Posted By PEGGY ARMSTRONG, LINDSAY POST REPORTER
November 5, 2008


KAWARTHA LAKES -A school in Tibet couldn't be farther removed from the 
Ops Community Centre in Lindsay, but the two came together in spirit 
on Saturday night.

About 150 people from Lindsay and area gathered for a fundraising 
dinner to help complete construction of the Chungba Middle School in 
Tibet. The Chungba school project has been spearheaded by the Rabgey 
family, Pencho and Tsering and their daughters Losang and Tashi. It 
was the fifth annual dinner held by the Rabgeys. Pencho and Tsering 
cooked the meal of traditional Tibetan food. Last year's event raised 
$10,000.

Since 2001, they have successfully built and operated the Chungba 
Primary School in the Chungba District, where Pencho Rabgey was born.

Speaking to the crowd, Losang Rabgey noted the distance between the 
school and the town where she grew up, and she expressed her extreme 
gratitude for the local help her parents have received in this 
undertaking.

She proudly said that the school has become the model for education in 
the district and has produced the top three students of 800 schools in 
the graduating class of 2008. The school is also first in the final 
exams of 53 county schools.

The primary school provides an education to boys and girls of Tibetan 
nomads and farmers. The parents don't pay tuition, but have to attend 
four PTA meetings a year. Some of them, Rabgey said, must travel over 
two days to reach the school where their children board.

Rabgey returned to Lindsay from her travels promoting communities in 
Tibet. She lives in Washington, D. C., where she is executive director 
of Machik, a nonprofit organization that develops educational 
opportunities in Tibet.

Pencho Rabgey thanked the audience and said he appreciated how 
wonderful Lindsay has been to his family, adding that the school was 
his family's way of giving back.

For more info go to www.machik.org

or email Kathy Anderson at skogar@sympatico.ca