Health Care Staff in Mundgod. Let us know if you'd like us to mail you a copy of their currently proposed funding needs.

We offer our sincere gratitude to all our supporters who helped to make this project happen this year! It was a great success!! THANK YOU!

Here, some of the 70 young monks who live at Sakya Dratsang of Drepung Monastery in South India, learn Tibetan Calligraphy. During our environmental assessment of Drepung Monastery, we came to understand that the ink they always used was made of the black powder inside of batteries mixed with water! Based on the information provided during our Preventative Environmental Health Training Course about batteries, the Abbott of Sakya volunteered that they would stop this practice immediately in favor of using safer ink!



Other Eco-friendly examples in Monastries: