Sunday 26 July 2015

An appeal for Ahimsa School.

                                                 Please feel free to visit us
E-mail: esdip@hotmail.com
Mobile: +919612602899

KINDLY EXTEND YOUR  HUMANITARIAN HELP FOR THE Helpless INDIGENOUS minority CHAKMA CHILDREN.
WELCOME TO THE ULTIMATE TRUTH PREACHING MISSION.
Dear Friend,,
                At the very outset I would like to introduce my self as a Volunteer and social worker for Helpless minority Chakma children in mizoram to give free and compulsory with quality education to give light of education. To eradicate illiteracy and poverty among the Chakma community in mizoram we have established a NGO name as  THE ULTIMATE TRUTH PREACHING MISSINO and by which we have established
AHIMSA SCHOOL is a school for underprivileged indigenous minority chakma children at Tuichawng village under Lunglei District,Mizoram, India, Established in 2000, and run by the THE ULTIMATE TRUTH PREACHING MISSION AHIMSA  SCHOOL started with just 7 children in a small room with a pair of desks and benches by THE ULTIMATE TRUTH PREACHING MISSION as mission felt the essential need for education among children of their community,who were mostly engaged by their parents in labor from a very young age due to financial problems.
AHIMSA   SCHOOL has now grown to a school of over 70 students. It is a non profitable school providing free education. Children are encouraged to develop the positive qualities of loving kindness,compassion and universal responsibility.
AHIMSA means Nonviolence and extend of universal love and compassion.  AHIMSA is a school for children of families with low income,living in TUICHAWNG and the school covers 11 minority chakma  tribal villages namely Tuichawng-I, Tuichawng-II, Sibinasora, Borkol, Tuichawngchhuah, Diblibagh, Matrisora, Samuksury, Ugudasury,Tuikawi and Kauchhuah. The main Founder,Rajesh Kumar Chakma is a teacher and President firmly believes that education is the birth right of every child and no child rich or poor should not be left behind.
Unfortunately, the school may not run any longer as, the financial position of the school authority is too worst. We do not have donor,sponsor and well wisher to make a handsome fund for the helpless,needy and under-privileged minority chakma children over  here in mizoram.
                                 The major focus of the organization being the issues of Education For the needy,helpless and destitute indigenous chakma Children, Women Empowerment, Capacity Building to improve the socio-economic condition of Resource poor women and men living in remote rural Chakma areas in Mizoram, Skill Development and initiating various socio-economic, vocational and health activities, training and Micro Insurance finance activities, for the welfare and development of rural disadvantaged sectors covering 13 chakma Villages in Lunglei District,Mizoram.                                 We have a team of committed staff members with an excellent background and a vast experience in the development field. We are very much interested to take up the programme, through you. We are hereby seeking the support from the donor agencies towards the Educational developmental activity in the community as well as sustainability of the project. We would appreciate if you could extend your financial support to our project and this would definitely help the deserving people in the project area. Atpresent, Our main need is honorarium for the teachers and hostel building as, the children have to come from remote hilly villages on foot. If we can construct hostel for them we can accommodate them to stay in the hostel. We also abide with the terms and conditions set forth by the donor. Just take the case of the Chakmas. With over 8% of the total population of Mizoram the Chakmas are the largest minority group and most of the chakmas are still illiterate due to the lack of financial problems.
. At present our primary needs are as follows:s
School Materials.
Monthly sponsor for our needy children.
One Time Donation.
Laptop/computer
Honorarium for teachers.

Finaly, I would say that the aim and objectives of the Mission is not possible to make it success without your HELP and CO-OPERATION.
     Therefore, With folded hand, I request you to come forward and extend your helping hand for the well being of the whole Chakma Buddhist Community in Mizoram.

With Metta and Loving Kindness.


SUDIP Chakma
Office Bearer Secretary of THE ULTIMATE TRUTH PREACHING MISSION.
&
Volunteer of Ahimsa School, Tuichawng.

"Help to Needy Children".Why not do some help to needy people.A little effort from you can make a big difference. " A small deed is what they need"

AHIMSA SCHOOL FOR UNDERPRIVILEGED MICRO MINORITY CHAKMA CHILDREN.


Saturday 25 July 2015

https://aberbuddhism.wordpress.com/2015/04/21/supporting-tribal-buddhists-in-bangladesh/

Computer Learning System at Ahimsa School.

Our Generous donor Mr. Mahendra Sagar of U.S.A. has been donated (computer learning system) to Ahimsa School, Tuichawng under Lunglei District, Mizoram, India. Children were learning basic computer with the help of Mr. Mahendra Sagar. We heartilly thanks to Mr. Mahendra Sagar for his kind gifts.

Saturday 30 May 2015

Mr. Ian Finlay of Great Britain working in Aberystwyth Buddhist Group

Dear Friends, Kindly visit and read this link has been lovingly written by Mr. Ian Finlay about our problems.
https://aberbuddhism.wordpress.com/2015/04/21/supporting-tribal-buddhists-in-bangladesh/

Tuesday 26 May 2015

Donate For Our under-construction Buddhist Temple.

Giving (dana) is one of the essential preliminary steps of Buddhist practice. When practiced in itself, it is a basis of merit or wholesome kamma. When coupled with morality, concentration and insight, it leads ultimately to liberation from samsara, the cycle of repeated existence. Even those who are well-established on the path to emancipation continue to practice giving as it is conducive to wealth, beauty and pleasure in their remaining lifetimes. Bodhisattas complete the danaparami or perfection of giving to the ultimate degree by happily donating their limbs and their very lives to help other beings.
Like all good deeds, an act of giving will bring us happiness in the future, in accordance with the kammic law of cause and effect taught by the Buddha. Giving yields benefits in the present life and in lives to come whether or not we are aware of this fact, but when the volition is accompanied by understanding, we can greatly increase the merits earned by our gifts.
The amount of merit gained varies according to three factors: the quality of the donor's motive, the spiritual purity of the recipient, and the kind and size of the gift. Since we have to experience the results of our actions, and good deeds lead to good results and bad deeds to bad results, it is sensible to try to create as much good kamma as possible. In the practice of giving, this would mean keeping one's mind pure in the act of giving, selecting the worthiest recipients available, and choosing the most appropriate and generous gifts one can afford.
So, Kindly please try to extend your merit by donating us funds to construct our under-construction buddhist temple at Tuichawng village under Lunglei District, Mizoram, North-East India.

Monday 25 May 2015

Thanks to Mr. Arun-Da of U.S.A.

          We the volunteers of Ahimsa School, Tuichawng, heartilly thanks to our Kind Sponsor Mr. Arun Bannerjee of U.S.A. has been donating to our school since 2014 on monthly basis. We could not been able to pay honorarrium for teachers if he do not donate us monthly. He never miss his generous donation since his starting of METTA to us. 
         We shall not forget him and his familly for his BIG initiative in giving EDUCATION for Indigenous micro minority chakma children of Mizoram, North-East India. Mr. Arun-Da is the only one monthly donor for our noble cause and we have been able to provide educational facilities with his generous donation.
            Mr. Arun-Da, not only help us on monthly but also working hard in finding one time donation from his friends. We shall not forget Mr. Anirban Bannerjee of U.S.A. He has also donated us money by saying 
          Mr. Arun-Da and still many more to come forward by the help of Arun-Da. We could not forget Mr. Arindam Bannerjee of Kolkatha, with his help we had made contact with Arun-Da. Mr. Arindam-Da, is our great fellow and i was really fortunate when i have met with him in Kolkatha during Probini Annual Conference-2013.

Sudip Chakma
Volunteer,
Ahimsa School, Tuichawng.

Our Generous Monthly Sponsor, Mr. Arun-Da of U.S.A.

Kind Visits By Mr. Sachi G.Dastidar, Distinguished Professor, State University of New York.

Tuichawng , Mizoram, India: Visit to Ahimsa English School





Sachi G. Dastidar
(February 2013)

Some people in the world – including India – may have heard about Mizoram, but very few would have heard of Tuichawng in Mizoram. Mizoram is a state of India located in hard-to-reach Northeast India; formerly the Lushai Hills District of Assam State, renamed Mizoram after an insurgency and subsequent peaceful resolution. Mizoram is sandwiched between Burma (Myanmar) and Bangladesh with the northern part connected to Assam and Manipur states of India. Even today the landlocked area has only two connections to the world – by air through the small airport and through a road through the hills connecting her to Assam and rest of India. There is no formal border crossing through its long international borders with Burma and Bangladesh. The state is evergreen and picturesque, heavily forested with a large number of mountain ranges and valleys that straddle the land from north to south. It is still one of the areas of India that remain inaccessible especially because of a rule that requires a permit, like a visa called Inner Line Permit, to outsiders including other Indians  to enter the state which is available from a handful of places in India. Mizoram was created as a Christian-majority state with a substantial number of Buddhist-Chakma peoples living in the southwest of the state bordering Bangladesh. (Bangladesh has a large area that is Chakma majority; as is the neighboring Indian states of Tripura and Arunachal.) To give Chakmas cultural-religious-linguistic protection a small area within the state was designated as Chakma Autonomous District under Indian Constitutional provision, as was given to predominantly Christian Moro peoples. Most Chakmas live outside the Autonomous area including Tuichawng.

 Tuichawng is 75 kilometers southwest of Lunglei in the shaded area, close to Bangladesh border
Lunglei is 235 kilometers south of Aizawl on the National Highway 54
Through a network Probini Foundation was approached by Mr. Sudip Chakma, Volunteer of the Ultimate Truth Preaching Mission (UTPM), as they were planning to build a community school called Ahimsa (non-violence) English School in Tuichawng village, adjacent to a Buddhist temple on top of a mound that lacked funding. Tuichawng is practically all-Chakma with a handful of Mizo-Christian arrivals. They also indicated that Tuichawng is an extremely poor area by any measure. Most of the residents are subsistence farmers with no more than a few hundred square feet, and most families with six to ten people earn no more than $50 dollars a month, as we were told by hosts, where cost of living is very high as everything has to be imported over a long distance.

The Trip: As Probini does not support any organization without a firsthand report, this writer was entrusted to do the visitation (at his cost.) While I was at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi in the fall of 2012 I discovered that there were a number of Mizoram students on campus and that there was a Mizoram House nearby who gives the permit. Later I was to be in Kolkata (Calcutta) from where there is a direct flight to Mizoram capital of Aizawl, so I got the permit in case I was able to travel. Ironically the state celebrates January 11 as a State Holiday called Missionary Day when two English Christian missionaries J. H. Lorrain and F. W. Savidge arrived in Mizoram on January 11, 1894 to convert Mizos from their nature-worshipping Hindu-like religion to Christianity. British colonial powers restricted other Indians from traveling to the area and the same tradition is still practiced in free India. Mizos are grateful that Christianization brought Westernization, Roman script and high literacy to a backward area.

In January of 2013 a two-hour flight east over Bangladesh took me to Aizawl airport, 29 milometers from the city. Mr. Daneswar Chakma of Tuichawng and Mr. Zaba, Private Secretary of Minister Nihar Chakma were waiting for me at the airport. Honorable Nihar Chakma is a deputy minister of the Indian National Congress Party government of Mizoram elected from a constituency that includes Tuichawng who welcomed in his office later that afternoon. As the flight arrived in the afternoon I had to wait till next morning for the trip to Tuichawng, a 12-hour journey by road. I spent the afternoon visiting Aizwal, a city that clings to mountain ranges full of big churches. The capital has over 25% population of state’s one million people. From top of many of the hills that dot the city one can have a spectacular view of the city. But for a visitor city visit comes to an abrupt halt as stores close by 5:30 in the afternoon as darkness fell. A common refrain from the locals is “we have no night life except for few days between Christmas and New Year.” The state is completely dry because of church opposition.
          To get to Tuichawng one has to go south taking the National Highway 54 to Lunglei, the largest town in the south and a district headquarters. The highway runs through picturesque forests, mountains and valleys but must be a nightmare to any driver making turns every hundred feet. Normally this journey of 165 kilometers (103 miles) by shared taxi takes 6 hours with a break for breakfast. The winding road follows mountain range, at times skirting valleys and gorges that are thousands of feet deep. Most of the taxis leave Aizawl early morning so that those who are traveling further can catch a connection during the day time. We were ready at 6:30 in the morning as dawn broke in the winter time. We stopped for traditional Mizoram breakfast of rice, chicken and greens at Muipang where there is a government tourist resort. At midday we stopped at Lunglei for lunch where the washroom of the restaurant hung 40 feet above mountainside. Lunglei to Tuichang is a mere 75 kilometers (47 miles) by a state highway yet takes another bone-shattering 6 hours, is a real hell. I don’t know if I have seen anything like this anywhere in India, or anywhere in the world. It is a real example of Indian incompetence, neglect community by a state government according to many residents, corruption (as funding for the road repair has presumably been approved but held up), marginalization of remote areas and governance failure. The scenery was extraordinary if only one could take the eyes off the road. As we reached the village in late afternoon the entire population was waiting for our arrival as Daneswar’s cell phone gave them regular updates every few minutes. (One remarkable feat in India is the cell phone that is available even with people earning $25 dollars a month and reachable in very remote corner like Tuichawng.) Most of the homes in the village and elsewhere are built on wood platforms with bamboo mat walls and hung on the side of the road with back rooms often rested dozens of feet above ground depending on the slope of the mountainside. Our welcome was headed by Mr. Rajesh Chakma, President of UTPM, whose home was our first resting place. I was invited by Mr. Rajesh Chakma and his wife Samita Devi into their home for my stay there. After a walk in the village it became dark but lines of visitors continued until real late, and hot tea never stopped coming past midnight. The Rajesh residence had a remarkable view from their kitchen as tops of cocoanut and mango trees could be reached from the window. It felt like we were on a tree house.


Homes in Hilly Tuichawng

Next morning started with a meeting at the UTPM office discussing various issues facing that poor and struggling community. The entire community joined in the discussion. After the meeting we headed to the old 120 sq. ft. one-room school at the street level at a private home that was abandoned as student enrollment rose. The school had no toilet. Then we headed up a hill to the present 250 sq. ft. one-room school that runs grades 1 through 4, that is already overcrowded, and still has no toilet. After official presentation several children sang Chakma and Hindi songs. Apart from many core subjects kids also take Chakma, Mizo, Hindi, Bengali and Assamese languages. (Chakma, Assamese and Bengali have the same script. This writer was asked to discuss in Bengali as students and parents can read and understand it.) After a presentation by this writer everybody headed to the site where the new Ahimsa English School is to be built. This is on the side of the hill that is being dug out to make a flat surface for school construction. Parents, neighbors and older students are taking part in clearing earth for their new school. This was followed by a prayer and discussion at the Buddhist Temple adjacent to the present school which is rented from the temple. In the midst of further sessions a boat trip was arranged in the fast-flowing Tlang River that joined Karnafuli River. Karnafuli empties in Bay of Bengal through Chittagong City, Bangladesh. Small villages dotted river banks. Many locals told us that the state is changing many of the native Chakma-Buddhist names to Mizo-Christian names like MatriCharra to Belei, and Demagri to Tlabang. We spent quite a bit of time in MatriCharra as there were many people from there at our meetings earlier and as they invited me into their homes. Anywhere one went the hard-scrabble life and a marginalized existence was evident, but there were no dearth of smiling faces and hot tea. In many villages the literacy rate is barely 30% as visitors were told, and a high dropout rate in upper grades as the language of instruction changes from Chakma-Bengali to Mizo-English which students do not understand. Banks of the rivers and streams were lined with small-scale farming, some barely a few hundred square feet, upon which vast majority of people depend for survival. (After Bangladesh built a dam on Karnafuli River creating Kaptai Lake in the Chittagong Hills Tract region to produce electricity for Chittagong city but flooded majority of Chakma farming areas. This pushed over 250,000 Chakmas to seek refuge in India.) Some farmers have to walk over 5 kilometers to work on their tiny plots of land. As India is building a fence along Bangladesh border to prevent illegal migration huge trucks could be seen plying the wretched road carrying supplies. Soon Chakmas will be isolated from their majority cousins in Bangladesh. A major center like Tuichawng has no bank, no gas station, no doctor, and no health clinic. There is a health clinic on paper but the attendant just came for the day of appointment and then left for her home in the big city, but still receiving monthly salary, was mentioned to visitors. Sometimes this is a problem too in schools if the teachers are non-local. They too would sign up for the salary but never to attend is a common complaint. One Rabindra Chakma works as a paramedic as he was taught how to administer first-aid. During my stay there was an accident when a little girl had to be transported for six-hours to Lunglei over the derelict road and at heavy cost. Rabindra told me that each monsoon 14 to 16 people die of malaria because of unavailability of drugs and care. There is piped water, electricity, a bazaar, bottled gas supplied by India government, a public elementary school and two new Church-established Christian schools; one Presbyterian and the other Baptist, and very important that the remote area was connected to the world through Internet via cell phone technology. (Even families with income of $35 dollars per month have cell phone.) There are many churches and one Buddhist temple. The state has limited resource, many residents are engaged in substance agriculture, barely any industry and massively depended on public sector jobs. Unless the lifeline road to the southwest is rebuilt the residents of southwest will find themselves in a prison-like ghettoized condition when their main connection east to the world via Lunglei is fragile while their economic access to Bangladesh on the west is sealed off.



Probini Visit to the New School Building Site

For the return trip we had to leave Tuichawng at daybreak. The journey was made enjoyable by the driver Mr. Pu, and two students – Dibbar heading to a college in Shillong in the neighboring Meghalaya state, another 12 hour journey by bus from Aizawl, and Sonju for a college at Aizawl. A large number of villagers -- men in trousers and women in sarong and sankha, pola wedding bangles of married women and sindur vermillion mark on scalp -- were present with folded hands in that early hour to say “aabar ashben: Come back again.”

May 2013 
(Pictures during new school bhilding construction)