About the School
Objective:
The Waka Orphanage School was established in September 2004. Its objective is to take care of Tibetan orphans or children from poor single parent families and sponsor them to go to school. We put strong emphasis on learning of Tibetan culture, history and language. Children live together in the housing provided and attend the same school. We provide all things that are necessary for them to live and stay at school.
How it started:
The orphanage was founded by two Tibetans originally from the surrounding area, Dorjee and Sanji, with support from the local government. (During the time of their preparation for the orphanage, Sanji, one of the partners, died from stroke.) The orphanage in the Waka village was opened in September 2004 with 25 selected children. Now Dorjee is in charge of everything regarding to the children and their study.
School background:
The school is located at the Waka village at about 80 km northwest from Zhongdian, the capital of Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province of China. The village is close to the Yunnan and Sichuan province border and locates on the Sichuan Province. Waka is a small village with only few hundred populations. There is only one primary school, Waka Central Primary school. All the children can have primary1 to primary6 education in that school. All the children live together in a dormitory provided by the school. The basic subjects that they will have are Tibetan language, Chinese language and Mathematics. If they want to go to secondary school, they will be sent to the Derong Secondary school on the Derong County of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province, which is about 30km on the north of the Waka village. The local government allows the charity home to use free for the school dormitory, water and electricity. The charity home has two Tibetan workers to look after the children and one part-time Tibetan teacher for the Tibetan tutorial class on weekends.
Student Background:
The children are from Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province (Kham, or Eastern part of Tibet). Currently we have 30 students: 12 orphans and 18 from very poor single parent families. The children are from 7 to 13 years old and are chosen from the poorest families in the Kham area with the help of a local government officer. Most of them never go to school before, and some went to school for very short time.
