Week Eight: Educational Opportunities for Tibetans

Hi guys! As I write this nearing the end of week eight with Machik, I find it hard to believe that I only have two weeks left working with this organization. I've learned so much about Tibet and its culture and had the opportunity to make so many friends and enjoy such enriching conversations. 

Here's an overview of what I worked on this week: I continued my research on intergenerational healing in immigrant communities of color, which will hopefully help the process of putting together Machik Weekend in the fall. I've learned so much about different paths to healing intergenerational trauma, including body mapping in Guatemalan communities in LA, healing camps carried out for Aboriginal members of the "Stolen Generation" in Australia, photovoice projects for Central American youth in Toronto, and many more. One emerging theme in my research was the importance of storytelling in processing trauma: whether on an individual level, such as between an individual and therapist, or on a wide scale for groups affected by marginalization, displacement, and genocide. This storytelling can come in many forms, such as through traditional arts, dance, music, protests, demonstrations, and so on. In some ways this is the driving theme behind Machik's work and Machik Weekend - letting the world know not just about the trauma the Tibetan community has faced but also their joy, by celebrating the accomplishments of Tibetans everywhere and creating more opportunities for them to succeed.

On that note, I also began a project with my fellow intern on researching international educational opportunities for Tibetans inside Tibet. Education is another area which Machik focuses on, and for good reason - many schools in Tibet suffer from lack of resources, leaving many young Tibetans with inadequate education. Attending school beyond the high school level can also be a struggle, for many reasons including costs, language barriers, and an inability to travel outside of China due to limited mobility for Tibetans. As a result, we began our project by looking for international institutions which offer free or reduced tuition. In Europe, for example, there are a number of institutions in which tuition is free or almost negligible due to how low it is. Outside of Europe, there also exist plenty of scholarships or funds dedicated to international students that can help reduce the cost of tuition.

However, during our research we ran into a significant roadblock: nearly every institution accepting international students requires the TOEFL (or IELTS) English proficiency test. But there is not a single TOEFL testing center inside the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) meaning that Tibetan students would have to travel as far as Chengdu (in Sichuan province) to take the test. Furthermore, previous attempts to negotiate with Chinese authorities to establish a TOEFL testing site in the TAR have been unsuccessful. This is one such invisible roadblock to education that Tibetans students have to deal with every day, hindering their attempts to pursue their education even further. While the project we are working on can unfortunately do nothing to change this, I nonetheless hope it will be a helpful resource to Tibetan students who can pursue their studies abroad.

That's all for this week! Please enjoy one last picture of me and Tsampa, who sadly will be leaving us next week. Somehow I have a feeling he will be missed more than I will when I leave the Machik office in two weeks.