By Phurbu Thinley
Phayul Correspondent
Dharamsala, August 12 – Official ceremony was today held in the Dekyi Tsering Memorial Hall of Upper Tibetan Children’s Village School (UTCV) marking the formal resigning of Mrs. Jetsun Pema from the Presidential post of Tibetan Children’s Village (TCV) organisation and appointment of its newly elected President, Mr. Tsewang Yeshi.
Mrs. Jetsun Pema, better known as Ama La to TCVians and now in her mid 60s, has earlier this week personally resigned from the post to make way for the appointment of a new president based on democratic principles.
“This has been Mrs. Pema’s long awaited personal vision to revamp TCV’s over all administrative policy to bring it in line with democratic procedure and for better administration in the long run”, stated the former Director of UTCV School, Mr Lekshey Tenpa, in his opening speech.
Accordingly, in a Governing Body’s meeting reportedly held on 5 August, Mr. Tsewang Yeshi, formerly serving as the Executive Director of TCV, has been elected and appointed the new President. Of the total votes cast by 25 Administrative heads of TCV, Mr. Tsewang Yeshi received majority 18 votes.
While the post of Executive Director that has been functional till date has now been dissolved under the new regulations, hence forth the President, which shall be the TCV’s sole highest administrative authority, is to be appointed through election process.
Although Mrs. Pema La has resigned from her day to day official duty at TCV, she is to remain ever committed to fulfill the greater missions of TCV and, to look after other broader and upcoming major educational undertakings of TCV stated Mr. Yeshi in his acceptance speech this morning.
However, in the new administration policy of TCV, a seven-member Executive Council, to be the highest decision making body of TCV, has been instated in place of previously nine-member Governing Body. This new Council shall be headed by Mrs. Pema La as its Chairman.
Earlier this week, Mr. Tsewang Yeshi is reported to have accompanied the former President to visit TCV schools located in and around Dharamsala and is expected to make series of such visits to other TCV braches located elsewhere in India to brief-up Mr. Tsewang to his new task of keeping the legacy of Mrs. Pema going.
Mrs. Jetsun Pema is the younger sister of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the first Woman Minister in Tibetan Government in Exile. She has been working for the rights and the educational need of the Tibetan refugee children in India for the last more than 40 years. Today, thousands of Tibetan children call her Ama La, which is a respectful way of calling mother in Tibetan.
Reminiscing back to TCV’s illustrious struggling years, Mr. Lekshey Tenpa, the former Director of TCV’s UTCV Branch, in his opening speech at today’s formal ceremony here stated that the incomparable and unrelenting struggle made by Jetsun Pema La in her 43 years’ of sheer voluntary service to the Tibetan refugee children while at the same time structuring the TCV into one of the most reputed and the largest Tibetan organizations in exile can neither be rounded up in words nor can it be sum up in one’s memory.
Earlier this year, in recognition to her life-long service for over the care and education of Tibetan refugee children, Ama La was awarded the WORLD’S CHILDREN’S HONORARY AWARD by the WORLD’S CHILDREN’S PRIZE FOR THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD (WCPRC) at the award ceremony held on 20 April in Sweden. Mrs. Pema received the award at the hands of Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden.
She was also the recipient of the Title- “Mother of Tibet” from the Tibetan Government in Exile for her selfless contribution made to the Tibetan refugee children’s welfare and educational needs.
Each year hundreds of refugee children manage to risk their lives across harsh Himalaya passes to escape from Tibet and make their way to finally reach the northern Indian town of Dharamsala. Many of them are orphans. Others are sent by their parents to escape the oppression and poverty in Chinese-controlled Tibet. It is at Tibetan children’s villages they get a new home and the chance to go to school.
Stressing that the Tibetan children are the “future seeds of Tibet”, Mrs. Pema in her brief farewell speech mentioned that serving the growing Tibetan children is our foremost obligatory duty entrusted upon us by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and it should come out naturally from each one of us. She further expressed of the great reserves of faith she has on all those who are involved in TCV’s mission and reminded the co-workers to continue the hard work in order to push the mission to new heights.
Under Jetsun Pema’s farsighted vision, and dynamic leadership, TCV has grown into the exiled Tibetans’ largest children’s rights and most vibrant educational organization. It has established branches all over India extending from Ladakh in the North to Bylakuppe in the South. Her tireless work has saved lives and given tens of thousands of Tibetan refugee children a home, a family, education and hope for the future.
Every year, nearly 15,000 refugee children get help through TCV. In the Tibetan children’s villages the children grow up in a loving Tibetan home with traditional Buddhist values like non-violence and respect for all life.
When asked by a group of Tibetan media when her happiest moment in life was, she instantly replied, “When His Holiness the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989”.
