Teaching English in the Tibetan Homelands

  Tibet

Rural Areas

Dates: Please contact us for more information

Description: ROKPA can provide placements for volunteer English teachers in the town of Jyeku, also known as Yushu, at Yushu Tibetan Orphans' School in Qinghai Province, and occasionally elsewhere. Yushu Tibetan Orphans' School is a residential school for children of nomadic or farming backgrounds who have lost one or more parents and are destitute. The school lies at 3,500 metres above sea level surrounded by mountains.

Yushu is a Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and close to the borders of the Tibet Autonomous Region and Sichuan Province. It is a small and rapidly developing town, 12 - 24 hours by bus from Xining, which has an airport with daily flights to and from Beijing (around 2 hours).

Volunteer teachers will be expected to teach on average 18 hours per week, teaching classes ranging in size from 25 to over 50 pupils aged from 5 to 20.

ROKPA will provide food, accommodation, contacts and detailed information to successful candidates.

Highlights: One volunteer summarises her experience:

"I met the sweetest children who bring themselves and each other up and walk from the classroom to your flat so that they can hold your hand, and make the average Western child seem very spoilt and demanding. I visited a nomad family in their tent and went to a 'sky burial' site; there was a frozen lake against black and snow-white mountains and a turquoise dawn sky; I was on the biggest plains in the world; I sat on an enormous flower-filled meadow in the grasslands in summer and wondered at the beauty of them."

Qualifications: All applicants must:

* Have a teaching qualification (minimum is a 4-week course to Teach English as a Foreign Language)
* Have had teaching experience
* Be prepared to teach for at least six months, usually from March
* Pay their own travel expenses to and from the project (this can cost up to £800 from the UK)
* Be aware of ROKPA's aims and principles

Cost in US$: Please contact us for more information

Experience Required: yes

All applicants must have teaching experience and a preference is given to those who are over 25 or who have had previous experience of working in a developing country.

This Program is open to American, Asian, Australian, Canadian, European, Kiwi, South African and Worldwide Participants.

Participants Travel to Tibet Independently or in Groups

Typically Participants Work Independently

Application Process Involves:

• Resume
• Written Application

Rokpa International's Mission Statement: ROKPA is a registered charity founded in 1980 by its President Dr. Akong Tulku Rinpoche, a Tibetan Doctor and Teacher, by its Vice President Lea Wyler, a Swiss actress, and her father Dr. Veit Wyler, a well-known Swiss lawyer. ROKPA's aim is to relieve poverty and to provide education and humanitarian help to destitute people world-wide independent of religion, race, gender and nationality. ROKPA supports or runs over 120 projects in: Tibetan areas of China, Nepal, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The majority of these projects are aimed at giving children from the poorest backgrounds the opportunity of an education and training. ROKPA also funds healthcare and a small number of environmental projects and works for the preservation and regeneration of Tibet's rich culture and language.

Year Founded: 1980