The BETTER SCHOOLS Project

Helping children and teachers in remote Tibetan communities. 

Announcing...

We did it!  We went to a remote grassland school in Sershul county, where our volunteers improved the teacher living quarters, classroom, and dormitories.

We're looking for hardy, enthusiastic do-it-yourselfers to join us as volunteers in Kham on a project to improve a rural school.  You'll make over classrooms, dormitories, and teacher living quarters with fresh paint, you'll repair leaky windows and walls that let in Tibet's cold winter wind, and you'll install wiring, walkways, and other features that will make a school more conducive to learning and thriving.

No experience needed.   If you can hold a paintbrush, we can use you, but we're especially looking for people who know how to do electrical work and carpentry. Ability to speak Chinese or the Kham dialect of Tibetan is a big plus, so are expedition cooking skills. We hope that one volunteer for each group will be a doctor or RN.

NOTICE: starting in 2005 we are making this program available to interested groups seeking service projects in Kham. If you represent a travel agency, school, church, or other organization please contact Pam Logan for more information.

Individual volunteers seeking information about upcoming trips please contact Earl Stirling.  To sign up, fill out and submit this application form.   

Volunteers should provide their own international and domestic air tickets to Chengdu, Kunming, or Zhongdian (which city you fly to depends on the location of the school). You also need to pay US$1500 per person to cover lodging, food, transportation, and materials used to improved the school such as paint, wire, etc. Some or all of these expenses may be tax deductible - please ask us for details. 

If you are the team doctor/nurse then you will receive a 30% discount on the ground cost.

NOTE: You must carry emergency medical/evacuation insurance in order to participate in any Kham Aid Foundation field program.

Schedule: e-mail us at the above addresses for details.

Conditions. Travel will be by minibus and/or 4WD or truck. En route to the school, the Better Schools Team will lodge in simple hostels.  At the school, volunteers stay in nearby village homes.  Conditions will be rustic and robust good health is essential.   Food will be eaten in restaurants or prepared by the team cook; ability to tolerate a wide variety of foods is very helpful.. Vegetarians, please see this note. Access to showers will be limited en route and there will be no showers at all at the worksite.